GAT THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
As many Welsh legends retire, the canny coach is ready to experiment for a new future... starting with the Six Nations
Wales 49 Barbarians 26 BY ROB COLE WARREN GATLAND has never been one to stand on sentiment.
So immediately after joining in the tearful farewells to three of the giants of his first 12 years in charge of Wales, he was pitching his mind forward to the next four years.
Having seen Leigh Halfpenny, Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric receive tumultuous receptions from the 53,217 crowd at Principality Stadium on their farewell international appearances in a 49-26 win over the Barbarians, Gatland began talking about the future.
Having also lost two outside halves, Dan Biggar and Gareth Anscombe, and possibly full-back Liam Williams, now playing in Japan, he is having to think outside the box ahead of the 2024 Six Nations.
The experimenting began before and during the recent World Cup when he switched
Cardiff’s 50-plus cap scrum half Tomos Williams to No.10.
He did the same in the final 10 minutes against the Baa-Baas and was delighted with the outcome.
“We need to find some other options at No.10 and out of necessity we trained against the Scarlets with Tomos playing there.
“He looked really comfortable there,” said Gatland (circled above).
“Apart from a brainfreeze moment in terms of a goal-line dropout, we saw at the end of the game when we scored that try how comfortable he is on the ball. His decision-making, passing and especially his awareness were really impressive.
“We’ve talked about him potentially being an option as a replacement and I thought he was good when we brought Kieran
Hardy on at scrum-half. It’s something we won’t throw out as a potential opportunity for us.
“That means we could probably have a bit more depth and cover in certain positions in the backs.
“I’m not saying we’re definitely going to do that, but it will be part of our discussions going forward and we need to find some other options at 10.
“I think Callum Sheedy is back playing some good rugby at Bristol.
“I’ll go watch him at some point, and then I’ll see some of the other 10s come through as well – Will Reed at the Dragons and I’d like to see Ben Thomas have some games there for Cardiff.”
Wales scored seven tries against a Baa-Baas team without Fijian second-row Api Ratuniyarawa.
The 37-year-old was ordered to leave Wales after appearing before Cardiff Magistrates Court on Saturday morning charged with sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault by touching.
Baa-Baas skipper Alun Wyn Jones (above far left, with Halfpenny, centre and Tipuric, right) scored one of his side’s four tries and picked up the man-ofthe-match award as well.