Gatland rolls the Georgian gamble
THE much-travelled former Souhampton and Blackpool striker Brett Ormerod once described the experience of being thrust into the rarefied atmosphere of football’s Premier League as “like finding yourself on the moon without a space suit”.
So it can be for those who are pitched into Test rugby while wearing metaphorical rugby L-plates. Everything is different. Poor Mervyn Davies even found the coach warning him about the cigarette he was smoking as he prepared to pose for the team photograph. “Make sure it’s behind your back when the picture is taken,” said Clive Rowlands. What’s the world coming to when a man can’t have a drag on his fag 10 minutes before kick-off? Such is the international scene. The game is played at 300mph, everyone can play and everyone is fit, possibly even the chap who writes the programme notes.
Davies had ambled into a Wales dressing room that encouraged audience participation during team talks, with players urged to shout out responses to questions such as “What are we going to do?”
The usual comeback was “Win”. But on one occasion the prop John Lloyd yelled back: “Eat ’em!”
Quite what Davies made of that particular episode early in his Test career is not documented.
But what youngsters appreciate more than anything is having experience around them during their early days on the international beat.
Davies had it when he started in 1969 – old heads close by, to provide a calming influence and direction if things start to go wrong, who know when a situation is serious and when it’s not.
Dan Lydiate will be the go-to man for the Welsh forwards against Georgia this weekend, leading a pack that might just be one of the greenest Wales have ever fielded in Cardiff.
Indeed, when he looks across the dressing room before kick-off Lydiate might feel old. Very old.
He will be surrounded by seven other starting forwards who have made just 10 Test starts between them.
Three pack members will be playing their first full games at this level and one of those, Sam Cross, has begun only two matches of professional fifteen-a-side rugby in his life.
There is also a young lock, Seb Davies, playing at No. 8.
Oh, and the opponents are gnarled and uncompromising, traditionally strong at forward, and they have just rattled up 50 points against Canada and will be desperate to put on a show and prove they are deserving of a place in the Six Nations.
Call that a potential ordeal dressed up as an opportunity for the young Welsh forwards.
Lydiate, indeed, could be forgiven for feeling like a man handed the keys to a car and pointed in the direction of the Horseshoe Pass on a snowy morning in January. A stress-free journey isn’t guaranteed.
Warren Gatland should at least find out much about the Test novices at his disposal, nowhere more so than at the sharp end, with Georgia boasting a more-thanuseful front row.
Their loose-head prop Mikheil Nariashvili plays for Montpellier and has been known to munch experienced Test campaigners, albeit as part of a more-than-solid club pack. On the other side of the scrum, Levan Chilachava is on Toulon’s books and hooker Jaba Brevadze had a spell with Toulouse.
It goes on. Kote Mikautadze is a 6ft 7in, 20st 7lb lock who also operates for Montpellier, while further back Viktor Kolelishvili is a regular with Clermont Auvergne, or otherwise known as that bloke who shoved over Wayne Barnes when the French played the Ospreys in Swansea last year.
High-level experience, then, is not in short supply up front and Georgia will look to uphold their reputation for hard-driving forward play.
It was never more in evidence than against England at the 2011 World Cup when they spent nine minutes in the opposition 22 during the opening half while the Red Rose brigade set up camp for just 19 seconds in the Georgia red zone over the same period.
The Lelos blew up in that match, but that owed much to the blatant unfairness of a fixture list that left them with just 96 hours to prepare while England had fully eight days to lick themselves into shape.
Gatland has made 14 personnel changes in the knowledge that Wales need to develop some depth, and quickly, in the run-up to the World Cup, while the Kiwi will also be acutely aware his team can’t afford any more knocks to front-liners with New Zealand to play a week today.
The Georgians have been oozing quiet confidence, seeing the match as a win-win fixture and relishing the possibility of springing a shock that would make European rugby sit up and take notice.
Certainly, many Welsh supporters would have slept easier on team announcement night had Gatland opted for a few more gnarled forwards of his own to complement the newcomers in Wales’s ranks.
Instead, it’s a sink-or-swim scenario for many of the fresh faces – grow up quickly and all that.
Where Wales should have an edge is behind, with a backline that looks exciting on paper. Liam Williams at full-back? Tick. Youth and experience in midfield? Tick. Power and panache out wide? Tick. Quality and know-how at half-back? Tick.
They will be up against a number of players who are semi-professionals and the gap in class should tell.
The hope for home supporters will be that the Welsh forwards can set in place a stable platform to allow the Welsh backs to do their stuff.
But the old cliche says it starts up front and the old cliche is right.
There is another ancient saying that Russian roulette should be left to the Russians.
But sometimes the odd gamble is as unavoidable in rugby as it is in life generally.
Had Gatland named Alun Wyn Jones in his starting line-up and the skipper suffered an injury then some would have viewed that as a roll of the dice that went wrong.
A positive thinker would see this as a chance for some players to take a great leap forward against Georgia, and maybe even for some to put their names in the frame to face New Zealand. And, despite their experimental pack, Wales really ought to be strong enough for second-tier opponents in Cardiff.
What could go wrong?