THE THREE AREAS OF FRANCE END WALES’
EVERYTHING considered, it isn’t time for anyone to send a distress flare high into the sky while running around in circles before setting fire to the rescue boats.
Not just yet, anyway.
But the defeat by France in Cardiff would have concentrated minds in the Wales coaching group. Les Bleus, after all, had invested heavily in youth, with six players aged 21 or under in their matchday squad, and youth delivered over Wales’s vast experience.
They have a vision and, startlingly, they looked the more composed of the two sides at the Principality Stadium.
What does Wayne Pivac do for the game with England at Twickenham a week on Saturday?
And what areas of his side are causing most concern?
We take a look…
WING
THERE’S a potential for significant problems here depending on availability. George North failed a head injury assessment during the France game after hurting himself in an aerial contest with Gael Fickou.
He has time to get himself right, but he also has a history of head knocks and so Wales will want to be careful with him.
Leaving the field so early was a shame for North, who had started well, winning a restart, chasing hard and putting in a tackle. But on the day it wasn’t meant to be for the big man.
Josh Adams also picked up an ankle injury that looked painful and potentially troublesome.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable, then, to say there are doubts over each of those players for Twickenham and Pivac may need to bring in at least one fresh wing, possibly two.
The candidates? Johnny McNicholl will be fancied to claim one of the spots, given that he’s been in Wales’s matchday squads for all three of their games so far in this Six Nations.
Has he completely been completely convincing?
No, he has not.
While McNicholl is a lovely runner who has skills that are easy on the eye – imagine what he would have been like in a sunny spring fixture against the Barbarians back in the day – he’s still a work in progress as a defender at Test level, with eight tackles missed in three appearances in this championship.
There’s uncertainty about Liam Williams’s fitness or readiness after his long spell on the sidelines with injury. Even if medics give him the all-clear, would it be fair to propel him straight back into the starting line-up for an England-Wales game at Twickenham after more than four months of inactivity?
Let’s just say not everyone would cheer that one.
The talented Hallam Amos is back in the mix but has played little rugby after his recovery from an ankle injury. His experience, with 22 caps under his belt, must count for something, though.
Then there’s Jonah Holmes. In a struggling Leicester side he has claimed eight tries in 13 appearances this season, but he’s been around the Wales squad for 18 or so months without properly breaking through.
The final option is Louis ReesZammit.
There are many reasons why Pivac shouldn’t pick him. He’s incredibly young at 19, he’s not the finished article in defence, he hasn’t played Test rugby before, his temperament is unproven at the highest level; we could go on.
The counter arguments are that he seems to have been put on this earth to score tries, with 12 in 14 games this season. In the Gallagher Premiership he’s top of the touchdown chart and second in the list for making clean breaks. Put simply, as an attacking force the kid has got it.
Is that enough?
It depends how he has been performing in training.
Pivac and Stephen Jones will know by working with him every day how far advanced he is and whether he’s ready to cope with the demands of one of the most high-profile games in world rugby.
Of course, it may not come to that.
It may be that North and Adams are fit and able to figure in London.
But Pivac has to plan for any eventuality. Rees-Zammit will form part of the discussion.
SCRUM-HALF
Wales’s tradition at scrum-half compares with any country, with a line of great No. 9s that starts with Dickie Owen and runs through Haydn Tanner, Rex Willis, Gareth Edwards, Terry Holmes, Robert Jones, Rob Howley, Dwayne Peel and Mike Phillips. The names of Brynmor Williams and Chico Hopkins might also be lobbed into the mix.
There’s a case for including David Bishop, too, capped just once, like Hopkins, but one of the most devastating scrum-halves Welsh rugby has produced, so good that a petition was presented to the WRU to try to persuade the selectors to pick him.
There are no petitions doing the rounds over the Wales scrum-half spot these days.
It’s just proving a problem. From looking a million dollars against Italy, Tomos Williams made errors against Ireland and found himself replaced by Gareth Davies.
Davies has experience and his habit of scoring interception tries is hugely valued, but he didn’t have one of his greatest games against France, with questions over his box-kicking and his decision making.
What to do?
Ultimately, Pivac needs to decide who is his first choice and then stick with him over a run of games.
On Saturday in Cardiff, a number of people were bemoaning the absence of Rhys Webb from the picture, a player who, before his move to France, had been a Test Lion and proved himself capable of holding his own in any company.
But Webb hasn’t been playing rugby and so, frustratingly for him, has been unable to mount a challenge.