Ireland was a step up... find ‘A’ game again in a YOUR GUIDE TO THE GAME
THERE is nothing wrong with living in the moment — Buddhist monks and Zen masters the world over swear by it, maybe on the grounds that it staves off the furrowed-brow syndrome that tends to afflict sports coaches the world over.
Rob Howley has evidently bought into the idea as well. And maybe Warren Gatland, too. Living for today has evidently been their mantra since the last Rugby World Cup, with the focus heavily slanted towards winning the next match at all costs.
Some will argue there’s nothing wrong with that.
If Test rugby is about anything it is about eking out results. People may remember some of the dashing Wales performances from the 1970s, such as the 34-9 success over Ireland in 1976 and the 18-9 win over Scotland at Murrayfield the following year, but the decade most associated with Welsh swagger on a rugby field also witnessed a 9-6 triumph against England (1978) and a 6-0 — really — victory over the Scots in 1974.
Finding a way to win was always the challenge, and it started in selection.
That remains the case today, with the complication being that World Cup has created four-year cycles which need to be planned for by drip-feeding through young talent so depth is developed and a team stays fresh and moves with the times, ideally peaking in the year of a global tournament.
It is a ferociously difficult act to pull off.
Walking through England’s team hotel before their meeting with Wales in the quarter-finals of the 2003 World Cup, this observer was struck by the maturity of the squad, with the likes of Martin Johnson, Richard Hill, Lawrence Dallaglio, Neil Back, Will Greenwood, Matt Dawson, Mike Catt and Jason Leonard all over 30, seasoned veterans every one of them.
But Clive Woodward had also handed new caps to no fewer than 35 players between 1999 and the 2003 tournament in Australia, with seven of those featuring in the final, including Jason Robinson, Lewis Moody, Ben Kay and Steve Thompson.
In England’s very first game in that cycle, Woodward blooded as many
Stade de France, 2.45pm
players — three (Ben Cohen, Mike Tindall and Iain Balshaw) — as Wales have introduced to international rugby in the 17 months since the last global tournament.
There is always a reason why caution should be the watchword in selection.
After a defeat it is usually runs along the lines of: “Now isn’t the time to bring in new faces to the starting XV. The team needs a win and anyway the lads deserve a chance to show they are better than they appeared in the previous game.”
After a success, it is caps in the air, more often than not accompanied by talk of votes of confidence and “building on what we achieved last time out”. So, conservatism rules OK. Others, meantime, have been in full rebuilding mode. Argentina have handed new caps to 26 players since 2015, France 23 and Ireland 19.
Wales’s players and coaches deserved the credit they received for the win over Ireland last time out. With backs against the wall, they came out swinging, knocking back a side that contained 12 of the players who had beaten New Zealand last November.
All concerned were entitled to feel pleased with themselves after achieving a success that steered them clear of a World Cup pool of death.
But it was a win that told us only so much.
That Wales are a gutsy side we already knew. That they respond to a passionate Cardiff crowd we already knew. That they can lift their game dramatically after criticism we already knew.
The challenge in Paris is to pull off a comparable performance after a build-up that has been positively sedate by Welsh rugby’s standards: next to no criticism, pats on the back, smiles at press conferences.
New Zealand perform under those circumstances.
“They always bring their A game, no matter what the opposition,” the former Ireland flanker Phillip Matthews once said. “If they are 100 points better, there’s a hundred points on the scoreboard.”
That’s the challenge for Wales this weekend: to bring their A game.
Last week, George North was a key start-up player.
He got his hands on the ball after just 39 seconds and brought a purpose to everything he did. Gone was the hesitant figure who made a surfeit of mistakes at Murrayfield. In his place was a wing who struck fear into the hearts of those who confronted him, who broke tackles and made five clean breaks.
It was all quite startling and so was the collective Welsh effort.
Now it’s up to North and his teammates to come up with an encore.
Undoubtedly, there will be a mental challenge to overcome.
Back in 1975 Steve Fenwick was a nervous 24-year-old preparing to make his bow for Wales alongside another debutant in midfield, Ray Gravell, against France at Parc de Princes.