Pivac has key decision to make on Wales lock alongside Alun Wyn
WHEN it comes to playing in a rugby team, there are certainly positions far more glamorous than secondrow.
Yet, despite the relative lack of glamour, Wales regularly produce talent in the engine room.
For starters, there is obviously Alun Wyn Jones. His place in the Wales rugby team has been inked in pen for more than a decade now, with the only selection question being who partners him.
You’d have to go back to the final autumn game of 2016 to find the last Wales match where someone other than Jake Ball, Cory Hill or Adam Beard partnered Jones in the Welsh second-row.
The opponents that day were South Africa, in Cardiff for a 27-13 defeat against Warren Gatland’s men Wearing the number four red jersey was Luke Charteris, making his final start for his country.
Since then, the triumvirate of Ball, Hill and Beard have shared around the tag of Jones’ partner - swapping in and out across the following 32 Test matches in which the Wales captain has started.
In terms of who has made the most appearances across those 32 matches, Ball leads the way with 19 starts, then Hill with seven and Beard with six.
And now Wasps lock Will Rowlands has emerged as a lock contender during the Six Nations.
The question is who is the man to line up next to Wales’ talismanic captain moving forward?
ADAM BEARD
LET’S start with Jones’ Ospreys colleague.
In his first 13 Tests for Wales, Beard went unbeaten – winning a Grand Slam in the process.
Beard’s biggest strength comes from his height, being adept at breaking up opposition mauls with his telescopic reach.
However, if he had kept his place in the Wales starting XV, this piece wouldn’t have been penned.
Beard has barely featured under Pivac, with his lanky stature perhaps not in keeping with how the former Auckland chief will look to play the game.
JAKE BALL
WHAT you see with the Scarlets man is what you get. Quite simply, a fair bit of grunt.
Unlike Hill, he is a big ball-carrier and will run through brick walls time and time again.
In the way Pivac’s forwards line up in phase play, with up to four of the pack hanging out in wide channels, it’s important to have someone who can just go again and again in the middle of the field.
Ball can do that, as shown by the role he played for Wales in both the World Cup and this year’s Six Nations.
WILL ROWLANDS
WALES’ newcomer showed real signs of promise during the Six Nations,
offering a dynamic presence in the second-row.
He’s carried on that form with Wasps following the post-lockdown English Premiership restart. He’s probably not starting material just yet, but he already looks a good addition to the squad.
He’s mobile enough, while the Gallagher Premiership side have been working on adding some extra physicality to his game – and he has been linked with a move to Dean Ryan’s Dragons.
CORY HILL
In terms of his strength, he hits ruck after ruck without fail, while his ball-handling in space is better than most.
Up until his try against England in 2019, a key moment in the Grand Slam campaign, he was in charge of the jersey. Injury in that match ultimately saw him miss out on Rugby World Cup action.
With his move from the Dragons back to the Cardiff Blues, he’ll be hoping to put behind a tough year and get back to the momentum which saw him captain Wales in the summer of 2018.
If there is a criticism, he isn’t the biggest ball-carrier - and Wales lack in this area.
PIVAC’S LIKELY PICK
AS we say, it’s a real dilemma for the Wales boss. Just which of the four does he pick to partner Alun Wyn?
Logic would dictate that Hill’s all-round game and ball-handling skills would be best suited to the more expansive style of play Pivac wants to adopt.
But the key is how Pivac actually wants his captain to play.
If he wants Jones to be a warhorse, hitting rucks and carrying hard, then Hill is the perfect foil.
But if Pivac wants Jones to occupy wider spaces and provide an offloading game which he’s worked hard on in recent years to develop, then Ball might well be the best option.
Beard and Rowlands will continue to develop at Test level and are certainly not out of the reckoning. It only takes one good performance to push their case forward.
As things stand, you’d probably say Ball is ahead of Hill – with Rowlands then maybe just edging ahead of Beard behind those front two.
But things can change quickly and the battle is set to rage for a while yet.