Wales need confidence and talent
Eesh. In sport, a win is all that matters so in that respect Gatland will be mightily relieved that Wales’ nine-game losing run is at an end. But still, eesh.
A conspiratorial mind might have wondered if the Welsh Rugby Union had something to do with the breakdown in Sky Sports’ coverage of the match. Against a Queensland Reds side which could be generously described as second choice, Wales were indebted to a Kieran Hardy try 80 seconds from time and a Tommy Reffell turnover at the death to squeeze past a Super Rugby franchise. It was less a statement of intent than a statement of the obvious: Wales are a team very low on talent and even lower on confidence.
That Gatland was trending on X immediately after the game was not a result of social media users sending thousands of messages of congratulations. But for all the sharpening of metaphorical pitchforks and mass jerkings of knees, there is no white knight on the horizon to swoop in as Wales’ great redeemer a la Graham Henry.
The regional game has been in a state of perma-crisis for years, if not decades, now. The grassroots below them rotten and the politics at the top so toxic that a Russian secret agent would hesitate about transporting it in a vial. Beyond a couple of debatable inclusions and exclusions – and let’s put the ill-fated Cory Hill selection to one side – there is no deep well of talent that Gatland is pointedly ignoring.
My colleague Ben Coles picked four Wales players in his hypothetical Lions squad for 2024 which I think is being generous to a fault. Jac Morgan and Dewi Lake are their best hopes, but in ferociously competitive positions the back rower and hooker are more possibles than probables.
For years, Gatland masked so many of these faults, delivering three Grand Slams between 2008 and 2019 which is an astonishing feat for a country of Wales’ resources. For context, this is the same number of grand slams that England have won in the past 30 years.
Unfortunately, sport is cyclical and right now it feels like Wales are in a trough that is going to take some time to recover from. Their autumn campaign of Fiji, Australia and South Africa gets progressively harder and it might well be that things will get worse before they get better. Eesh indeed.
Team details
Queensland Reds XV: Jock Campbell (capt); Floyd Aubrey, Tim Ryan, Dre Pakeho, Mac Grealy; James O’Connor, Louis Werchon; Sef Fa’agase, Richie Asiata, Jeffrey Toomaga-Allen, Connor Vest, Ryan Smith, Seru Uru, John Bryant, Joe Brial.
Replacements: George Blake, Matt Gibbon, Massimo De Lutiis, Josh Canham, Connor Anderson, Will Cartwright, Mason Gordon, Lachie Anderson.
Wales XV: Cameron Winnett; Rio Dyer, Nick Tompkins, Eddie James, Regan Grace; Sam Costelow, Gareth Davies (capt); Kemsley Mathias, Evan Lloyd, Archie Griffin, Matthew Screech, Dafydd Jenkins, Christ Tshiunza, Taine Plumtree, Mackenzie Martin
Replacements: Efan Daniel, Corey Domachowski, Harri O’Connor, Dewi Lake, Tommy Reffell, Kieran Hardy, Ben Thomas, Mason Grady.
Sin-bin: E Lloyd 28
