Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes. Matt Sherratt, newly installed as Warren Gatland’s replacement, however temporarily, has picked his first Wales team. No one is expecting much more from it than a 15th consecutive defeat when Ireland come to Cardiff for round three, but there is at least a feeling of the rational about his selection.
Perhaps 14 losses in a row can mess with even the most seasoned mind. This is not suddenly a team bursting with experience, but where some of Gatland’s selections seemed wanton rejections of received wisdom Sherratt has responded with the selector’s equivalent of putting his foot on the ball. Wales are not blessed with a luxury of options, but when there are simple solutions to the quandary of, for example, who to pick at fly-half, sometimes it is best to go with them.
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And so Gareth Anscombe, inexplicably excluded from Wales’s original squad, was not only brought back into the fold this week but is airdropped straight in to the starting lineup, one of eight changes Sherratt makes to the team that capitulated to Italy in round two. Likewise, his Gloucester teammate, Max Llewellyn, lines up in the centre. With five caps to his name, Llewellyn is hardly the most experienced but his form in the Premiership made his exclusion another baffling decision.
As a result, Ben Thomas, whose talent is not in doubt, gets to swap the No 10 jersey Gatland had thrust upon him, the weightiest of all in the red of Wales, for the more familiar one with a 12 on the back. Now, all of a sudden, Wales have a half-back pairing and midfield all in fine form, all familiar to each other, all familiar to Sherratt. Seems pretty obvious when you think about it.
“It’s not a team I’ve picked thinking, this is the team that’s going to beat Ireland,” said Sherratt. “I just thought it was a team that would be cohesive. We’ve got some combinations who play together for their clubs. They’ve got familiarity with how I want to play.
“Max has been excellent this season and Gareth has played in some of the biggest games you can imagine at World Cups. These are players who could give the rest of the team the best chance to perform.”
Tomos Williams, still at scrum-half, was the one player of the Gloucester triumvirate ripping it up in the Premiership Gatland did stick with. So now there is a hundred caps’ worth of experience at half-back to go with another hundred in the form of Taulupe Faletau at the base of the scrum.
It is true, none of them will see their 20s again but their presence feels like something Wales can work with in the short-term quest for respectability.
Further forward, the same might be said for the return of two 50-cappers in Nicky Smith, another in fine form in England, and Elliot Dee to the front row. With captain, Jac Morgan, moving to No 6 to accommodate Tommy Reffell, Wales will walk into a sold-out stadium under a closed roof in Cardiff with a foundation of some substance at least.
It is beyond No 10 that the experience falls away somewhat, not one of them in double digits on the caps front (although Thomas will collect his 10th on Saturday). Ellis Mee’s single digit is a zero, but the Scarlets winger is young and tall and talented. His debut on the left wing means an all-Scarlets back three.
“Ellis has pace,” said Sherratt. “He’s shown that exuberance of youth, which can sometimes rub off on the older players.”
It may distress some in Wales that more than half the starting team play their domestic rugby somewhere other than the Principality, but Sherratt knows the emphasis of the job he has been given is on the now. Well might it be, because the man opposite him in a similar interim role has already been talked up as a potential candidate as Wales coach for the longer term.
Simon Easterby has deftly deflected all questions related to his future employment. He could not be happier with the start his side have made, nor could the Irish be with the way he has filled in, with Andy Farrell off on Lions duty.
He makes seven changes to the side that won so comfortably in Edinburgh in round two, some of them enforced but most no more than a reflection of the riches on offer to Ireland. Caelan Doris, captain no less, is one of those missing through injury, so Dan Sheehan assumes the leadership duties, as he does the No 2 shirt for his first start since an ACL injury on the summer tour to South Africa.
All of which must make any Welshman sick with envy. Not so long ago, it was Wales who could rotate their way to championship after championship and offer up their coach for the use of the Lions. Nowadays, their preoccupation is with the avoidance of wooden spoons. Even the most wildly optimistic cannot hope to deny Ireland the Triple Crown they will claim should they win in Cardiff. But with this selection and the je ne sais quoi of a new face in the coaches’ box, there is a chance at least.
