Inside Welsh Rugby is a weekly newsletter which gets under the skin of the game in Wales, attempting to get to the heart of the issues and biggest stories.
Written by WalesOnline rugby correspondents Steffan Thomas and Ben James, it takes readers deep into the heart of Welsh rugby, while also shining a light on problems which need to be fixed in order for the game to flourish. There is also be deep-dive analysis, explaining to readers exactly what's happening on and off the pitch.
You can read a snippet of the analytical deep-dive into Matt Sherratt's first game in charge of Wales below and sign up for Inside Welsh Rugby here.
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Four training sessions. Just four.
In the days to come, ‘four training sessions’ will become the new ‘Western Samoa’.
Forget ‘Thank heavens we weren’t playing the whole of Samoa’. The new refrain up and down the country will be about imagining what Matt Sherratt could have achieved against Ireland with more than just four sessions.
It was, by any metric, a remarkable performance by Wales. Against one of the world’s best sides, the Cardiff head coach turned Wales from a directionless mess under Warren Gatland to a side that came astoundingly close to one of the Six Nations’ great upsets.
For the first time in a long time, even for the negative Welsh press, watching Wales was enjoyable. My word, it was enjoyable.
The man at the helm will point to the work of his willing players, as well as the bounce that a new coach brings. But, while those are undoubtedly factors, that’s more to do with the man himself.
Sherratt isn’t the type to seek the credit, nor is he the type to point the finger elsewhere when blame is being passed around. How refreshing.
As novel as that might seem at the top of the national team, a new coach bounce only goes so far. Sherratt, as well as being a tracksuit coach who was gathering loose balls during Wales’ captain’s run on Friday, is also a details man.
At times in the last week, he’s had to rein himself in for the fear of overloading this Welsh squad with the details that they craved in previous campaigns.
But he wanted his Wales team to stand for something. To be brave and bold, all within a solid structure.
And, across the 80 minutes, Wales’ players replicated the changes in shape and terminology better than ever Sherratt could have hoped for. He admitted as much afterwards.
In fairness, any attacking improvement would have been welcomed after the last year. Many words have been dedicated to what Wales have been trying to achieve with ball in hand under Gatland for the past 12 months or so, yet sometimes a single image is more telling.
One shared widely on social media from the defeat to Italy in Rome showed Wales devoid of shape and direction. You could have thrown a blanket over almost the entire Wales team.
If you want to read the full newsletter, with GIFs showing how Sherratt's Wales managed to break down Ireland and show plenty of attacking promise, you can sign up to the Inside Welsh Rugby newsletter here.
