Dan Biggar has given his insight on how Matt Sherratt transformed Wales in the space of a week as he said that the interim head coach and his staff "deserve huge credit" for what they've achieved so far.
Wales may have fallen to another defeat against Ireland, but their performance at the Principality Stadium on Saturday felt tantamount to a victory as they looked a completely different team under Sherratt's leadership. After a miserable run of 14 successive Test defeats and two rudderless displays in the opening rounds of the Six Nations, it was hoped following Warren Gatland's departure that Wales would respond with an improved performance in Cardiff and they certainly did that despite losing out 27-18.
For the first time in months, Wales played with endeavour and a clear attacking identity, with tries from Jac Morgan and Tom Rogers seeing them lead Ireland by eight points at one stage in the game. It looked at one point as though Sherratt's side could even pull off an almighty shock as the impressive Ellis Mee looked to cross in the corner, only for his effort to fall short of the try line.
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While Ireland emerged victorious to claim the Triple Crown and keep their Grand Slam bid rolling on, Wales' improved performance dominated headlines in the wake of the game and Biggar was quick to praise the quality of rugby they played as he broke down what Sherratt had accomplished with Wales during his appearance on The Rugby Pod.
"I think you’re always going to have a bit of a bounce and a bit of energy and there was tons of energy and endeavour," the former Wales fly-half told co-hosts Jim Hamilton and Andy Goode. "But I don’t think effort and the boys not trying has been the problem for the last 12 months.
"They actually played some really good rugby and played some shapes at Ireland didn’t they? They were clever early doors in terms of they played a lot off 10, they didn’t want to give Ireland too many big edges to go and smash and bring that line speed.
"So they looked at lots of short plays, hit off 10 and then looked to bring a forward runner off nine, just to throw as much shape at the Ireland defence as possible to stop their line speed.
"They didn’t give Ireland anything to hit early doors, which allowed Wales just to grow into the game, get Tomos Williams and Gareth Anscombe getting lots of touches," Biggar added. "Max Llewellyn I thought was excellent when he came in as well.
"They moved the point of attack just maybe an extra channel and just flooded that channel with traffic. It may not have always come off and it may not have been line breaks, but there was intent there, the shape was there. "
While he admitted that Ireland were "uncharacteristically poor", Biggar said that Wales deserved credit for forcing the visitors into making mistakes and "making it a bit of a scrap" out of the gate, while singling out two players for further praise.
"Wales were accurate and put Ireland under pressure, and I think that’s more credit to them and we should definitely give them a huge shout out for how positive they were," he continued. "I thought Gareth Anscombe was excellent, him and Tomos Williams on the weekend were really, really good because they managed the team’s energy, they weren’t wasting tons of energy in the back end of their pitch.
"When they threw attacking shapes at Ireland, they were doing it in the right areas and they weren’t wasting their time by doing it 40 metres from their try-line, they were doing it 40 or 22 metres from Ireland’s try line and Ireland coughed up a few penalties. I just thought that those two in particular managed the team’s energy, knew when to run, when to kick, when to have a go."
Admitting that Wales' performance had helped to "put some pride back in the shirt", Biggar said Sherratt and his coaching staff more than deserved the praise they have been getting. However, he warned that the squad can by no means rest on their laurels and must step it up again when they face Scotland on March 8.
"Matt Sherratt actually said he was surprised how much of the training week they got on the pitch [against Ireland], so that’s huge credit to the staff but it’s also huge credit to the coaches for taking that on board and applying it," said Biggar.
"The last thing you want to be doing is applauding people for doing well and coming up short, but I think Saturday was as good as we could have hoped for as a Welsh nation. Nobody really expected Wales to get over the line against Ireland but I felt that they really put some pride back in that shirt and gave the Welsh public and a lot of people a lot more reasons to be positive going into that match in Scotland rather than what we’ve seen in the last 12 months.
"[But] this can’t just be the effect of a new coach now," he continued. "They’ve had a brilliant, brilliant start under Matt with the roof shut at the Principality Stadium, the atmosphere was incredible. It was almost like you had to get up for that game because you’re playing who you’re playing as well.
"What can’t happen now from this group is that you go to Edinburgh in a couple of weeks' time and you go back to the performances we’ve seen in the last 12 months. It's really important that it’s not just a one-off now. This has to be built on and they have to really target a victory in the last two games, whether it’s against Scotland which will be incredibly tough or at home against England."
