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Former Wales star Dan Biggar has given an honest assessment of Warren Gatland’s side’s chances at the upcoming Six Nations and named his dark horses for the tournament.
Wales head into this year’s championship off the back of a truly horrendous year, which saw them fail to achieve a single Test win with a losing streak that now stands at a record 12 matches. A winless autumn campaign saw Gatland’s future as head coach weighed up by the Welsh Rugby Union, who decided to stick with him to lead Wales into the Six Nations.
However, things aren’t set to get any easier for the coach and his players, with their tournament getting under way with a visit to Paris to face France. It has been six years since a Welsh side defeated Les Bleus on French turf, with Fabien Galthie’s side expected to battle with Ireland for this year’s title.
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Appearing on The Rugby Pod, Biggar played down the potential merits of South Africa joining the tournament at some stage, before conversation turned to this year’s championship. Asked if Wales could pull off a shock and beat France on the opening night, the Toulon fly-half’s response was to the point.
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“I think there’s more chance of the Springboks joining the Six Nations!,” he laughed. “The best way to answer this is when Wales were really, really successful and France weren’t as good, it was still an incredibly difficult game going to Paris and getting a result.
“So, you think 1736348015, with Wales off the back of 12 consecutive defeats, confidence at an all-time low and France having their inspirational leader Dupont back, first game of the Six Nations… Yeah, they’ve got a few injuries but they’ve got so many players and so much quality they can just bring in anyway.
“It’s not like England or Wales or Scotland having a couple of injuries in key positions, they can just bring the next guy in who’s playing for Bordeaux or Toulouse or Clermont or whoever.”
With the France game regarded as a ‘hit-out’ for Gatland’s side, Biggar said Wales will instead be looking at their trip to Rome the following week as “their real target game”.
“That’s where Welsh rugby is at the minute,” he explained to co-hosts Jim Hamilton and Andy Goode. “Not one person will be going in thinking ‘Ok, we’re targeting this French game in Paris at the start of the Six Nations. They’re going to be huge, huge underdogs.”
Asked by Goode how Gatland can instil belief in his players, the fly-half replied: “That’s half the battle isn’t it? Have you got belief? I think you flip that for the following week, I think there would be belief that Wales can win in Rome.
“But you go to Paris with Dupont playing, Ntamack back as well and you just think it’s probably one step too far. That’s where Wales are, [they] aren’t in a position at the minute to be competing against South Africa, like we saw in the last game of the autumn.
“France away, that’s probably not where Wales are right now,” he added. “They may be in 12 or 24 months time, but right now, I think it’s very much almost using that game as a bit of a hit out before that game in Rome. Can they keep it as tight as possible? You never know with France, if the crowd get on top of them a little bit, but you would have to say it’s very unlikely for Wales to win.”
With Gatland warned by the WRU that he must start delivering results, Hamilton asked if Wales should perhaps be tempering expectations heading into the tournament.
“Something needs to change,” replied Biggar. “It may just be just holding your hands up and saying ‘look, at the minute, we aren’t quite good enough’. Take a load of pressure off ourselves, let’s not worry about winning in Paris and let’s just build and look at the games we can target because that’s currently where [we] are at.”
Biggar also named Scotland as his dark horses for the tournament, explaining: “I think there’s a huge amount of pressure on them in this Six Nations. I believe that, because they haven’t delivered in the Six Nations – apart from against England – and they’ve had the last two World Cups where they’ve been in difficult pools but they haven’t got out of the pool stage.
“They’ve had good autumns, but I think for them to get a really strong inclusion of players [on this summer’s Lions tour] and to really push for starting places in the Tests, they have to have a really good Six Nations.
“I think the fixtures actually work really nicely for Scotland and they’re my dark horses for this Six Nations. Previously you thought ‘no, they’re not quite there yet’ or whatever, but I think they’ve got a good chance.”