-Credit:Huw Evans Picture Agency Ltd
The die has been cast. And, to paraphrase one of the Welsh rugby press’ more famous intros, it isn’t Dai who is feeling downcast, but rather Dyer.
No room for Rio, but he’s not the only one licking his wounds after Wales’ Six Nations was revealed. Cameron Winnett, Max Llewellyn, Gareth Anscombe and Taine Plumtree are also on the outside looking in.
There are surprise names included as well. Two-cap tighthead WillGriff John, with 180 minutes of action this season for Sale, is retrieved from the archive of long-forgotten players capped under Wayne Pivac, to feature.
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After a winless 2024, the Wales coach heads into his 13th Six Nations campaign with Wales, there’s a pressure upon Gatland unlike ever before.
Challenged to lead Wales to success in the tournament after a review of the national team’s performances, his job is, undoubtedly, on the line in the coming months. The findings of that review, in essence, were a stay of execution.
That particular die hasn’t been cast just yet, but in terms of Gatland’s Six Nations squad, 34 names have been picked. It’s now up to those selected to keep him in a job in the weeks to come.
If this is to be his last Wales squad, then perhaps it is fitting that, like virtually every other one picked by a Welsh coach, it didn’t garner the approval of social media. You can please all of the people some of the time, or some of the people all of the time…
The platform formerly known as Welsh Rugby Twitter in a pre-Elon Musk world has perhaps not been so unanimous in its questioning of the selection for some time. So there’s that, at least…
But away from social media’s chatter, what are the main takeaways from a squad bursting with talking points?
Water under the bridge?
On any other day, the reintroduction of Ospreys hooker Sam Parry, less than a year after he walked out of Wales’ summer squad after feeling he had been disrespected, would have been a notable storyline.
On this particular squad announcement, it was very easy to forget that a way back into the squad had been paved for the 33-year-old Ospreys hooker.
Parry himself had admitted he was open to a recall recently, but even so, it seemed a bit fanciful after the fallout from last year.
But with injuries to Dewi Lake and Ryan Elias, Wales are short at hooker. Parry is deserving of his place on form alone, but where he’ll sit in the pecking order will be interesting to see.
A problem position remains
It’s hardly talking out of school to say that tighthead prop has been a conundrum for Wales in recent years. Spend too much time thinking about who should pull on the three jersey and you’ll end up tearing out your hair.
Heading into this Six Nations, Wales’ three options are Keiron Assiratti, Henry Thomas and the aforementioned John. In terms of age profile, the three are what you’d want from a stable of tightheads.
Assiratti is 27, Thomas is 33 and John is 32. The coalface isn’t always a greenhorn face.
But, when you look at the number of caps between them, it’s fair to say there’s a discrepancy between their age and their experience at Test level.
Altogether, there’s 16 caps there across the three players. John, with two caps in 2021, should in theory be captured by the 25-cap rule. But for Jarrod Evans, read WillGriff John. No credible offer in Wales, so the Sale man can pull on the red jersey.
No need for an emergency meeting of the Professional Rugby Board or Rugby Management Board to hash this one out.
Back on the tighthead front, Wales are lacking some other options, with Archie Griffin – again, not a 50-capper by any means – but trips to Paris and Rome with a trio of low-cap tightheads doesn’t exactly bode well for a Wales side looking to find, above all else, wins.
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More muddled thinking?
“Here he comes, Wales’ best back,” was how Ben Thomas was recently greeted at one recent Cardiff press conference. The centre took the joke in good spirits, but there’s probably a part of the 26-year-old who would rather Gatland hadn’t christened him as such before the autumn.
From that point onwards, there’s always been some looking to knock him for a statement that he never made. Such is Welsh rugby’s goldfish bowl.
But, for all the plaudits Thomas has had – and for all the stick he’s probably received as a result of it – he’s now seemingly heading into a third consecutive campaign with Wales lined up for a different position to the last.
Fly-half in the summer, inside centre in the autumn, you’d expect he’s now back to fly-half for the Six Nations. If not, someone better prepare Dan Edwards’ shoulders for the burden of expectations about to be dumped down upon him and fast.
Fly-half is a position where Gatland wants more depth. The injury to Sam Costelow, with the Scarlets’ playmaker out for 12 weeks, undoubtedly affects his plans.
But when it comes to any injuries keeping him out of the squad, that seemingly wasn’t the case with Gareth Anscombe. Gloucester say he’s fine, Gatland wonders if he can make the World Cup.
So why pick him for two Tests in the autumn when Wales had more fly-halves available? Did it only become apparent over Christmas the 33-year-old might not be around in 2027?
Costelow, for all the vitriol he gets, had a rough time of it in the autumn. Not starting in the first two matches, he was chucked in for the clash with South Africa. The Christians probably felt better being thrown to the lions.
Now, having had a brief run in his favoured position of 12, you expect Thomas will be back at fly-half in Paris. Outside him, he’ll be without Cameron Winnett – who has spent the last year acting as a secondary playmaker for Thomas for club and country.
Having been brought into Test rugby at the start of last year, Winnett has taken all the bumps and bruises of Wales’ annus horribilis with a maturity well beyond his years. Having set up more tries than anyone in the United Rugby Championship this season, it seems a odd call to not call him up – even if Liam Williams is back in the picture.
Williams, along with Josh Adams, Taulupe Faletau and Dafydd Jenkins, bring some more experience as Gatland looks for success. But making chime with the whole ‘sticking with youth’ policy is tough, given some of the absentees.
For all the talk of short-term pain for long-term gain, maybe the short-pain was that of the players after missing out this time around. Looking at the other full-back options behind Williams, Scarlets trio Ellis Mee, Tom Rogers and Blair Murray can all play there – but are any of them really long-term options in the position?
There’s no room for Max Llewellyn either. Despite being the Gallagher Premiership’s leading try-scorer, there’s no room for him in the Wales squad. The reason given was a lack of touches against South Africa in the autumn.
Thankfully that’s not a blanket reason, otherwise the squad list would start and end with restored captain Jac Morgan. Ironically, one of the better performers against the Springboks, Rio Dyer, also doesn’t make it.
More bodies will be needed
There’s also notable absentees in the pack, where the prominence of English-based players will be felt strongly in the coming weeks.
The fifth region of Gloucester hasn’t been ploughed as heavily as the autumn, without Anscombe and Llewellyn, but four of the five second-rows in this squad are based in either England or France.
In the past, Gatland often used to point to 50/50 calls coming down to which players are based in Wales, given the better access. Perhaps, based on this selection, that’s not the case anymore.
That’s alarming in itself. With the 25-cap rule seemingly easy enough to get around with rolling contracts and other loopholes, there’s perhaps even less reason for players to stay in Wales.
It will certainly throw up logistical headaches in the coming weeks, too. Come the fallow weeks and Teddy Williams will be the only second-row left in the squad.
Taine Plumtree fell victim to Gatland’s split of back-rows and second-rows, while the suggestion is that Ospreys James Fender – understood to have been in the mix – didn’t quite have enough minutes under his belt after returning from injury.
Could either be called in to get some experience of camp in the fallow weeks? Or will age-grade or academy players be relied upon to boost training numbers?
It remains to be seen.