From his barren planet cranium, to his square-jawed, straight-ahead stare, Steve Tandy is pure, no-nonsense Valleys everyman.
The no-hair glare, the echoing baritone voice from Tonmawr - unsoftened despite years spent living in Australia and then Scotland - the furrowed brow, it was all there when the new Wales coach held his first media conference since taking the job that many consider near impossible.
But there is much more to Tandy than Welsh rugby coaching stereotype.
And there will need to be as his inheritance is as meagre as anyone has ever been given.
Tandy is also engagingly straightforward, not prone to the fads of coaching psychobabble, and in touch with his rugby roots.
In fact, he was in Tonmawr RFC last week to watch the Lions’ final Test against Australia, having just returned from Scotland’s tour of New Zealand.
But this time he went there as Wales’ new head coach - not Scotland’s defence coach - and the pressure will be on to try and revive an international standing that has never been lower.
“Yeah, I believe in the talent we have in Wales to get us to where we want to go,” said Tandy, referencing the Welsh Rugby Union’s stated goal of climbing back into the top five of the world rankings by 2029 from their current position of 12th.
“Ultimately you want to have ambition. We want to have ambition to meet those targets but ultimately there's a process to get to that as well.”
Everywhere you look in Welsh rugby there is uncertainty and shortcoming. Tandy’s job will be build from the top down, while his bosses attempt to construct from the bottom, up.
He has a blank page in many respects, not to mention a few blank faces.
The 45-year-old former Ospreys coach must try to gain forward momentum with a young team, something Warren Gatland was unable to do in two years of trying.
“With a young group we have to nurture them, we have to connect to them and we have to be around them more than probably any time before because they are a young group,” Tandy explained.
“But I think that is where the ambition we want to go to but ultimately we have to build performances incrementally.
“From campaign to campaign we have to be better and looking at how we can build that performance through the exciting group we've got.”
Tandy was quick to acknowledge the scale of the task, especially after taking over with a domestic structure about to be smashed and re-constructed.
He believes the key lies in building stronger connections across all levels of the Welsh game — from the national team down to the regions and communities.
“I don't think it's a magic wand,” he admitted.
“For me it's got to be collective and that goes back to what I believe in — collaborative and building systems but also engaging not only with the national team but the U20s programme, the regions and the communities.”
A sense of personal pride and emotional connection to the role was evident throughout his first public performance in his new position.
“The privilege and the honour to be head coach of your national country is massive,” said Tandy.
“I've got huge pride as a sense of family and what a great rugby nation it is. So, it's a feeling of absolute pride and an honour.”
Reflecting on his journey — from being let go by the Ospreys in 2018 to leading a national team — Tandy was philosophical.
“No. I'm not so much a person who thinks too far ahead anyway irrelevant of the situation,” he said, when asked if he could have foreseen this opportunity.
“The one thing that has really driven me from the start is I want to be the best person and the best coach I can possibly be.”
Tandy’s coaching path has taken him far from Welsh shores, including a stint with the Waratahs in Australia — an experience he credits with broadening his outlook both personally and professionally.
“All those experiences on and off the field will give me the opportunity to show what I can do as a coach and really immerse myself around this rebuilding phase with Wales,” he said.
On the ongoing debate around regional restructuring, Tandy remains open-minded but emphasised that any decisions must reflect what’s best for Wales specifically — not just copy what’s worked elsewhere.
“I think for me coming in we've got to build something that suits us and not following anyone else,” he stated.
“Ultimately we want Wales to be back where it belongs and where we want to be but actually there's a lot of work that goes in behind that.”
When asked specifically about the prospect of Ospreys – his former team – merging or disappearing, Tandy recognised the emotion but stressed the need for clarity of purpose.
“I suppose that's the beauty of Wales around the pride and around the affinity to things but also we've got to be real around where we need to go to,” he said.
“It is one of our strengths but it has to be a focus of where we want to go to and how we align ourselves better to create something everyone can buy into but also for us to be competitive not just in the national game but right across Wales as a nation.”
“There’s a path we are going to go on and a journey we are going to go on.
“It is a challenge but every nation has challenges as well and I think it's exciting with regards to where we want to go to.”
