Jamie Roberts’ victory-clinching try against Ireland means Wales have dodged the bullet as far as another group of death goes at the 2019 World Cup. But Geraint Powell believes the win also takes Rob Howley and Warren Gatland out of the firing line for another two years as well.
Welsh rugby can now finally relax and start looking towards the 2019 World Cup in Japan, thanks to a 22-9 win over Ireland at the Principality Stadium on Friday night.
Wales will enter the draw as a 5th-8th ranked team, not a 9th-12th ranked team. There will be no back-to-back defeats to Ireland and France and the nightmare scenario of a repeat of a group of death in 2019 against two other Top 8 teams. The Welsh squad can express themselves in Paris this weekend, with the weight of the world lifted off their shoulders.
Test rugby is so often a matter of small margins and momentum/momentum swings. A failure to close out a win against England with a botched last 5 mins exit, a missed penalty just before half-time against Scotland (going in at 13-9 rather than at 16-6), but obvious Rob Henshaw illegality called at a maul by referee Wayne Barnes on Friday night.
I say obvious, but far from certain that all Test referees would have spotted it. Well done to Wayne Barnes. How would the rest of the Test match have played out, if 15-9 had then become 15-16?
There were many positives to be taken, from a Welsh perspective. A very powerful Irish back row completely nullified, to the surprise of many. Sam Warburton back to his damned nuisance best, the two Welsh open side flankers approach paying dividends.
George North punching defensive holes and crossing the try line, sights to please all Welsh rugby fans. Rhys Webb making his opening bid for the Lions 9 shirt, given the calibre of the opposing Irish half backs.
There are other players still in need of a big game in Paris, if they want to tour with the Lions. I would say this list probably includes Leigh Halfpenny, unthinkable not so long ago. The gulf in aerobics between the Top 14 and Test rugby is doing his all round game no favours whatsoever.
England secured the Championship on Saturday, crushing Scotland 61-21 at Twickenham. Such has been the frustrating inconsistency of Wales this 6 Nations that they failed to close out a win against England and deservedly lost the 2nd half 0-20 against Scotland.
For a team on the verge of back-to-back Grand Slams, England have remarkably few almost guaranteed Lions Test starters. Lots of very good players, only a few world class players.
A tribute to Eddie Jones, a coach finally getting the English behemoth to again punch proportionate to its considerable player resource weight. What happens if a hurting Ireland ambush England at the weekend (remember England’s 3-30 calamity in Cardiff ahead of the last Lions tour to Australia in 2013?)? How could that change Lions selections?
Warren Gatland, joined once again on a Lions tour by Rob Howley, will now pit himself against the All Blacks machine of Steve Hansen and Ian Foster before plotting the Welsh run at the 2019 World Cup. There has been much debate in Welsh rugby circles about the failure to blood many new players at Test level since the last World Cup, especially against Japan in November, but Robin McBryde will have that task as Wales head off to play Tonga (probably in New Zealand) and Samoa this summer.
The more Welsh Lions, inevitably the more new blood to be taken on tour with Wales. Some would argue that a few senior Welsh players who miss the cut on Lions selection should have the summer off (and not just to offset any post-Lions form and fitness hangover by Lions tourists), the default position subject to any compelling individual arguments to the contrary. But an experienced spine will still be required against the Pacific Islanders, to mentally navigate around the incoming hits.
And WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips can start planning far ahead, having passed through one of the numerous restrictions he inherited. He did not personally extend Gatland’s contract from 2015 until 2019, which pre-dated him, let alone authorise the Lions sabbatical.
He is far too astute to try and impose a new assistant coaching regime on any unwilling head coach, and I say that as someone who would have preferred Gatland to have decided to freshen-up his own coaching team. So, we can safely assume that no change was desired.
There is far too much non-alignment in Welsh rugby without needlessly adding an accountability non-alignment into the national coaching set-up. The accountability buck stops with the head coach, so he selects his assistants (and sabbatical caretaker!).
If the required assistant coaches are ever totally unacceptable, that is only ever a reason to dispense with the services of the requesting head coach. Whatever one’s views on Gatland, few would argue that spending the money of the 300+ WRU member clubs on buying him and his team out of contracts, and then buying their successors out of contracts with others, would be a prudent use of limited financial resources.
So, as replacement Jamie Roberts scored the winning try on Friday night, and save only for Gatland inexplicably resigning after the Lions tour, Roberts was, in reality, providing the final confirmation that the current Welsh national coaching set-up will remain in situ until October/November 2019.
For those of you that buy into the wonderful Lions concept, all 5 Super Rugby regions, a provincial select XV, the Maori and 3 Test matches against the All Blacks await. For those of you only interested in Wales, November will see the arrival in Cardiff of the All Blacks, the Wallabies, the Springboks, and Georgia.
But first a trip to Paris, without the pressure of a must win game in terms of the 2019 World Cup draw, and the final Welsh pitch for Lions places.
