All change!
Alun Smith
“It’s not the despair, I can stand the despair… it’s the hope”. So bemoaned John Cleese’s hapless headmaster character, Brian Stimpson, in the sublime comedy, Clockwise (1986).
It’s the story of a man commuting to a conference to give a speech, and the bewildering array of accidents and incidents that befall him on the way there.
You’ll forgive me for likening Wales’ first season under Steve Tandy to the journey undertaken by Cleese in that movie.
We’re all Stimpson today.
Trying to get everything right, ignoring minor set-backs in the vain hope that if we simply carry on believing in our own mantra, things won’t get any worse. But they, of course, do get worse, when every wrong turn, when every missed opportunity and every poor call is labelled as ‘part of the journey we have to take learnings from’.
I’ve been one of the worst culprits when it comes to wearing the rose-tinted glasses, I admit, preferring to understand that team building and success are born of patience and belief, but even I’m struggling today.
And I’m struggling, I think, because, I feel as if I’ve been the victim of a rope-a-dope. I’ve been punching away since the end of the Ireland game, watching Wales’ knockout the negativity which surrounds them, beating Italy, then the Baa-Baas, then Fiji.
At the start of each round, I was surfing against the prevailing wind, ignoring the down-talkers and enjoying Wales’ mini resurgence. Then against Argentina it became evident that it was less of a mini resurgence and more of a micro-improvement.
Even though Wales scored tries in that game they came from forward play, not attacking nous. That situation roped me again because I thought, well, ok, if our forwards our improving and South Africa are playing personnel from their 2nd/3rd squads, maybe it won’t be that bad. Classic Brian Stimpson!
Capitulated
And it wasn’t ‘that bad’. It was far, far worse! Our forwards utterly capitulated to theirs and our backs didn’t fire a single shot. There’s no rose-tinting this one, Wales were impotent on Saturday.
Here’s the thing though. I’m STILL not going to blame the players. At the end of the movie Cleese does indeed get to his destination and does indeed deliver a speech to conference.
It’s not the one he set off to make though. It’s a speech reflecting what he learned on his way to the podium. Tandy and Sherratt need to re-draft their monologues.
A second playmaker in midfield isn’t working for Wales, so change it. Both Costelow and Edwards are perfectly capable of running the midfield on their own and distributing the ball as they see fit. And we’ve got good centres in James, Hennessey, Llewellyn and a few untried who could make a difference. Pick them as centres and let them play!
Picking players on reputation isn’t working for Wales, so change it. Zammit needs to build confidence with Bristol and get some form going before the autumn, because if he doesn’t we’ve got lots of good wingers ready to step in.
Wales’ kicking strategy isn’t working, so change it! Tomos Williams is one of the best, most creative scrum-halves in world rugby. He proves that consistently at club level. Why isn’t he doing it for Wales?
The only possible conclusion is that he’s being told to kick away. If you want a scrum-half who’s going to kick so often, pick one that kicks accurately for territory or to compete, every single time, every single kick. That isn’t Tomos. He wants to run and he’s being stopped from doing so.
Keeping the faith
The narrative needs to change. That has to come from Tandy and Sherratt. They need to convince the Welsh public that keeping the faith is worth it.
They can do that by admitting their mistakes in selection and tactics and promising to change it. Wales need, not just to beat Japan on the 7th of November, they need to smash them.
Do that and people will turn up for the All Blacks game a week later. Wales need to beat at least one of the All Blacks and Australia.
Sherratt and Tandy need to stop being so accepting of this devastating slide into irrelevance.
Guys, like Brian Stimpson, you’re running out of time and you’re on the wrong train. Get off it!
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All too familiar. Same old same old. But what do we really expect when we hand over running of the WRU to non Welsh business executives, who have no emotional skin in the game? When so many of our best current players Plu their trade abroad? When our region teams are not competitive? Is it all really just about money?
Yes. And, no. We need to be realistic and find a different way to fund Welsh rugby. Wales is unique. We need to find a unique way to do things. It’s there and I’ll do my best to open a discussion on it next time.
Alun thanks for investing time in collecting those thoughts. Your quest to find “a different way” will be constrained by professional players wanting high levels of pay and their employers – WRU and regions – apparent inability to generate more robust revenue streams. So, what gives?