Wales 14 – 68 England: Wales plumb the depths of despair

Simon Thomas

Another whitewash, another wooden spoon, more unwanted records and now some huge decisions for Welsh rugby.

There have been plenty of lows for Wales over the past 18 months, but yesterday saw a new nadir.

This was the depths of despair, the worst of the worst.

Let’s get the historical horror out of the way.

The 68-14 rout at the hands of England at the Principality Stadium was a record defeat for Wales in the Five or Six Nations.

It also extended their losing run to 17 Tests, which is the longest endured by any Tier 1 team in the professional era.

The game was over as a contest by half-time, with England turning round with a 33-7 lead and plenty of Welsh fans had seen enough long before the end.

When the visitors scored their eighth try through prop Joe Heyes ten minutes from time, supporters in red started streaming out of the ground.

Just to rub salt in the wounds, they were sent on their way with chants of ‘Cheerio, cheerio” from England fans positioned near the press box.

There were still two more tries to come from the visitors in the dying minutes, taking their tally to ten.

Those were accompanied by choruses of “Swing Low Sweet Chariots” from the travelling fans while there were also chants of “Can we play you every week?” and “Is this your second team?”

Painful

It was cruel, it was painful to hear, but that’s where we are right now.

So what next? Well, it was telling to listen to the parting thoughts of interim head coach Matt Sherratt who will now head back to the Arms Park to resume his job at Cardiff.

“The emotions are quite raw,” he admitted.

“My overwhelming feeling is I am really disappointed for the players. It was a body blow too many.

“This has got to be used to look forward now.

“There is obviously a lot happening in the WRU at the moment with new appointments.

“So it’s a case of drawing a line under this and trying to move forward as quickly as possible.

“There are four or five players here we can build a team around.

“But everyone always looks at the top of the pyramid. The base is where it counts.

“Any good team has got a good foundation underneath it, which is the age grade. Get the age grade right and then the top of the pyramid will look a lot better.

“I think there are some green shoots with the U20s, so it’s about trying to nurture that group of players.”

New appointments

When Sherratt talks about new appointments, he is of course referring to the next permanent Wales head coach and the WRU director of rugby.

He reiterated his stance that he is not interested in becoming the full-time successor to Warren Gatland, with his focus being on Cardiff.

So who will the WRU go for?

Well, there are a quartet of candidates who have been mentioned repeatedly – Glasgow’s Franco Smith, Leicester’s Michael Cheika, Ireland’s Simon Easterby and Bristol’s Pat Lam.

My own preference would be former Springbok fly-half Smith. He is a detail-focused coach which is what this young Welsh group needs. At Glasgow, he has also shown an ability to rapidly implement his game plan with successful outcomes, winning the URC title.

He has made no secret of his desire to return to being an international head coach at some point, having previously been at the helm of Italy.

The question is whether he might be being lined up to take over the reins with Scotland before too long.

If Smith isn’t available, then the other contenders mentioned above are all decent options.

Whether the WRU can secure the services of any of them remains to be seen, amid existing contracts.

They might yet have someone else in mind.

What’s certain is they have to get this appointment right because Wales’ record losing run becomes more damaging with each passing defeat.

Tickets

The Union have seven home matches to sell tickets for next season with the autumn Tests and the Six Nations.

That is not going to be an easy task on the back of such a wretched sequence of results and it will become even harder if the barren spell continues.

Just as important and arguably even more significant for the long term is the identity of the new Director of Rugby.

Former Bridgend hooker Huw Bevan – the Union’s interim performance director – appears to be a frontrunner.

We wait to see whether any alternative options emerge, with the likes of former England coach Stuart Lancaster having been mentioned in dispatches.

Whoever is appointed faces a huge challenge, something which was confirmed in stark fashion yesterday.

They have to find a way of putting in place a pathway and a system which produces players who are able to meet the physical demands of Test rugby.

At the moment, Wales just don’t have sufficient personnel who fit that bill.

They were blown away in the contact area by Scotland for 50 minutes last week and it was an even more uncomfortable watch yesterday.

In every physical aspect of the game, whether it be scrum, maul or the collisions, they came second best.

They also struggled in the one-on-one situations, missing 25 tackles to add to the 33 they fell off at Murrayfield.

In terms of possession, it was actually 50-50 over the course of the game, but it’s what you do with the ball that counts.

Such was their superiority in terms of power, England looked like scoring just about every time they entered the Welsh 22 and generally they did, showing a much more clinical cutting edge.

‘Brutal’

Former skipper Sam Warburton summed it up perfectly while speaking on the BBC.

“International rugby is a brutal physical sport. Power wins and England just completely obliterated Wales,” he said.

“They were just physically far superior.

“You can talk about attacking shape and tactical aspects, but if the opposition wins the power game so convincingly, there is nothing you can do.

“It was a hard watch because it just showed the gulf in physicality. The level of athlete England have got compared to Wales was a stark difference.”

So once again, we come back to what must happen now.

For one thing, it’s crucial that the new deal between the WRU and the four regions is finally signed off, with a commitment to increased funding over the next few years.

Then there are those two big appointments.

As the dust settles on back-to-back whitewashes, let’s finish off by considering the views of another former Wales and Lions captain Alun Wyn Jones.

‘Seismic changes’

“There have got to be seismic changes, whether they will be big enough is the question,” he said on the BBC.

“The caveat to the success which the U20s have had is a number of those players play outside of Wales.

“So you want to get them back, so they are accessible and make the regions better.”

He added: “We have had a lot of reviews and a lot of questions have been asked.

“My over-riding emotion is one of frustration. I’ve been in Six Nations where we have had mergers, strikes. Obviously we have got to this point now.

“History is repeating itself. All these issues we have now rumbled on when we played, yet we had success which papered over the cracks.

“That was all wonderful, but it has come home to roost now.”

Indeed it has and those cracks are now chasms.