Jamie Roberts: Gatland has found the answer to longstanding question

Having a legendary player or partnership in a team does not often create too many problems, but one may be that it takes years, and sometimes generations, to find replacements.

With the bar set so high, fans have an expectation that the players who follow can often fail to live up to despite being good players in their own right.

One such legendary partnership was the combination between Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies in the Welsh, and British and Irish Lions midfield, which Wayne Pivac and Warren Gatland have striven to replace.

Now Roberts himself thinks his former coach may well have found the heirs to the 94-cap and 96-cap inside and outside centres.

Looking at Wales’ squad for their Autumn Nations Series campaign, where they face Fiji, Australia and South Africa, Roberts has identified the Scarlets’ Eddie James and Gloucester’s Max Llewellyn as candidates to occupy the Welsh midfield “for a long time”.

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Speaking to RugbyPass recently, the 37-year-old discussed Wales’ midfield options heading into their autumn campaign.

While he is excited about the prospect of James and Llewellyn playing alongside each other in the future, he is not sure their time is now. Rather, he likes the idea of them getting game time for now alongside the experienced duo of Nick Tompkins and Owen Watkin.

After all, the pair only have two Wales caps between them, with James, 22, earning his against South Africa earlier this year and Llewellyn, 25, being capped in a 2023 World Cup warm-up. Cobbling together such an inexperienced partnership could prove problematic.

While Gatland experimented with Mason Grady at inside centre against Australia in the summer, the same move he made with Roberts over a decade ago, the former Lion is not convinced by the switch, and believes the 117kg back is better suited on the wing.

“I’m hugely excited by the promise of Eddie James and Max Llewellyn,” TNT Sports pundit Roberts told RugbyPass. “They’re two players who’ve got all the ingredients to be proper Test rugby players.

“Potentially not together, but I’d love to see them start a game in November. Max has played quite a lot at 13, Eddie more at 12, but whether it’s the right time to start them together, I’m not quite sure. But finding that partnership for Wales over the next couple of seasons is going to prove absolutely pivotal to the fortunes of this side.

“If they work well together, why not? They’ve got to start somewhere, but we know we’ve got the experience of Owen [Watkin] and Nick Tompkins to call upon if needed. I think these two lads could be mainstays in the Welsh squad for a long time.

“Around the young centres, whether that’s Warren kind of resigning himself to the fact that playing Mason [Grady] at 12 is not going to happen moving forward. Personally, I think we should be on the wing. We’ve learned over the last period that his best position isn’t 12, I think he’s aware.”

A bigger conundrum for Gatland than solving the midfield this November is working out how to win a Test. Wales are yet to register a Test win in 2024, but Roberts is buoyant and believes his countrymen should target two wins from three over the next month.

“World champion Springboks are going to be a huge ask, but get enough momentum from the first two games, never say never,” Roberts said.

“Where this Wales side is at the minute, Fiji and Australia games, they should be targeting to win. I think they’ve got the ingredients to do it. They’ve got a young group of players who’ve gone through a really steep learning curve over the last 12 months against some very challenging backdrops in Welsh rugby- at club and Test level. But they would have learned a huge amount.

“They have some experience coming back, the likes of Jac Morgan, Tomos Williams were missed in the summer, really, really missed because they are two players that can really transform this side.

“Having Jac Morgan back is huge, he is truly one of our world-class players when he plays to his potential and is fully fit and it’s great to see him showing that early-season form. When you have players like that, they just give their side an extra five, ten per cent and give confidence to other players as well, which is all Wales need to go from turning tight losses into victories.

“I’ve all the reasons to be pretty optimistic about it, we’ve got a great opportunity to get back to winning ways and that’s what the lads are chasing out there.

“They’re chasing that feeling being in the changing room and having been there myself, in Welsh sides that won things and then lost, it’s that feeling of winning again and knowing you’ve put in a performance worthy of winning a Test match and they’ve got a great opportunity to do it. I think there will be a spring in their step off the back of early season form, I think a lot of players are showing some really good form.”

Every match of 2024 Autumn Nations Series is exclusively live on TNT Sports and discovery+ Watch The Autumn Nations Rugby Show, free-to-air on Quest every Thursday at 10pm