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Scrum-halves in their 30s don't usually start at a World Cup, so jockeying for No9 has started in Wales for France 2023

(Photos by Getty Images)

With rugby stuck in paralysis, many scribes and fans alike are casting their eyes forward to the next World Cup, something you expect Wayne Pivac and Wales are doing with the benefit of dizzying amounts of unplanned thinking time. France 2023 is still a distant speck in the distance and one position the Welsh appear well-stocked in at the moment is scrum-half. Dig a bit deep, though, and there is – statistically at least – likely to be movement in this key position.

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Looking at all nine World Cups is instructive: the average age of a starting Wales scrum-half was 26 years and four months. It should also be added that not one of those players was in their thirties. Household names like Rob Howley, Dwayne Peel, Mike Phillips and Gareth Davies all wore the Welsh No9 shirt at the height of their powers – in their twenties.

When trying to pinpoint, Inspector Clouseau-style admittedly, how the trend affects the suitors to the jersey shirt for France in 2023, you would assuage that Rhys Webb – 35 two months after the jamboree in France ends, and Gareth Davies – 33 a month before the competition starts have the odds stacked against them. For all intents and purposes, they are fighting against the dying light.

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Wales’ Dan Biggar guests on the latest episode of The Rugby Pod, the chart-topping show fronted by Andy Goode and Jim Hamilton

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Wales’ Dan Biggar guests on the latest episode of The Rugby Pod, the chart-topping show fronted by Andy Goode and Jim Hamilton

Further evidence shows that at the recent World Cup in 2019, the oldest starting scrum-half in the knockout stages was Australia’s Will Genia at 31. That’s not to say it’s impossible. Ageing scrum-halves to have started at World Cups include Fabien Galthie and George Gregan, who were 34 in 2003 and 2007 respectively, while Agustin Pichot was a whipper-snapper at 33 in ’07 and Fourie du Preez 33 in 2015.

But you have to do some deep excavation to find exceptions to the rule. Test rugby, especially in its current guise, is a young man’s game. One man who had his share of thrills and spills at the World Cup with Wales was Robert Jones. He played in three tournaments, the first as a fresh-faced 21-year-old in 1987 in New Zealand where Wales finished in third place.

The Trebanos-born British and Irish Lion agreed that the gifted trio of Webb, Davies and Tomos Williams means the Welsh cup runneth over in the next 18 months. But by the time Pivac’s squad is crossing La Manche, these two elder statesmen could have departed and Wales would be down to a then 28-year-old Williams for the World Cup.

“If you look forward to 2023 the trio mentioned will still be desperate to play for Wales in France, especially as this season has passed them,” said Jones to RugbyPass. “But past the Lions next summer, the majority would say Tomos Williams is front runner for the next World Cup.”

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Of the next wave to battle it out with Williams, the progress of Kieran Hardy with the Scarlets has been noted by rugby’s cognoscenti. Just 24, he has rough edges to soften, but after spending the season in the Championship with Jersey, he has raised eyebrows with his raw pace and try-scoring threat. Indeed, the pick of his eight tries this season was a 70-metre individual effort against Zebre that had shades of the prolific form Davies enjoyed in the 2013/14 season at a similar age.

“Kieran has looked impressive,” continued Jones. “He has grown in confidence as the season has progressed and has been putting his hand up. Stephen Jones would know him well from the Scarlets and he’s the right age to really flourish in France.

“I would imagine Wayne Pivac will be keen on bringing him in at some point to have a look at him. What further benefits him is the fact departing Scarlets scrum-half Aled Davies has made himself unavailable by heading for London with Saracens for three years, so he has moved up the pecking order.”

The other player Jones reckoned should not to discounted is Rhodri Williams. He has made such a telling impression at the Dragons this season, dovetailing with Sam Davies, and having just turned 27 he is becoming too polished to be discarded by Wales with a view to the next World Cup.

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“When Rhodri first came on the scene he reminded me of his father Alan, who I played with at Swansea. He was a very rounded, intelligent scrum-half. In fact, Rhod seems to have a little bit more balance and control on his game than his dad. Being out in Bristol may have hampered him a little but since coming back to the Dragons, he has been playing really well. You can’t write guys like that off. The more responsibility he gets, the more mature he will get.”

In recent years, Welsh scrum-halves often come through in their mid-twenties. Howley got the lion’s share of his caps between 25 and 31. Phillips had to wait for Warren Gatland to come in and usurp Peel at 25 and Webb consequently had to play the waiting game with Phillips, so there is a trend.

“Listen, the players these days are so professional and committed to the cause that you can’t write Rhys and Gareth off, but if you look a little deeper, there are players kicking their heels ready to step up,” continued Jones. “I watched Harry Randall quite a bit playing for England at U20 level but I know he’s qualified to play for Wales growing up in the Amman Valley. He’s small but very savvy. He puts his body on the line and is in a good place to learn with Bristol, playing with Welsh-qualified Callum Sheedy under Pat Lam.”

While Jones doesn’t know what Randall’s intentions are, the scrum-half is not captured by England and if the likes of Ross Moriarty, Nick Tompkins and Sam Moore are anything to go by, he could yet switch allegiance. Closer to home, much has been said about Harri Morgan, the 20-year-old who impressed as Wales’ starting No9 at last year’s U20s World Championships. “I’ve seen plenty of Harri at youth level and I know they think an awful lot of him at the Ospreys,” vouched Jones.

“He has had his injury problems in the last year, which has held him back, but he has got all the talent. What I would say is he is a very quiet individual and needs to improve his communication, which is a such a big part of any 9s game. With Rhys Webb coming back (to Ospreys) you’d expect him to be the main man, but you hope Harri will get more opportunities alongside Reuben Morgan-Williams who has just signed a new deal.”

Rob Jones for the Lions
Ex-Wales scrum-half Robert Jones fires out a pass while on duty with the 1989 Lions (Photo by: Billy Stickland/Allsport)

Jones played in the amateur era where there were a glut of clubs and he does feel lack of opportunity does hold back Welsh No9s as there are only four regions. “There are only four starting spots, so it’s tricky. Playing at Bridgend, Swansea and Neath at the Premiership level is just not going to be a good enough standard. If these young guys can’t move the first-choice players you could see them choosing to look outside Wales to gain valuable playing experience, as Kieran did.”

In the short-term, though, Jones doesn’t see the Test level status-quo changing. “Along with Tomos, who I’ve mentioned, Gareth has scored some fantastic tries for Wales, especially the intercepts. There are parts of his game that could do with improvement, but at the elite end we have enough depth to switch players around depending on what we need.

“I’d say Rhys Webb is the most complete nine. He controls, he can run, his service is good and he is powerful. I also think his kicking game is pretty decent but the others have points of difference he hasn’t got. That is the beauty of rugby, really. In 2023, there could be a nine none of us have heard of yet, coming through as I guess I did in 1987.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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