LONG READ Sherratt hoping he can inspire an upturn in Welsh fortunes as Ireland loom large

Never mind 40 years of EastEnders: the out-on-its-own soap opera remains Welsh rugby – seemingly never without a major plot-line, usually involving a crisis or three blended with the occasional upturn, albeit we haven’t seen many of those in recent times.

Labour disputes, worries over money, departures of major characters, personality clashes and fears for the future have all been seen in the game on the western side of the River Severn over the past half-decade and a bit.

Few scriptwriters would dare to contemplate so many ups and downs. Six Nations Grand Slam winners in 2019, Wales regressed to fifth in 2020 before becoming champions again a year later and plunging back to fifth in 2022. A win over the Springboks in South Africa in the summer was followed by a Six Nations which saw players threaten to strike ahead of the England game and Wales are currently on a 14-game losing run. As Ronan Keating once opined, life is a rollercoaster.

Oh, and Warren Gatland’s exit this week means Wales are once again looking for a head coach, barely two years after saying an abrupt goodbye to Wayne Pivac.

Seasoned observers will experience a sense of déjà vu.  There were six Wales head coaches and two caretakers in the 10 years up to 1998. For all the commitment to stability the governing body showed back then, they might just as well have run a monthly competition, inviting readers of the Western Mail to explain in 50 words why they should coach the national team, with the winner getting the gig for the month in question. Not a formula guaranteed to bring success, for sure, but results couldn’t have been much worse than they were.

You really do wonder what Gatland was thinking of taking the job on for a second time, with Welsh regional rugby cemented in difficulties, a successful generation of players having aged together with little coming through behind them and the development process having gone awry in Wales since 2016.

Did the New Zealander’s success during his 2007-2019 tenure as Welsh coach convince him he could buck the odds that were stacked against him when he took on the job for a second time? If so – understatement ahoy – his understanding of the situation wasn’t quite where it should have been.

In the press conference after the Italy game, an expert people watcher wasn’t needed to work out that Gatland was finding it increasingly hard to summon his old zap.

He didn’t help himself with some of his selections second time around, while his team increasingly fired blanks in attack. As the defeats piled up, the armour-plated assurance of yesteryear seemed to desert him.

In the press conference after the Italy game, an expert people watcher wasn’t needed to work out that Gatland was finding it increasingly hard to summon his old zap, with the man who once seemed so in control of events at one point even admitting to questioning himself. His former conviction and punch seemed absent. To borrow from Wallace and Gromit, the bounce appeared to have gone from his bungee.

That said, hopefully history will remember him more for the Grand Slams and World Cup semi-finals he oversaw rather than the deflating misadventures of the past 17 months. Restoring Welsh fortunes after the bleak couple of years that preceded his initial stint as coach was an immense achievement that required leadership, boldness in selection, sharp man-management and considerable skill. If the playing style wasn’t always to everyone’s liking, the results often were, allowing Wales to recover respect.

The question now is whether the side will enjoy a new-coach uplift under Matt Sherratt, the interim boss installed by the WRU. His misfortune is for Ireland to be Wales’ opponents first up. Last time out, the Irish were utterly dominant against Scotland, with the final scoreline of 32-18 hardly reflecting their superiority.

Sherratt has done himself a favour by bringing Gareth Anscombe, Jarrod Evans and Max Llewellyn back into the fold after all three were passed over for the Six Nations by Gatland. Anscombe has belief and experience that should help the squad’s younger players, while Evans can ignite an attack and has been in excellent form for Harlequins. Llewellyn’s physicality should help a group who have been short of such a commodity for too long.

Sherratt and whoever follows him will want to settle on a No. 10. The out-of-position selection of Ben Thomas at fly-half in Rome misfired badly, with the Cardiff man and Tomos Williams comprehensively second best in the battle of the boots. Would Wales have fared any better had they summoned Sam Davies, who has few Welsh peers as a kicker out of hand, for the mission in the Italian capital? Almost certainly (albeit no one seems absolutely sure if the eight-cap player is eligible under Welsh rugby’s increasingly questionable selection rules).

It’s an exaggeration to suggest Roman frogmen were needed to fish the Welsh pack out of the Tiber after the scrummaging problems the visiting eight endured in round two, but, still, Wales were under pressure in the pushing and shoving game.

Maybe in time, Davies will return to the mix and Dan Edwards will blossom after an encouraging effort off the bench in Italy, perhaps joining Evans as options at fly-half moving forward, with  Wales badly needing competition in the key playmaking role.

Then there’s tighthead prop, another potential headache for Sherratt and his successor. It’s an exaggeration to suggest Roman frogmen were needed to fish the Welsh pack out of the Tiber after the scrummaging problems the visiting eight endured in round two, but, still, Wales were under pressure in the pushing and shoving game and have to sort out their set-piece work.

That means finding a No. 3 who can anchor matters. Post-Tomas Francis’s departure to France, Wales have been unable to locate such a man, with multiple problems resulting.

But it’s not just at tight-head that there has been a power deficit.  The forwards generally are shy in that department, with a few notable exceptions. Against France, Jac Morgan made 27 more metres with ball in hand than the rest of his pack colleagues put together. A startling cameo against Italy saw Aaron Wainwright make eight carries in 22 minutes, while Taulupe Faletau frequently used his quick footwork to make ground in the same game. But from the rest, there has been little in terms of taking play forward. From somewhere, Wales need to find more forwards capable of scattering opponents backwards.

What else? Wales haven’t kicked well enough in their opening two games. Watching Leinster against the Ospreys in Swansea last Friday evening, it wasn’t just the Irish scrum that troubled the hosts. The province also had a battery of kicking options in their backline which allowed them to win the territory battle with something to spare. Wales understood the importance of playing in the right areas in the rain against Italy, but the execution of the kicking game was dreadful.

And can we please have a centre partnership that is both solid and skilful? Preferably, at least one of those chosen should have the ability to break the gainline. In a perfect world (see the previous paragraph) one or both centres will be able to kick the ball, too, and both should be able to pass accurately – a basic skill, but an important one if Wales are to develop their attacking game.

Could Simon Easterby pep matters via a dash of know-how from the Irish camp?

Is there enough pace in the back three? It’s not obvious that there is, albeit Blair Murray put in one nice run against Italy. Really, Wales could do with the cutting edge Louis Rees-Zammit used to provide, but he continues to be happier doing other things.

We haven’t even got around to thinking about the head coach post-Sherratt. At the press conference to announce Gatland’s initial appointment, the WRU’s then chief executive Roger Lewis said there were only around 10 men in world rugby who were qualified to do the Wales job. The assumption is roughly the same figure is in play today.

Could Franco Smith get Wales playing the way Glasgow Warriors play, at rapid pace with forwards and backs all comfortable with ball in hand? Could Simon Easterby pep matters via a  dash of know-how from the Irish camp? What of Vern Cotter, who guided the Blues to the Super Rugby Pacific title last term, along the way transforming their pack into a ‘snow plough’, according to local reports? Stern Vern, as Cotter is widely known, might not top the bill at his local comedy club any time soon, but as a coach he gets results.

Pat Lam, Brad Mooar, Leon MacDonald? All strong options. Shaun Edwards? A large swathe of the Welsh public would give a thumbs-up emoji to his return. Michael Cheika? Not renowned for hanging around in jobs of late, but a no-nonsense big hitter who’s highly respected.  Ronan O’Gara? There are not many more intelligent coaches out there, but the Wales job doesn’t seem on his radar.  Steve Tandy? Has built his reputation outside Wales after leaving the Ospreys and is highly thought of within the game.

Plenty there for the WRU to consider, then, but let’s see how Sherratt fares at the helm this weekend.

Easy going and rarely seen without a smile on his face, he will bring a fresh dynamic to the squad and will likely want Wales to play an attractive brand of rugby. But that will only be possible if his players do the basics correctly.

He will hope the only way is up for his players, but Ireland will want to prove him wrong.

At least the new man will not be burdened by expectation. If he can make Wales harder to beat in the short term, that would be something.