Centre watch: Llewellyn & North

Throughout this series of Wales warm-up matches ahead of the Rugby World Cup, I am going to keep an eye on the centre partnerships selected by Warren Gatland as he searches for the ideal midfield pairing.

As evidenced by @HuwGriffinRugby in this excellent Twitter thread, the Welsh centre duo has been mixed and matched to destruction over the last four years as Wayne Pivac failed to nail down a preferred pairing throughout his tenure.

There were some circumstantial reasons for that as the likes of Scott Williams, Hadleigh Parkes and Jon Davies saw their careers head towards the end or be hampered by injury, with a dearth of options on the conveyor belt behind them. However, as the years wore on the New Zealander’s refusal to blood youngsters slightly ahead of time was a sad indictment of his tenure as a whole.

Now though Warren Gatland is in a position whereby his centre options are almost too plentiful, and as a result nailing down two starters is going to be a big part of the warm-ups. Johnny Williams, Nick Tompkins, Mason Grady, Joe Roberts and Keiran Williams are all in the squad, Owen Williams and Josh Adams could fill in there if needed, but the first duo against England on Saturday was Max Llewellyn and George North.

In many respects a centre partnership of a 6’5″, 105kg inside centre and a 6’4″, 109kg outside centre is absolutely classic Gatland. Big men, coming on to the ball at pace, carrying hard and either getting over the gain line or creating space for others to attack. It could not be more Gatland-ball if it tried.

On Saturday the English defence dealt with the shape that Wales generally chose in attack well. Llewellyn would come short off 9 or 10 and look to hold the inside defender, North held his width to occupy the outside defender, and either the blindside winger or the full-back would pop up on the shoulder of the 9 or 10 in an attempt to take advantage of any space created by that split.

With a back line containing so many new faces and combinations the speed and accuracy of the execution was missing in the clips above, but the shape is a really strong one, and when it did work it worked to almost perfection as Louis Rees-Zammit got within an ankle tap of a try.

Where it didn’t work too well between them in attack was when a slight variation of that shape was called and Llewellyn stepped in at first receiver with Sam Costelow sliding back for the screen pass and North acting as the dummer runner.

Whether the communication wasn’t clear enough, Llewellyn was standing too deep or North was too disconnected from his midfield partner is hard to definitively call without being on the pitch, but the gap between the two centres is too big so that either the screen pass isn’t on, or the defence isn’t held enough to create space on the outside.

Where Llewellyn and North will be effective 99 times out of 100 in attack though is coming short and hard off 9 or 10, particularly on first phase, and getting over the gain line.

When they both hit similar lines and come into the same space, the panic of the opposing defence is obvious and opens up a number of possibilities as they either narrow up in order to put a double tackle on the big ball carrier, or hold their ground and, as in the first clip below, leave the fly-half to deal with the marauding inside centre one-on-one, often giving up an easy gain line advantage.

With that dominance established through Llewellyn, when he comes short in the red zone the defence has to follow him and leaves all the space in the world for North to wander over the try line.

In defence there were similarly encouraging signs for Llewellyn and North, which is perhaps the best news for Gatland as it is without the ball that the midfield partnership needs to be solid off first phase and in open play to apply the pressure to the opposition and force turnovers.

With North clearly leading the defence from 13, where he has now played 17 times for Wales since the last Rugby World Cup, he was able to identify and communicate threats with general ease, and thanks to a good line speed set by Llewellyn, between them the centre duo were able to come up quickly and effectively in midfield.

Two things to point out here; firstly how well Llewellyn and North stay connected as they step past the dummy runners and into the second level of the English attack, and secondly how well they communicate as the always dangerous Marcus Smith brings two attackers off his shoulder and opts for the kick through.

On both occasions the ball ends up back in Welsh hands as the English were looking to put the pressure on, but there was a moment where that connection and communication failed allowing the opposition to fly through a gap. Fortunately, Leigh Halfpenny exists!

With both centres slow to get off the line, disconnected from their inside defenders and lacking communication to pick up the English attackers coming around the corner, the Wales midfield parts like the red sea and Joe Marchant flies through with only an excellent Halfpenny tackle stopping him.

That was a one-off occasion on Saturday, but mistakes like that can’t be made in key games at the Rugby World Cup when the likelihood is that a line break such as that in the opposition 22 would be turned into points very easily.

Generally though they functioned very well, including when England switched things up and created an overlap which required the Welsh defence to drift and close the space, or if they came short off a first phase strike play and created a physical confrontation.

An unlucky moment in that second clip as the ball falls straight to Tom Pearson after Llewellyn dislodged it from Joe Cokanasiga, but a signal of intent from Wales as the big centre duo stay connected and nullify the English threat.

All-in-all a solid 7/10 start for Llewellyn and North as a partnership, a duo that suits Gatland’s basics down to the ground but can also be part of the improving attack bringing out more variations as the weeks go on.

This weekend it’s the turn of Nick Tompkins and Joe Roberts; a noticeably smaller centre duo with plenty of commitment in them but just physiologically lacking that physical punch brought last weekend. They will need to be at their skilful and speedy best, as well as leading the kick chase on an afternoon where Wales will put boot-to-ball a lot.

With Keiran Williams waiting off the bench, as well as Mason Grady and Johnny Williams no doubt keen for a test start, it will be interesting to see what Gatland does against South Africa in the final warm-up.