From boy to Mann

Rewind two years and it seemed that Alex Mann had the world at his feet; captain of Wales U20 for two successive seasons, a Cardiff first team debut off the bench against Harlequins in the Champions Cup and set to take senior rugby by storm.

As the start of the 2022/23 came and went though, there was no sign of the flanker in any squad at the Arms Park. He had been pictured training with the first team, and was named in the Rags playing group for the Indigo Group Premiership campaign, but it wouldn’t be until November that he pulled on the Blue and Blacks jersey at the semi-professional level for the first time.

After that game time would be managed carefully as the Aberdare product was carefully brought through into senior rugby, roughly playing every other week for the Rags as Steve Law’s men won the Welsh Cup and topped the league table. In the moment it seemed a bit odd, but once the start of the current season rolled around it all made sense.

The Alex Mann that led Wales U20 for those two years across 2021 and 2022 was a wiry “6.5” of a player, essentially somewhere between a blindside and an openside. A good jackal option, a lineout jumper and someone who could read the game well, but was emblematic of a young Welsh pack that was beaten up by their larger Irish, English and French counterparts.

Now 22 though, the player who has broken into the Cardiff first team this season is a different beast.

He’s noticeably physically bigger and uses that extra power intelligently. He can spot an opportunity to rip possession or hold the ball carrier up in contact, or identify a counter ruck chance in midfield, giving him a varied arsenal of methods with which to effect turnovers or disrupt the opposition.

I’m not going to suggest Mann will be a destroyer of a blindside in the manner of a Ross Moriarty or Christ Tshiunza, but he already brings a level of physicality to the position that will only improve as he gets older. Alongside that, he can make impacts on the game across the park defensively.

While Mann has bulked up and added another layer of physicality to his game, he has retained the athleticism which makes him a Swiss Army Knife of a player on the blindside. His pace and engine get him right around the field leading to the unsurprising stat that he is the top tackler in the United Rugby Championship this season with 114 despite only playing in seven of the nine rounds.

An average of 16 tackles per game is a huge return, and when you had in the turnovers too, particularly the two above in crucial positions on the field, it all adds up to a player who is capable of repeated efforts and big moments in a game.

With those nuts and bolts down in the defensive game, and retaining his lineout jumping ability, Mann layers that up with handling skills and an innate ability to identify space in the attacking game that is a real point of difference as a back row forward.

Mann spent three years on the books of the Cardiff City Academy as a youngster, and that time spent playing football at a good level appears to have given him the vision and understanding to identify and create space for those around him with his movement and manipulation of defenders.

His pre-contact footwork is probably the best I’ve ever seen from a back rower at the Arms Park, leaving defenders sat on their heels and giving him the opportunity to either carry at weak shoulders, get some go-forward ball and a chance to produce an offload, or draw in outside defenders and move the ball away from the point of contact for team-mates to exploit the space.

An international call-up has probably come sooner than even the player himself would have imagined, as injuries and unavailability strike the Wales pack, but as he prepares for a test match week there’s no doubt that from a skill level and mentality perspective he is ready to make the step up if required.

Like a lot of the younger members of the squad it may take some adjusting to the Six Nations, but he will not crumble. If the pack is balanced correctly for the opposition, Alex Mann will always give himself an opportunity to have a positive impact on a game. Hopefully he does that for Cardiff and Wales for many years to come.