Posted by At the start of the Cymru D20 Six Nations campaign I wrote a piece about how the excitement building for the named squad could translate into a third-placed finish for the first time in seven years.
However, what I forgot to factor into that was France, England and Ireland.
At D20 level they reign supreme in the northern hemisphere. The size of their population, the strength of private schools and Academies, and the focus of their senior domestic set ups mean that by the time their young players reach this level they are big, fast, fit and skilful, and have a good amount of senior rugby experience under their belt.
Compare all those with Cymru, and it seems as if we might never be fully competitive again at D20. Without significant investment into the development pathway at an earlier stage than it currently begins, we will struggle to make up the natural advantages those three countries have. In truth, it would be a challenge even with that investment, but the Welsh Rugby Union won’t or can’t invest anyway.
In the end it was a fourth place finish for Richard Whiffin’s men, after bookend wins over Scotland and Italy, but the campaign was much more successful than the table would suggest for the men in red.
As a starting point there was no lack of fight or desire from the group on the field. Even when on the end of heavy scorelines against Ireland and France there was never less than 100% given, against England we prevented them scoring the fourth try until the 73rd minute, and that reflected in our ability to launch a match-winning comeback against the Italians in the final round.
That bodes well as it hasn’t always been obviously the case that Cymru D20 playing groups are the tightest on the field, but this crop of players certainly didn’t let themselves or each other take a backwards step without resistance.
It feeds into the development as a team, where the set piece noticeably improved after the course of the five games, the defence remained largely solid outside of opposition packs simply being bigger, and the attack noticeably improved to the point of scoring 27 points in a half at the Arms Park.
Then finally it is on an individual basis where Whiffin and his coaching staff will have been most pleased with the development over the course of the Six Nations.
During the first few rounds of the competition there were more experienced heads running out in the form of Jonny Green, Lucas De La Rua, Morgan Morse, Harri Ackerman and Louie Hennessey, all of whom showed their personal growth from the previous year and developed relationships in key positions such as back row and centre.
Then, as the tournament progressed, the wider squad was given the opportunity and stepped up, resulting in 35 players being used over the course of the games. The starting XV against Italy in round five showed nine changes from that which started against Scotland in round one.
The significance of this will be seen in the summer at the World Rugby U20 Championship, where the coaches have a strong group of players to select their squad from and have a significant amount of time in camp to improve again, hopefully giving us an outside chance of turning over one of France or New Zealand to reach the semi-finals. It’s still a long shot, but that’s where the Cymru D20 programme is now.
Essentially the Six Nations has become a long pre-season campaign in order to get the players together, have a look at them in training and game scenarios, work on the training field, and trial the squad for the summer tournament.
With that in mind, the 2024 Championship has given Cymru the best base we’ve had in a few years before going to South Africa.
Cardiff Rugby Life 