Posted by What can you say? 17 straight test defeats – the worst run of any tier one nation in the professional era – a record Six Nations loss, most points conceded at home in history, most points conceded to England. Record breaking in all the wrong ways.
There’s no need to delve into the game in any way other than confirming the score. Cymru 14-68 England. It tells the tale more than adequately. The question is what can we learn from the 2025 Guinness Six Nations as a whole from a Welsh perspective?
Firstly, there’s no damage to Matt Sherratt’s reputation. The Cardiff Head Coach took on the impossible job of jumping in mid-tournament and steering a group already with 14 straight test losses under their belts towards some semblance of cohesion. That was evident against Ireland, and in-part against Scotland, but impossible to show off against a brutal English performance.
He may look back on some selection decisions with a tinge of regret, favouring consistency over tinkering according to opposition and form, but when push comes to shove the conclusion has to be that with only around nine full-on training sessions involving the entire squad, there simply was nowhere near the time to undo Warren Gatland and Rob Howley’s errors and implement the detail required to play his way.
Above all though, Jockey has handled himself impeccably. The way he has spoken to the media, tried to enthuse supporters with the style of attack and talking up the quality of players, and what being Interim head Coach has clearly meant to him and his family, has been a really refreshing change at the top.
That leads me on nicely to my second takeaway from the tournament – Cymru simply cannot dominate teams physically anymore.
For multiple reasons around genetics, population size and the development pathway, both in and out of the control of the Welsh Rugby Union and the four professional clubs, we as a country are not producing with enough regularity players that are skilled and big enough to play test level rugby and be physically dominant.
There will be some who fit that mould, but nowhere the near the number for the pack to be consistently on top of opposition such as England, Ireland and France, never mind South Africa. However, that doesn’t mean Cymru never win a test match ever again. It needs fresh and innovative thinking, and a new Head Coach coming in with time to implement a style of play that suits the players we have.
“I’m not a coach who is going to say we lack power. My job is to find a different way. Perhaps as a nation we need to have better ball movement, better shape, try get one-v-ones and play a faster game. The players’ conditioning and training week has to be all around that. You can’t coach power but you can coach players to be technically better, play faster, get more one-v-ones and transitional moments.”
That was Sherratt in his post-game press conference on Saturday, and he’s spot on. The aforementioned limited time in the hot seat obviously prevented him from implementing that, especially with the major turnaround it presents from Gatland’s direct and pragmatic ethos of old.
In a surprisingly joined up way that further leads me on to my third point which is, simply, we do have the players to turn this around.
Despite the results we have seen the emergence of a handful of talented players with a great age profile over the last two months as Teddy Williams, Ben Thomas, Ellis Mee and Blair Murray have stood out as ones to keep an eye on, as well as debuts for Freddie Thomas and Dan Edwards who will no doubt be keen to further demonstrate their obvious ability from the summer onwards.
Of the existing players the likes of Nicky Smith, Dafydd Jenkins and Jac Morgan all demonstrated their continued improvement, Dewi Lake and Max Llewellyn also stepped up as genuine physical options in the front row and midfield, respectively.
While the Six Nations was on Ospreys won away at Glasgow, Scarlets should have won away at Ulster and Cardiff were competitive for 70 minutes at undefeated Leinster in games that not too long ago at all we would have been swept aside in, demonstrating a depth to the player pool in the country.
It’s now all eyes on Westgate Street and the WRU. The next few months are absolutely crucial. Even leaving aside reforms of the professional game and investment in the pathway, it is absolutely imperative that the governing body get the men’s rugby management structure correct without bloating it, and get the men’s Head Coach appointment correct.
There needs to be joined up thinking around playing style, a strategy built to implement that and competent individuals in place to execute it. Without that it won’t actually matter whether there are four, three, two or no pro clubs in the country, the whole thing will be down the drain anyway if the losing streak continues leading to supporters and sponsors voting with their feet and wallets.
“Never waste a good crisis” was Gwyn Jones’ comment on the Scrum V Podcast, perhaps a non-BBC translation is more effective though – don’t fuck this up.
Cardiff Rugby Life 