Posted by Steve Tandy will celebrate a year in charge of Cymru when the men in red take the field against Japan on Saturday, and yet despite 12 months being a long time in sport there is no consensus among journalists, observers and supporters on if he’s doing a good, bad or indifferent job.
The background against which he came into the job is well publicised with just one win in the previous 19 test matches, Welsh rugby in disarray off the field as the Welsh Rugby Union began the process of possibly cutting the number of professional clubs, and a player pool that lacked depth, quality and experience.
In the subsequent year that Tandy has held the role there have continued to be elements outside of his control that have hindered his ability to make progress, most notably the composition of the coaching staff. Danny Wilson and Matt Sherratt have been in place since the outset, but Pete Murchie and Paul James only arrived for the summer and Alex Davies will join the camp for the first time for this autumn window.
What we’ve seen whilst all these pieces fall into place are some up-and-down performances; the defeats at the hands of South Africa, Argentina, France and England have been pretty heavy, but there were moments of positivity in losing causes against New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland, while Fiji and Japan have both been beaten albeit not totally convincingly.
Now though there appears to be a brief moment of stability as Cymru fully enter the build up to the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
Tandy has his coaching ticket in place and contracted through that tournament in Australia, all four Welsh professional clubs have signed up to PRA25 giving them assurance of existing through to the summer of 2028, and a decent percentage of the player pool have upped sticks and settled in England while remaining available for national team selection.
So with those largely uncontrollable elements now somewhat silenced, for 18 months at least, attention can switch to the performance of the men in red. That begins with the upcoming culmination of the Nations Championship with Japan, New Zealand and Australia coming to Cardiff before a play-off game against the equivalent southern hemisphere finisher at Twickenham.
The Cherry Blossoms are first up and this is the really crucial game for Tandy & co. Last November Eddie Jones’ men were snuck past thanks to a late Jarrod Evans kick for a 24-23 win, that coming on the back of the 22-31 victory in Kobe under Matt Sherratt the previous summer.
Winning is non-negotiable for Cymru, but what is really required is a comfortable win. That doesn’t necessarily mean putting 50 points on Japan or winning by 30 – although that would be great – but it means controlling the game from the outset, getting ahead and managing well, being clinical in attack when chances present themselves and restricting the opposition to as few 22 entries as possible.
It would be nice, and somewhat novel, to watch the national team play without any major stress across the 80 minutes, knowing they are in charge and cruising towards a good victory. With the team Tandy has selected avoiding the temptation to give any of Taine Basham, Che Hope and Macs Page an opportunity, a close to first choice 23 need to prove they are noticeably better than the Japanese.
After that the New Zealand game is something of a free hit as the All Blacks have really picked up again under Dave Rennie and will be too much for Cymru, but Australia in week three then provide the best opportunity to understand exactly where the team is.
The Wallabies under Les Kiss have undoubtedly improved, as could be seen in wins over Argentina and South Africa in the last few months, but at the start of the summer they lost to Ireland and a much-changed France side at home, before their two most recent games have been back-to-back comprehensive Bledisloe Cup defeats.
Tandy’s side aren’t necessarily expected to win against Australia, although a major scalp would be huge for the confidence of the team and the narrative surrounding them, but going toe-to-toe with them for 80 minutes and keeping within a score or 10 points would be a statement within itself that Cymru are pushing towards competing with teams at the next level up from Japan or Fiji.
That would then need to be doubled down on in that play-off round at Twickenham where the Cherry Blossoms or Flying Fijians are the likely opponents, starting and finishing the month with comfortable wins either side of a free shot against New Zealand and a chance to prove the trajectory is upwards against Australia.
Should Cymru fail to get two wins, or even limp to two wins and get thumped by New Zealand and Australia, then questions will begin to be asked around just how competitive the side can be at the World Cup, let alone a “blues away” Six Nations where the schedule tends to be less than kind.
It’s a tone setting month the like of which hasn’t been seen for a while going into a huge 12 months for Steve Tandy. Excuses are running out now, it’s time to produce on the field and prove this team can push on into the knockout stages come next October.
