LONG READ Fully-loaded Wales look to build momentum as they aim to make winning a habit

A former Netherlands football manager once declared: “You do not judge Pavarotti by how he sings in the shower. You wait until he is on stage.”

Friendlies and warm-ups, then – how much should we read into them?

Attending a wedding on Sunday, this writer found plenty of people happy to cast a condemnatory eye over Wales after their hit-out against the Barbarians 24 hours earlier. “Scratchy,” one guest offered. “Underwhelming,” agreed another. If it were the equivalent of singing in the shower, the Welsh performance hit too many bum notes for many to call for an encore.

Yet Wales secured a win and the match was an opportunity for Steve Tandy to learn more about his players. The head coach was also without 13 squad members who are based in England and France, with the match falling outside the international window. Tandy will hope that it will be a different and improved Wales who take the stage in the Nations Championship opener against Fiji in Cardiff on Saturday.

One Welsh player who did impress many of the invitees spoken to at the aforementioned nuptials was one George Philip North, winner of 121 Wales caps and four Six Nations titles, including two Grand Slams, and who featured at four World Cups. Sadly from a Welsh perspective, the big man was featuring in Barbarians colours while signing off as a rugby player, and leaving on his terms and in trademark style, with two tries, the first of which saw the 6ft 4in, 17st 5lb unit from Anglesey steam-train his way through the Wales defence, with poor Ellis Mee and Dan Edwards unable to do diddly squat about it.

The pair can console themselves that plenty of others have failed to stop an in-the-mood North. Recall Ireland finding him beyond troublesome in 2017, when the British and Irish Lion scored two tries, and New Zealand’s rearguard conceding six clean breaks to the Welshman a year earlier. Every time North received the ball in that encounter at Eden Park, he sent a tremor through the All Blacks’ defence.

So Messrs Mee and Edwards are in decent company, and both are young players. They will not come up against a George North every Saturday, and, anyway, the old adage tells us that acquiring experience is rarely a peaceful process – especially when your opponent is built like a brick outhouse and intent on finishing his career with a dominant display.

“I know it’s an exhibition game, but why is he going now?” asked Phil Steele about North in red-button commentary for S4C. “He still looks like he could do a bit.” Plenty of others would have posed the same question. But, evidently, an authentic Welsh rugby hall-of-famer has seen a world beyond playing – one that will allow him to spend more time with his family and perhaps more hours out on the highways and byways indulging his long-time passion for motorbikes. There are also business interests for him to pursue: he is co-owner of motorcycle-inspired destination café and lifestyle brand Baffle Haus. Few will not wish him well after all he has given Welsh rugby since debuting for his country as a teenager in 2010.

But let’s return to the not-inconsiderable challenges Wales will face in the coming weeks, starting with the fixture against the Fijians at the Cardiff City Stadium, followed by testing away encounters in Argentina and South Africa.

In a perfect world, Dafydd Jenkins would have been at the heart of the Welsh effort this summer. Sadly, any coach who has ever picked a squad knows that perfection in matters of selection is rarely attainable. So it was at 12.40 pm on Tuesday that a text from the Welsh Rugby Union pinged with the news that the 6ft 7in, 18st 6lb Exeter Chiefs lock and captain would miss the entire series because of injury. Sugar-coat it all you want – as blows go, this one is of the hefty variety.

For Jenkins has had a towering campaign with his club and is showing signs of emerging as a player of stature, capable of lifting others with his mere presence, a quality that once elevated Alun Wyn Jones. To a coach, his sort is invaluable.

But he will be recovering from planned shoulder surgery over the coming weeks and Wales need someone else to step up in the middle of their pack, presumably alongside Ben Carter, who continues to polish his reputation as one of the hardest-working defenders available to Tandy, with a whopping 20 tackles against the BaaBaas. Teddy Williams also chipped in with a double-figure haul of hits and did his share of taking the ball forward, but would it be greedy to ask for Wales’s locks to do more carrying?

Wales’s starting props didn’t exactly register big numbers when it came to runs with the ball, either; there again, Dillon Lewis and Gareth Thomas had their hands full trying to deal with the power scrummaging of Gia Kharaishvili and Vincent Koch. With no proven Test-class reinforcements in the squad to anchor the tighthead side of the set-piece, especially, the potential for issues in the games ahead is obvious.

Maybe Wales’s new permanent scrum doctor Paul James will somehow find a way. Perhaps he will look at the way the Scarlets cleverly neutralised the Bulls’ dominant scrum in the URC game in Llanelli in April, with the west Walians prioritising channel one ball and getting possession away so quickly the opposition didn’t have the chance to turn the Welsh set-piece to penalty-conceding rubble. Whatever, it will be a test for James and for those who are wearing the red No. 1 and No. 3 jerseys, which will be Rhys Carre and Lewis for the first outing this weekend against Fiji.

James is not alone when it comes to facing challenges. Much the same applies to new defence boss Peter Murchie after the game with the Baa-Baas.

Edwards and Mee may have been on the wrong end of some North treatment, but others also encountered difficulties. Indeed, of the Wales starting lineup, only Gareth Thomas, Dewi Lake and Aaron Wainwright completed every tackle they attempted.

Phil Steele on comms told a story about a former hooker who reckoned being part of a Barbarians squad was akin to “being on a five-day stag weekend with a Test match at the end of it.” Rest and relaxation featuring high on the itinerary or not, the group skippered by Faf de Klerk caused the Welsh defence a fair few problems with their impact in contact. Fiji, it is to be expected, will offer more of the same, without having spent the build-up carousing.

Pluses for Tandy moving forward? Aaron Wainwright and Jac Morgan put in immense shifts in the back row, while Taine Plumtree caught the eye with his work in the lineouts and some purposeful carrying. Okay, he doesn’t have a sidestep to match Christ Tshiunza, but few back rowers have. Plumtree is a player who has moments, and he will be expected to make an impact from the bench, with Alex Mann filling the No 6 berth from the off. In fairness, he conceded only one penalty and managed an afternoon without being carded – not bad for a player who saw more yellows than any other player in European rugby during the regular season.

But maybe we can agree that back row isn’t an area of concern for the Red Dragons, with Mann, James Botham and Tommy Reffell providing good options alongside Wainwright, Morgan and Plumtree over the coming weeks. There’s also Kane James to consider. Encouragingly, the word is the new boy has made an instant impact, with attack coach Matt Sherratt saying: “He’s really busy, very powerful, quick, has a good skillset – it’s the first time I’ve seen that up close – and his soft skills are very good.” Honeyed words from a coach at a press-conference are not always a reliable indicator of short-term selection plans, but in James Wales could have found a player who could contribute a lot over the coming seasons.

There were also some bright moments from Wales’s two scrum-halves in London. Kieran Hardy snaffled a well-taken touchdown and came up with two top-drawer try assists that showcased skill and vision, while Rueben Morgan-Williams made the scoreboard via a dummy so audacious it might have prompted the thought that Morgan went one way and Williams the other.

A mixed bag for Tandy and his coaches to ponder, then, ahead of the serious stuff ahead.

Fiji will offer a dose of high-end physicality that Wales will need to find a way of countering, while Argentina are not a top-five team in the world rankings for nothing and South Africa do not need any writing up.

The coaches will maybe see possibilities for the opener, in Cardiff and against a team who haven’t played together since facing Spain nine months ago, but the other two Tests will be a flight or two up in terms of challenges.

If Wales are competitive in those, they will have done well.

Exceptionally well.

Wales XV to face Fiji: B Murray (Scarlets), L Rees-Zammit (Bristol), E James, J Hawkins (both Scarlets), J Adams (Cardiff), D Edwards (Ospreys), T Williams (Saracens), R Carre (Saracens), D Lake (Gloucester, capt), D Lewis, B Carter (both Dragons), A Beard (Montpellier), A Mann (Cardiff), J Morgan (Gloucester), A Wainwright (Leicester).

Replacements: R Elias (Scarlets), N Smith (Sale), B Warren (Ospreys), T Plumtree (Scarlets), J Botham (Cardiff), K Hardy (Ospreys), S Costelow, E Mee (both Scarlets).