LONG READ Wales brace themselves for French invasion knowing they simply have to do better

The only way is up, the singer Yazz once informed the world. The Wales rugby team are about to find out if there is any truth in that sentiment. After Saturday’s 48-7 misadventure at Twickenham, Steve Tandy’s players host a France side who looked imperious at times against Ireland.

For those who missed the Thursday evening encounter in Paris, Fabien Galthie’s men threatened to reduce the visitors to dust as they swept into a 29-0 lead, with giant forwards tearing through tackles and multi-skilled backs displaying both power and pace. It was high-velocity rugby from a team playing as only the French can.

Credit Ireland for rallying late on, but the damage had already been done.

Now it’s Wales’ turn to try to step into the ring against this year’s Six Nations championship favourites.

You wonder what Tandy makes of it all.

Sport is supposed to offer rolling shots at redemption, but Wales have played New Zealand, South Africa and England on the bounce, with France now licking their lips, tucking napkins under chins and clutching sharpened knives and forks. Little wonder in his Wales preview for Radio Times Dan Biggar told the magazine he was “disappointed the fixtures have fallen as they have”. Truly, it’s as if the rugby gods want Wales’ agonies to be drawn out.

The question is whether Tandy and his coaches can guide the team back to a semblance of respectability.

In a pub watching Wales play Scotland at Murrayfield in 1997, this writer cursed himself for being stuck in a deep queue at the bar during a six-minute spell when the visitors scored three tries. The following day a journalist described the burst as “possibly the most important six minutes of the decade for Wales”: six minutes of action that I missed while trying to order five lagers, a cider and a couple of bags of crisps.

Anyway, history shows the big Welsh win in Edinburgh that day turned out to be a false dawn, one of many during the period.

But nowadays Wales don’t seem to see any dawns, false or otherwise.

How bad was the first half against England last weekend? Very bad, but – small mercies ahoy – it wasn’t the worst 40 minutes the national side has ever produced, despite what some have been saying.

Staying top of that particular chart is the second stanza against South Africa in Pretoria in 1998. Minus the 18 players who absented themselves from the tour, Wales went into that game with their chances of victory roughly in the same ballpark as Inspector Clouseau tracking down the Zodiac killer. But, still, losing the final 40 minutes 65-7 was a poor effort.

Just as going 29-0 down before the break at Twickenham was unacceptably bad. Tandy inherited a mess, but five games into the former flanker’s reign Wales remain marooned in the territory of awfulness, light years from where their coach would want them to be.

His immediate challenge is to come up with the fixes needed to make Wales competitive for the game with France. Based on last weekend, if he succeeds in that particular challenge, his work could come under consideration by the Minor Miracles Department.

But let’s see how Sunday in Cardiff plays out.

Here are areas where Wales need to improve, and quickly.

Tighten up discipline, fast

France conceded just four penalties against Ireland, while Wales incurred the wrath of the referee four times in the opening seven minutes against England, and gave up 16 penalties all told, nine of them in the first quarter.

There were also four yellow cards in the Welsh mix, including one for Taine Plumtree, who has now been dispatched to the cooler in each of his last three Tests and six times in all matches for club and country this season, making him the most sin-binned player of the campaign across Europe. For the avoidance of doubt, that’s not a plus.

Nor was Saturday a one-off for Wales, with 10 yellows and a red coming over the last five games. It’s unfair to call Tandy’s troops the Wild Bunch, but they need to learn the importance of staying within the rules. It can be the difference between being competitive and being caned.

Four minutes into the game at Twickenham Wales had a promising attacking position, only for Dafydd Jenkins to be pinged for illegal blocking at a lineout and Archie Griffin to be penalised for running an escort line off a box-kick. In seconds Wales were defending their own line instead of laying siege to England’s. Another penalty concession followed, with England taking advantage to score the opening try. If Tandy didn’t bang the table in front of him in frustration, he had every right to.

More of the same followed.

Overall, Wales’ discipline was miles from where it should have been.

Shore up a porous defence

Wales were playing the Barbarians during Warren Gatland’s first incarnation as Welsh coach and the strategy was to contain the opposition captain Sergio Parisse. “Put the heat on him,” said the then Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards.

Josh Turnbull asked: “Shall we have a call for that?”

In his book, Open Side, Sam Warburton relates: “Shaun looks at him like he’s mad. ‘Get up and f**king twat him. That’s that call’.”

Are you sure you are clear on that one, Josh?

Defence, assuredly, is a state of mind.

John Barclay said as much on the BBC this week when he suggested Tandy needed to focus on things that are easiest to fix. “First up: tackling,” said Barclay. “Defence is much easier to do than attack – it’s more of a mindset. If you’re Wales defence coach, you’re looking at the lack of intent in the tackle. That’s not a skill decision, that’s a mindset decision. How do we get in front of people? How do we slow them down? Let’s fix our defence, let’s be a hard team to play against, let’s not give away easy wins.”

Edwards did a quick repair job in 2008 after taking over a defence that had previously been weak. In the Six Nations that followed, Wales leaked only two tries and missed just 25 tackles over five games, their defensive glitches fixed quickly. Injured players even hauled themselves off the floor during matches to take their places in the defensive line. The culture change had to be seen to be believed.

Tandy needs to oversee a similar mindset shift. He is highly regarded himself for defensive expertise and has been-there-and-done-it help on hand in the shape of Dan Lydiate.

But at least four of England’s tries saw them exploit questionable Welsh defensive work.

Wales have to be better in the matter of making tackles.

Locate the missing attack plan

This area didn’t attract much attention in the post-match wash-up because Wales were so lamentable elsewhere. But it is worth noting that the glimpses of flowing rugby evident against Argentina and New Zealand in the autumn were nowhere to be seen at Twickenham.

A low came when Ben Thomas’ intended pass out the back to Louis Rees-Zammit failed to get anywhere near the full-back, allowing Henry Arundell to race clear for a try. Thomas, a nice footballer, can’t be blamed for trying something different, but his execution wasn’t great in that instance.

The Welsh forwards were off the pace throughout, losing collisions and unable to consistently secure their own ball. No team can attack off such a rickety platform.  When possession did come back, Wales lacked a strike runner at 12 to get over the gain-line.

At times it seemed like Rees-Zammit was their only attacking weapon.

Cut the errors at the lineout

Welsh lineout woes are not new. Possibly they were talking about them in the days of penny farthings, top hats, penny blacks and gas lighting.

But the effort against England was mediocre by any standard, with Wales winning just 76 percent of their own ball, nowhere near good enough in Test rugby.

A couple of throws were picked off by outstanding English poaching – Alex Coles snaffled one ahead of Dafydd Jenkins, while the 6ft 7in Ollie Chessum reached higher than the 6ft 3in Alex Mann – while at least one other should have been claimed by a Welsh jumper.

As thrower, Dewi Lake should take some of the blame, but the lineout involves multiple moving parts and it wasn’t so long ago that some were labelling Ryan Elias as the anti-William Tell with his arrows.

The Amalgamated Society of Hookers would doubtless note that the poor No 2 always seems to cop it when the set-piece goes wrong.

Still, there is scope for Lake to improve.

In time, maybe the 6ft 5in Dragons blindside Ryan Woodman, an effective burglar of opposition ball in the URC, will come through to add another lineout option, or perhaps Taine Plumtree, if he properly acquaints himself with the notion of discipline, can give the Wales thrower an extra target.

But an improvement won’t just happen. Wales have to make it happen.

Get the selection calls right

It’s contentious: it always is. Wading through the comments section beneath a rugby story online on Tuesday, this writer had to give up, feeling more than a bit battered by a) the strength of opinions and b) the sheer number of names thrown into the selection mix.

We can at least say it shows some still care.

What we can also note with certainty is that not many players came out of the Twickenham debacle with their reputations enhanced.

Aaron Wainwright did, with the No 8 head, shoulders, knees and shins above the other starters, while Louis Rees-Zammit did much more good than bad, even if he might be better employed in his old position of wing; Harri Deaves added energy, plenty of it, and Rhys Carre carried well.

But there wasn’t much else to get excited about.

Wales could have helped themselves by including in their squad Angus O’Brien, a full back with vision and a big kicking game. They also need to sort out their midfield defence. Owen Watkin has been mentioned as an option, and while he hasn’t ripped up trees by the orchard-full, the 43-cap Osprey is solid and right now Wales need solid more than pretty. The immediate goal should be to become harder to beat.

Eddie James’s closest relatives might have struggled to spot him on the pitch in London, so little ball did he see at outside centre. Plenty feel he has more to offer at 12, perhaps alongside Watkin, with maybe Mason Grady moving up to start out wide.

Wales also need to add ballast to their back five. Arguably, they missed a beat by omitting the likes of Ross Moriarty and Jake Ball from their original squad. Morgan Morse has also fallen out of favour, but he is an explosive young player who makes things happen. It would still be a surprise if he wasn’t involved at the next World Cup.

All this is subjective, of course.

But pick the wrong side and a coach doesn’t give himself a chance.

Tandy has to get his selection right for France.

Talent is coming through, if it’s nurtured correctly

There was cause for mild Welsh rugby encouragement amid the ruins of last weekend.

Wales U20s produced one of their strongest displays for some time when running England mightily close at Franklin’s Gardens. Among the players who caught the eye were the highly rated hooker Tom Howe, only 18 but mature beyond his years and impactful with it, and back-rower Deian Gwynne, who led the way with 19 carries. Behind, fly-half Carwyn Leggatt-Jones, also just 18, was charged down a couple of times and needs time to develop his decision-making, but his promise shone through in the opening half especially, when he helped Wales build a commanding 16-0 lead.

A dot of hope for the future, then, but the seniors have it all to do this weekend (against a backdrop of off-field chaos, it is worth adding, another factor which isn’t helping anyone in the Welsh game).

Anyway, it is still early days for the head coach, but he will know it isn’t enough to have players responding well in training and saying nice things about the environment. The acid test is whether performances improve on the pitch.

At some point over the next month, that needs to happen.