LONG READ Why the Welsh ex-pat contingent should give Steve Tandy hope

The late, great Mervyn Davies once fondly recalled how he had been part of a group of London-based Wales internationals who would rise at 4am, pile into a classic Mini and bomb across the border for national squad training.

Travelling with the 6ft 5in Merve the Swerve were club-mates JPR Williams, John Taylor, John Dawes and Mike Roberts, all sardined into the tiny car, with Geoff Evans occasionally making the Sunday trip depending on selection. They would train with Wales before driving straight back to London to be at their day jobs on Monday morning.

The past, as they say, is a foreign country; they do things differently there.

Welsh players illuminating the English club scene isn’t new, but the suspicion is there will be a shade more comfort on offer for Nicky Smith, Tomas Francis, Aaron Wainwright and Tommy Reffell if they are required to journey across the Severn Bridge for Wales squad duties in the coming weeks.

Much the same goes for Jac Morgan, Dewi Lake, Louis Rees-Zammit, Kane James and Dafydd Jenkins. “Bunch up, Daf, there’s not much room in the back,” are not words anyone is likely to hear from Rees-Zammit any time soon.

Different times, indeed.

But the impact the Welsh exiles of 2026 are making across the border will delight Wales coach Steve Tandy every bit as much as his predecessor Clive Rowlands relished the ethereal displays of the London Welsh brigade in their early 1970s pomp.

Maybe we can say the best showing of the lot so far this term came from Tomos Williams for Saracens against Leicester.

He didn’t just showcase flashes of individual brilliance, he also controlled matters with rare authority. After the game ended, you were left feeling that had the 75-cap scrum-half been handed traffic control duties at the Place de l’Etoile for the afternoon, he would have brought calm to the craziest roundabout in Europe.

Lake started life at his new club with a player-of-the-match display for Gloucester against Exeter, while Tommy Reffell received the same accolade after completing 29 tackles and winning four turnovers for Leicester Tigers in their win over Newcastle Red Bulls.

Talking of stats, Rees-Zammit deserves to be brought into the discussion with two tries, five clean breaks, seven defenders beaten and 79 metres made for Bristol against Harlequins.

Talking of stats, Rees-Zammit deserves to be brought into the discussion with two tries, five clean breaks, seven defenders beaten and 79 metres made for Bristol against Harlequins. At times, the Londoners could have been forgiven for feeling there were three Rees-Zammits on the pitch.

All this plus exceptionally strong efforts from Morgan, Wainwright, James and Smith.

Grounds for encouragement for Tandy, then? Absolutely.

And yet it’s still hard to imagine reports any time soon of the coach shouting ‘bring on the world’ to anyone who is willing to listen. First, because braggadocio isn’t Tandy’s style; second, because he will know that in certain areas Wales still lack elite-level depth.

Tomas Francis showed in the Six Nations he could still anchor a scrum. But if he’s tweezered from the board, Wales would hit tighthead problems on an industrial scale: because without him, there is no ready-made, mature No. 3 capable of holding his own against the best. Coach-speak might spin such a scenario as an ‘opportunity’ for someone else, but make no mistake – Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard would look in a healthier state than Tandy’s.

At fly-half, Dan Edwards, Sam Costelow and Jarrod Evans were the favoured sons last term, but ask three different Welsh supporters who should wear the 10 shirt and you’ll get three different answers. Divided opinions are not new when debating the Welsh fly-half position, but it’s hard to argue anyone has truly claimed the shirt in this era.

What of numbers behind Blair Murray at full-back, especially now Rees-Zammit has made clear he wants to play on the wing, where the jet-propelled one is so obviously happiest and most dangerous? Dragons youngster Huw Anderson has much going for him, but Wales evidently need to see more.

Do Wales have enough big ball-carriers in their pack or enough ready-to-go locks piling pressure on each other?

There are further questions at centre. Joe Hawkins featured at 12 for much of the Six Nations, but he’s started the URC campaign on the bench for the Scarlets, who seem to prefer the hard-running Eddie James in the role, notwithstanding that Tandy and Matt Sherratt have been employing him at 13.

Also, do Wales have enough big ball-carriers in their pack or enough ready-to-go locks piling pressure on each other? Former Wales scrum-half Brynmor Williams used to say that when he took the field on a Saturday he’d know there were six or seven rivals doing the same and all with designs on the national No. 9 shirt. Competition on such a scale lifts standards.

But Tandy will reason that barely 12 months ago, he was handed not so much an unsorted jigsaw as one with the pieces strewn across the floor. Putting it all together takes skill, patience and time.

On the domestic front, there have been quietly uplifting signs. If the relatively undersized Murray still has work to do to be the man most would like to see in catching position if they were forced to leap from a tall building, the Scarlets full-back has many other fine attributes, foremost among them his running, which is smooth, quick and incisive.

He can also kick and supplies the antidote to the lack of creativity around him in the Wales backline. In two games for his region this term, he has already beaten 11 defenders and made close on 140 metres.

Operating at 12, James has looked powerful and there have been bright wing efforts from his team-mate Macs Page, Cardiff’s Tom Bowen and the Dragons’ Rio Dyer. Page’s try against the Dragons was special: collecting some 65 metres out, the diminutive Scarlet burned past the initial cover on an outside arc, regathered his own chip ahead and touched down.

Tandy has many back-row options, including Kane James, whose display for Exeter against Bath was startling for a player starting only his second game of Premiership rugby.

The west Walian needs to tighten his defence, but he has attacking gifts to spare and is a player who has the knack of producing memorable moments.

Even so, maybe the more seasoned Dyer will have extra appeal for the Wales selectors at this stage, particularly after his effort with ball in hand last weekend.

At times, it seemed Scarlets players had come across an obscure by-law prohibiting tackling on Rio Dyer between the hours of 3pm and 5pm on Saturdays. By full-time, he had beaten 10 defenders.

Wing is an area where Wales do have a number of candidates for places, so we can’t say for sure if Dyer will make the cut. But his effort against the Scarlets amounted to no small nudge in the ribs for Tandy.

Harrison Keddie and Taine Basham have also caught the eye, with Basham a Welsh forward who does know how to carry ball. But Tandy has many back-row options, including Kane James, whose display for Exeter against Bath was startling for a player starting only his second game of Premiership rugby.

No doubt Che Hope will rate a mention in the scrum-half deliberations, as well, albeit Tomos Williams, Kieran Hardy and Reuben Morgan-Williams are established options.

A low-pressure system that stubbornly refuses to shift, then, but with the odd break in the grey. One win will be the minimum requirement for mild positivity this autumn; two successes will be properly encouraging; three will lead to calls for a Tandy statue to be erected in Cardiff city centre and the man himself to be OBE’d before the month is out.

The coach will not be looking that far ahead.

There may not be a crowded Mini in sight in the modern-day Wales set-up. But the right road? That’s what Tandy and his players will be looking to find over the coming weeks.

The autumn will tell us much about where Wales are heading.