You cannot be a good coach if you are not a good selector, the former believed Australia team leader. Some might say that the lad in question would say as much, wouldn’t you, given that the Wallabies players at the time included Mark Ella, David Campese, Michael Lynagh and Nick Farr-Jones – there weren’t terribly tough decisions there.
Still, the point is fair.
Successive Wales the coaches made Rob Howley wait until he was 25 before awarding him his first cap, although he didn’t so much raise the odd tree for Cardiff and Bridgend as whole forests.
Allan Bateman made his Test debut just three days before his 25th birthday: what was it all about? This writer watched the brilliant center play as a youngster for Maesteg in the late 1980s, commanding a defense with the authority of a 50-wicket veteran and runs that could confound Pythagoras, and could not understand why he was apparently invisible to the national selectors. Electric speed over 20 metres, the ability to knife through a gap, a trademark tackling tackle – didn’t Wales want their best players?
Everything is subjective, of course. But coaches make or break their choices, and it’s certain that they’ll never please everyone – indeed, it’s sometimes hard to find someone who’s happy after a selection.
Fast forward to today, and the scrutiny has only intensified. Of the 242 comments about Wales’ latest squad on the main news website by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, it was hard to find a handful of unreservedly positive ones.
Most were stinging, some just a mile or six above the summit. One person said: “I’d rather have Danny Dyer than Rio.” That would be the same Rio Dyer who won the 10th Scarlets defenders recently. Let’s be brave and say that it’s not entirely certain that Danny Dyer would have done the same. However, in our great age of internet democracy, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Maybe we can go against the grain and start with the positives of Steve Tandy’s selection. Form spoke in the case of Taine Basham. Or perhaps we can say that form rang out at Tandy’s front door, opened the letterbox and roared at the Wales head coach. How good has the Cardiff forward been of late? Very good.
Against Leinster, there were 16 Bashams, 114m made, three line breaks, 12 defenders beaten, 11 tackles and a turnover. After three rounds of the URC, he is the only forward in the top 10 for meters gained, has beaten more opponents than anyone else and is top of the line for winning lines. No Philadelphia attorney is obligated to clarify why it was withdrawn. His inclusion was an open-and-shut case.
Perhaps we can style Seb Davies’ recall as less of a surprise. After all, the capped player hadn’t featured in four years and could be forgiven for feeling his days as a national team player were over.
And Dyer deserves a return to the team. If his running of the ball has been impressive in recent weeks, his chasing of shots has also caught the eye, along with his work in the air, another key aspect of the modern wing game, with the Dragon brave and technically sound. And while he has yet to take the white color this season, he has been a threat to every side he has faced.
Perhaps we can style Seb Davies’ recall as less of a surprise. After all, the capped player hadn’t featured in four years and could be forgiven for feeling his days as a national team player were over. But Tandy gave him another chance and with the World Cup on the horizon, Davies will want to take it.
Three uncapped players have been named in Aneurin Owen, Che Hope and Rhys Barratt, with the first two part of an improved Dragons squad. Owen was particularly prominent for the Filo Tiatia team, reliable in defense and a significant force in attack. The center is brave and skilled enough to kick the ball close to the opposing defensive line and make good decisions, and his influence on those around him is almost palpable.
The absence of Kieran Hardy through injury opened up space for Hope. At 23 years old, with only nine starts in the league, the youngster still has a lot to learn. However, on the field, he throws passes as if he were throwing sheets into the laundry. He also thinks quickly, is sharp around the pitch and is developing well as a shooter from the box.
Recent chatter has compared him to a young Mike Phillips. Do we really need to go there, comparing the 5ft 10in, 11st 13lb Hope to the freakishly large (for a scrum half) 6ft 3in, 16st force that Phillips was as a player?
As a starting point, you wouldn’t want to stand in an identity parade with the guy who made the comparison looking through one-way glass. Nor is it easy to see the similarities in their game at this stage. No, the best advice for a new kid is to create their own identity.
Barratt comes probably as a precaution as Rhys Carre is yet to play a game this season due to injury, while Gareth Thomas misses the Ospreys’ clash with The black lion due to chest problems. Tandy have the ever-reliable Nicky Smith at their disposal, but will be hoping that Carre and Thomas are able to present themselves fit and healthy.
What about the glitches that caused many to take to their laptops and vent their frustration? Step forward Macs Page, a youngster who is fast developing into one of URC’s must-see acts. Those who make the effort to go with him to see him can almost be guaranteed an ethereal moment to remember that instantly saps the confidence of opponents. He is someone who turns small bits of chances into tries and not for nothing before Ospreys Coach Lyn Jones called him “one of the best players I’ve seen play this season”.
Alas for the fully paid-up members of the Faletau fan club, of which there are probably many more, his effort came too late to secure a place.
Jones suggested the experience factor, or lack thereof, as a possible reason why Tandy left him out. Perhaps the Wales boss also feels Page has room for improvement in defence: the URC website shows he has missed 13 matches in three league outings this season, leaving him with a 44% success rate when it comes to the not inconsequential task of stopping opponents.
But he’s young and will certainly improve in this area – and, in any case, it could be argued that the pluses to his game vastly outweigh the minuses. For him, it seems, patience will only be a watchword. His time will come.
Elliot Dee is another for whom many were happy to stick to their guns, with some fine displays of whoredom going unrewarded, while the alien who entered Franklin Gardens for an hour or two last Sunday night would have left one feeling that Taulupe Faletau is sure to be among the first names on Tandy’s team.
The big man did what was written on the tin though, cutting through the backline of the opposition at times and sometimes popping up with important defensive interventions, including one to deny Callum Chick a try.
Alas for the fully paid-up members of the Faletau fan club, of which there are probably many more, his effort came too late to secure a place. The numerous injuries the Cardiff man has suffered in recent years meant Wales clearly needed more evidence of the 35-year-old’s stamina and readiness for a testing month of rugby. But Tandy didn’t turn off the call at some point. Faletau just needs to stay fit, although we have to admit that the word ‘just’ is quite heavy in that particular clause.
The injury came at an inopportune time for Tommy Reffell, while Mason Grady, Keelan Giles and Tom Bowen, as well as Page, were squeezed out in the competition for wing places.
Tandy accepts that questioning comes with the job. “There will be people who will challenge me at the selections. Nobody really says who they would leave out. There should always be people,” he laughed.
“It’s something that comes with the territory. I cop everywhere I go.”
The old ‘three million selectors’ line comes to mind. But Tandy’s choices are the ones that matter.
Then it’s up to those selected to determine how many pallets will fly over the next month and a bit.