Matt Sherratt has little time to change things ahead of the Irish visit.
Stepping in as interim head coach for the next three Six Nations games following Warren Gatland’s departure, the Cardiff boss has spoken about getting “real excitement” back into the Welsh group and playing attractive attacking rugby.
Sherratt will make tracks for Wales’ training base in the Vale of Glamorgan tomorrow and then have a couple of training sessions before his team take on Six Nations leaders Ireland. So making any major tweaks to what Wales do will be extremely difficult. Advertisement It’s not controversial to say that Wales haven’t got that now. Perhaps some of the younger stars in this squad or emerging with the regions can go on to achieve great things but there are few players in the current group who will be pushing for starting places with the Lions. Back in 2009, Wales had six starters in each of the first two Lions Tests, with a further three players on the bench.
They need to figure out a style of play that suits the talent they do have and the Welsh Rugby Union still has serious work to do on the structures within the Welsh game. The current low of a 14-game losing streak has been coming for some time. Even though Gatland won a Grand Slam with Wales in 2019 and a Six Nations title as recently as 2022, there were clear signs of a shaky foundation under international level.
Simon Easterby’s men are 25-point favourites at the time of writing. Their biggest-ever winning margin in Wales was 30 back in 2001 when Denis Hickie, Brian O’Driscoll and Shane Horgan scored tries in a 36-6 victory in a Six Nations clash in October, the game having been rescheduled due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
From their point of view, Ireland will have weighed up making changes to their team for this round three clash but Easterby and co. will be loath to give up some of the momentum they have felt gathering in the players they have used so far.In that sense, it would be a surprise if Ireland veer much from their selections so far, although replacements like Jack Conan and Dan Sheehan have been pushing hard for a start.
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