Wales were beaten well by England in yet another heavy defeat to the old enemy. There is now a call for changes ahead of the France game
Former Wales internationals Richie Rees and Scott Williams have identified three changes they want Steve Tandy to make for the game against France. The pair featured on the latest episode of the Scrum V podcast on the BBC.
Wales were hammered 48-7 by England at Allianz Stadium and offered little in attack.
Tandy’s side were poorly disciplined in the English capital and face a stern test against France next weekend. Ahead of this game, the former Wales duo want one positional change and two fresh faces to start at the Principality Stadium.
Against England, Tandy decided to go for Ben Thomas and Eddie James as the centre partnership, but 58-cap Wales international Williams thinks a mistake has been made by selecting big man James in the outside channel.
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Asked if they’d like to see changes, Williams said: “Personally, I’d like to see Eddie James at 12. I think he needs to be at 12, whether Ben Thomas goes 13 or whatever, but I just think he’s a little bit lost there. You’re taking a little bit of his main attribute away from him by moving him out into that channel.
“After set-piece as a centre, it doesn’t matter what number you’ve got on your back, you’re in phase play, you just connect. So it’s only for the starter plays where he needs to be in that position, closer, to be able to get the team over the gain line. And that in the game is simple, you win that gain line, you’re on the front foot, teams give penalties away like Wales did today, and you just start gathering momentum and putting pressure on teams.”
“Yeah, they didn’t really expose Eddie today because they didn’t need to,” added Rees. “I think as soon as they maybe started to throw double layers, so two lines of attack at them… and what they’ve got to be wary of next week – Moefana, Depoortère – that French centre partnership along with the back three that they’ve got. You can’t have such a big man, for me, defending at 13. His turning circle is slower, it’s a lot bigger, and when you’ve got that pace in and around you, it’s so much harder for him to defend.”
Host Gareth Rhys Owen added: “So it’s the (Andre) Esterhuizen Harlequins concept, just stick him up there, ball up the jumper, tell him to go and try and do some damage?”
Williams answered: “I know the game has changed now, OK, but you look at Jamie Roberts, one of the best in the world at getting the team over the gain line, like I mentioned the game has changed, but he knew his job, we all knew his job and he did it the best in the world.
“And that is the game, you get over the gain line, yes, OK, it’s not flash. Eddie James can play the ball as well, so there’s certain moves that he can play the ball in. He’s just a little bit lost in that channel, I think he needs to be defensively, and with the ball, closer to the 10. That seam for me, if I was playing 12 there, then I’d be attacking that seam all day long.
“I think it’s a little bit of a weakness there, just because of size and physicality, it’s physics, isn’t it? You’re coming up against a big centre, they’re going to win the collision in that channel if you’ve got boys who are 10, 15 kilos lighter than them.”
Rees continued: “You’re coming up against France, you need athletes in and around the ball, so we need to shore up the set piece, which a lot of work will be done in and around there this week but scrum time, we need to shore up.
“For me, you need Mason Grady on the field, you need Rhys Carre on the field because otherwise France could run away with the game early on and then that becomes another difficulty when you’re trying to bring them on a little bit too late, as we saw today.”
Wales face France at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Sunday, February 15, at 3.10pm.