The Wales coach has been without a full coaching staff for his first two campaigns
Wales are hopeful of getting a permanent defence coach in place by the summer, having conceded 34 tries in Steve Tandy’s first five matches in charge.
From the start of the autumn, Wales have shipped just shy of 50 points-a-game, with their defence having struggled massively against some of the world’s best teams. Tandy, of course, is renowned for his defence – having worked as Scotland’s defence coach between 2019 and 2025.
However, as Wales’ head coach, he now finds his time split between not just managing Wales’ defence, but the team as a whole.
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Former Wales and Lions back-row Dan Lydiate is part of his coaching team on a temporary basis, helping out with the defence.
However, the mid Walian is not long into his own coaching career – having started with the Dragons on a full-time basis after retiring last summer.
Attack coach Matt Sherratt and forwards coach Danny Wilson are the only permanent members of Tandy’s team – with the Wales coach hopeful of adding to that before the start of this summer’s Nations Championship.
“It’s something we’ve been looking into for a while, making sure we get the right people in our team,” said Tandy. “At the start we had Matt (Sherratt) and Danny (Wilson) come in.
“We went through a process there and it is something that we are looking into and something we are hopefully going to get in place for the Nations Cup.”
No names have been floated around yet for the vacant defence job.
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Wales take on Fiji, Argentina and South Africa in the inaugural Nations Championship, with Tandy admitting it has been tough juggling the defence and head coach roles.
“It is a lot,” he added. “When I first came in it was making sure I had the right people in the room.
“I am really passionate about defence and I’ve really enjoyed doing it – and doing it with the head coaching role.
“But then it is about making sure you don’t spread yourself too thinly. We are constantly assessing and reviewing it and it is a big demand.”
The Wales coach also offered a defence of captain Dewi Lake, after the Ospreys hooker came under fire last weekend.
Wales had issues at the lineout throughout the first-half in London as England suffocated their set-piece.
“The game is hard,” said Tandy. “We aren’t going to make knee jerk decisions.
“Dewi is our captain and he leads from the front. People can come in for some stick without often understanding the full detail of what it is.
“You can watch a game for the full 80 minutes and then lots of things get thrown out. But you then have to examine the areas for which he is getting stick.
“If it is around the lineout there are lots of things that can be different – the call, the opposition – but there was never a doubt in my mind about Dewi playing this weekend.”
On the criticism in general, Tandy added: “The only time I get aware is when people tell me things. I’ve never been on social media – obviously I do BBC Sport for cricket or football or something, so some things are hard to get away from – but I’ve never searched for something, whether it’s good or bad.
“So people will give me the information. In particular, I’ve got young kids as well, you know how things can get online, so I want to be aware for the players, because I know lots of that is ridiculous, where that is.
“They’re human beings. So for me I just want them to represent themselves the best they can do, in and around the training, in and around what they do in the game.
“It’s having an awareness of what’s going on, making sure you can help those, but also, you’re in high-end sport, you’re in international rugby, you know there’s going to be scrutiny, and again, for us, I don’t need people to tell me when we didn’t perform. I totally understand that, and I feel I’m a very honest person.
“And I can see in our game, and probably that’s why I spoke to players about outside influences not influencing. Obviously there is disappointment, and we love our support, and we want to make the country proud in and around how we play. But ultimately, we’ve got to give everything we can, and making sure we can be the best we can be, any time we represent the Welsh jersey.”