Six Nations 2015: Wales team preview

Our penultimate Six Nations preview piece deals with Wales, and coming into the tournament with almost a clean bill of health, they are certainly amongst the favourites. Can they go all the way? Read on.

Strengths

Power, power and more power. With the greatest of respect for everyone in the Welsh side, subtlety isn’t one of the more obvious qualities on show – but why waste time with subtlety when you have a pack featuring the muscularity of Toby Faletau, Alun Wyn Jones and Richard Hibbard? They’re members of a pack who carry hard and hit harder at the breakdown in defence – there are very few sides who can take them on in an arm wrestle, and that’s before you even take the backline into account.

With Desperate Dan/Jamie Roberts at 12 and the stocky Jonathan Davies at outside centre, Wales have an all-Lions centre combination which can out muscle any in world rugby, and with bags of experience now under their sizeable belts, they know how to throw their weight around. Even the wingers are a far cry from the days of the nimble Gerald Davies, with behemoths North and Cuthbert taking up the wing spots; only Leigh Halfpenny represents anything like the ‘traditionally-sized’ back, but his ability to kick points monotonously from anywhere inside the opposition half makes him arguably the most dangerous of the lot.

Of course, all of these names are very familiar indeed, which is Wales’ other big strength going into this tournament – continuity. In stark contrast to many sides, particularly England, you can name probably 13 of the 15 starters for Wales with a huge amount of confidence – they’ve been playing together for the international side for years, and know Gatland’s tactics inside out.

You simply cannot underestimate the importance of being familiar with the quirks and traits of your teammates, particularly in the individual ‘units’ over the field – Roberts and Davies have already been mentioned, and the backrow of Lydiate, Warburton and Faletau is probably the most settled in the northern hemisphere. Gatland has also been blessed with a (these days near-miraculous) clean bill of health for his squad, meaning that he can get his best and most established units on the park from the off.

Weaknesses

Versatility. ‘Gatland-ball’ or ‘Warren-ball’, as it’s often known, has seen plenty of success for the Welsh over the years – it’s the art of sending in your biggest runners, often two passes out, into the defence (and away from the breakdown to move your opponents around) at a high intensity, dragging defences the whole width of the field in a bid to create big gaps in the midfield. It’s not particularly subtle, but it’s one thing being able to predict what’s going to happen and entirely another all-together being able to stop it. But it can be stopped.

Wales rely so heavily on their midfield runners getting over the gainline that they struggle for fluency or threat if that can’t be achieved. Last Six Nations, England and Ireland showed how the Welsh power runners could be contained – with an aggressive defensive line and gang tackles on the biggest runners to get the Welsh pack moving backwards. Once that happened, there was a worrying lack of invention from the half-backs to counter the defence, and Wales were comfortably beaten twice.

Key Objective before World Cup: Allow Webb and Biggar time to gel as a half-back pairing and demonstrate an ability to adapt to different defences.

Player to watch: Samson Lee

It’s difficult not to watch him, in fairness, since he looks like a ginger boulder, but the big Scarlets tighthead has developed into an international-class prop over the last year, providing Gatland with a readymade replacement for Adam Jones. He has always had strength befitting his name but now he has been able to harness that raw power and compliment it with good scrummaging technique, making him a reliable force in the set piece.

If he can put the pressure on the South African eight, he will fancy his chances against anyone – it will be interesting to see how he goes in his first full Six Nations at the coal face, especially now the guard has well and truly been changed. In fairness, though, any prop described by the great Adam Jones as a ‘gem’ is always going to be pretty useful…

Last Season: 3rd

It was a bit of a mixed bag for the men in red. After the ecstasy of winning the Six Nations title in 2013 with one of the great Welsh displays in Cardiff against the old enemy, Gatland’s men struggled to maintain any fluency throughout the 2014 competition.

They stuttered past the Italians and destroyed the Scottish and French at home but away from the Millennium Stadium they struggled and were comfortably outplayed in Ireland and England during a couple of worryingly one-dimensional performances.

Prediction

Somehow, Gatland’s men seem to have avoided any significant injury problems in any shape or form, with the only ‘scare’ coming from a stubbed toe (or something similar) to Jonathan Davies. With the quality of the front line players available to the Welsh, you cannot underestimate the value of having a clean bill of health and, with Ireland and England – arguably their two main rivals – at home, I can see them racking up some crucial wins.

A trip to Paris against a French side who finally look as if they are beginning to click may be a tricky task, but if they get a big win against England this Friday, then it’s hard to see the wheels coming off. Predicted Finish: 1st (no Grand Slam).

By Mike Cooper (@RuckedOver)