Promising signs but struggles are clear

PERMANENT DEFENCE COACH MUST BE WALES' PRIORITY

- BEN JAMES Rugby writer [e-mail]

ANALYSING Wales is a difficult task at the minute.

The benchmarks that used to exist are no longer there. There was once a time where conceding 52 points to Argentina and New Zealand either side of a one-point win over Japan would merit inquests and sackings.

That’s not where Welsh rugby is, anymore.

Steve Tandy finds himself three matches into a rebuild that will take years.

Welsh rugby has been allowed to rot so badly that we can barely see the top table of the world’s game, let alone dine at it. We haven't even settled on the route back, let alone started down that path.

And so we're left to pluck the positives from heavy defeats.

There are undoubtedly some green shoots. Wales have crossed for 11 tries this autumn, with their attacking game far more fluid and clinical than the latter days of Warren Gatland’s second spell in charge.

Wales have spent on average two minutes less per game with the ball in attack in this autumn compared to the Six Nations, yet they have already managed more than the 10 tries they scored in that tournament.

And that was across five games, rather than the three Wales have played this autumn.

It is clear that, with Matt Sherratt in charge of the attack, Wales will look to develop an attacking game that, in the right areas of the pitch, can be clinical at Test level.

The early signs, perhaps unsurprising given Sherratt has been with Wales in some shape or form since halfway through the Six Nations, are promising.