Wales' fly-half debate has been pretty dull by Welsh rugby standards since 2019.
The usual discourse reserved for who should be the starting No. 10 has been pretty stagnant. It is Dan Biggar's jersey right now, as it has been since Wayne Pivac took the job. The fact he is captain once again only serves to strengthen that theory.
The inclusion of Rhys Patchell in this summer's squad — the Scarlets fly-half is back in a Wales squad for the first time since autumn of 2020 — does not signal that a new battle for the No. 10 crown is imminent, but if things go well he will be seeking his first start in a Welsh jersey since the bronze-medal match against New Zealand at the 2019 World Cup.
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It has been a patient waiting game for the 29-year-old who, above all else, will be glad to be back in Test contention after some challenging times.
"He's had a tough few years post-World Cup," said Dwayne Peel, his coach at the Scarlets. "He's been in and out of the squad with injuries. It's been difficult. Even this year, he's had an up-and-down year with injury. But when he's been available, he's been quality on the pitch. Having him in the group is a big bonus for us. He'll be good. His body is good. He's looking forward to it. It's great for him that he's put some demons to bed with injuries."
Of course, that is not quite the case, with Patchell having limped off with a hamstring injury against the Stormers last Saturday. He has not been released from the Wales squad. Instead, he will be closely monitored by Wales' medical team.
After selecting the man who led his Scarlets side to the 2017 PRO12 title to face South Africa in July, Pivac said that, having shown enough on the pitch, "it is now really his durability which will be tested in training". We will now have to wait and see whether Patchell even gets that chance.
The fact he and fellow fly-half Gareth Anscombe can cover full-back, with Liam Williams the only specialist No. 15 in the squad, is just one reason why Pivac will be keen to keep Patchell in his squad. But there is also a sense that his game could suit the style of rugby Pivac and attack coach Stephen Jones want, even if the odds of him usurping Biggar seem a little long right at this moment.
Wales' attack has struggled to make much of an impact recently, with this year's Six Nations being the low point. A first home defeat to Italy had been preceded by a first tryless home Six Nations match in 13 years.
Wales want to use a 1-3-2-2 pod formation and play with a "no numbers" policy, meaning they push the ball wide early and often, with outside backs and forwards stepping in at first-receiver to facilitate things.
But, with forward pods rarely connected and speed of ball desperately slow, things just aren't working as they should. Instead, Wales are stuck in a gameplan where the fly-half remains the focal point phase after phase, even as the options around him fade away.
Where the Scarlets, and Patchell, had some success a few years back both domestically and in Europe was by moving their playmaker around to reach the options in other parts of the field. Patchell, as a 10, is adept at the basics you would expect from a fly-half.
A big boot, lovely vision and passing game, plus the ability to spot a gap either for his own solid running game or for a passing option outside him. How often have we seen Wales recently challenge defences with flat passing options like this? The answer is, unfortunately, rarely. But what really sets Patchell out is how he positions himself in wider channels.
It is that want to position himself away from first-receiver when the moment calls for it, as well as his eye for a gap on the outside, which helps to instil the all-court game Pivac wants. By shifting the focus away from him, it forces team-mates to step up as distributors and ball-players while opening up opportunities elsewhere on the pitch.
We have seen that over the years for the Scarlets and, when he had a brief run in the 10 jersey in 2018, for Wales. Patchell would loiter around the 13 channel, forcing the centres or back-three to step up as a playmaking option. Once the ball gets to him in that wider area, he has got the passing and running ability to create opportunities.
Here, he doesn't get the ball, but had the Scarlets gone deeper to Patchell on that fourth pass, then he would have had the ability to slip it out to the two players outside him.
He has got that ability to force himself into wide channels, too. Ryan Conbeer's hat-trick try against the Ospreys recently came from Patchell running a loop play off Johnny Williams which pushed him out wide.
We have seen Wales try to do similar things, with Biggar taking the ball in motion - the apparent buzz word in Jones' training sessions - on manufactured loop plays or acting as third receiver, but it always feels like Wales' stalling attack drags him back to taking the ball at first-receiver time and time again.
There is a sense that Biggar is so influential to the Welsh attack patterns that he can't afford to die on a phase, so to speak. He has to stay alive, avoid the contact and be there for the next play.
Patchell isn't too bothered about that, though. He will actively take the ball a little wider, looking for an outside gap or a weak shoulder he can get to. The best attacking fly-halves are able to drift diagonally while staying square, dragging defenders in while keeping those ahead of them from pushing off.
That can be with distribution in mind, looking to slip a player into a gap left by a biting defender, or it can be as a hard-running threat themselves. In the example below, Patchell takes the ball quite wide, sucking in one defender while remaining enough of a threat to the inside defence that they can't fold around. Maybe that is what Pivac and Jones need right now, particularly against the Springboks.
Last summer, we saw the Lions, with Biggar at 10, struggle to break down the world champions with a fly-half who largely played the percentages. Granted, Warren Gatland's game was conservative, but Biggar has had five starts against South Africa since 2019 and all five have been matches where try-scoring opportunities were few and far between.
"I thought he was good at what he did," former Springbok Joel Stransky told WalesOnline. "I don't think the Lions played the right tactics to beat us in the second Test. I thought they were lucky in the first Test to beat us as we came off Covid and a lack of match practice.
"If you want to beat the 'Boks, you can't play a standard game. You have to battle hard, compete in the breakdown and set-piece and stand your ground. But you've got to have something in the 'Boks. I don't think the Lions had that. I don't think they made it their game to be a little special. I think they tried to win by beating the 'Boks at their own game and I don't think there's a team that can do that."
You would think Wales under Pivac wouldn't attempt to beat the 'Boks in the same fashion that Gatland did, but the defeat to South Africa in the autumn largely regurgitated the script. Keep it tight, kick to compete and try to take the chance when it comes.
Stransky, who kicked South Africa to World Cup glory in 1995, believes Wales would need something a little different at 10 to spring any sort of upset this summer. "The first point to consider is what is the greatest strength of this 'Boks team and how you combat it," he said. "There's no doubt that the fundamental power of the 'Boks squad is that they put the opposition under so much pressure at first phase and then the breakdown. Any half-back pairing going up against South Africa aren't quite on the back-foot all the time, but will find it challenging. They'll be under pressure.
"If you're a normal, controlling fly-half, you'll find it hard to break down that South African line as the power and pressure that comes from set phase means you're always a little on the back-foot and it's very hard to find gaps in a very structured defensive system. I would think to beat the 'Boks, you need a 10 who has great vision, can do something extraordinary and in the same breath, and it might be a bit contradictory, doesn't make mistakes as the 'Boks are excellent on capitalising on errors."
As well as the ability to get into and around the 13 channel himself, Patchell has also got a direct, crisp passing game which can get the ball there too. Wales' best moments against South Africa in recent years have come from exploiting their aggressive blitz out wide.
"The one thing about the 'Boks blitz is that you can get around them and that's probably the way to beat them," added Stransky. "But the wingers are so quick that they still manage to fill that space. If you think about Makazole Mapimpi, if he makes a poor decision, he's so quick he can still nullify threats. It's a system they use that is hard to beat.
"I don't think there's any perfect system and there's always a way to beat it. However, it's tricky. Lukayno Am makes great decisions from 13. The wingers follow him and if they get caught out, they're quick enough to cover. But I think you have to offer something different. You're not going to beat South Africa by playing bog-standard Test rugby because they're maestros at squashing you into the ground."
Given Biggar has started roughly four out of every five games under Pivac, it feels unlikely that the fly-half jersey will be heading anywhere else this summer. That may well be the same story for the 15 months between now and the World Cup. In fairness, Biggar's own individual performances make it very hard to drop him, with a varied outing for Northampton against Saracens on Saturday showing the finer points of his attacking game.
But if Wales need something a little special, and Pivac needs something a little familiar to kick-start the transition to the game which made his Scarlets team the darlings of European rugby back in 2018, then Pivac wanting to get another look at Patchell makes sense. It may be that Pivac is so keen that he will take him on tour despite another injury set-back.
