There were plenty of people who had begun to sell shares in Dewi Lake barely 12 months ago as the young Ospreys player desperately tried to master the most important part of his job.
Not being able to throw accurately? It was almost akin to a lifeguard not being able to swim.
The ball often ended up anywhere but where it should have ended up when Lake took aim. Whatever the opposite of having a golden arm is, he seemed to have it. One evening game saw a series of deliveries from the former Wales U20s captain go hopelessly astray. Were he a cricketer, ‘wide’ would have been called every time.
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But the progress he has made in that area since and in other parts of the game has been remarkable. Last weekend against the Scarlets he helped oversee a 100 percent line-out in a performance stocked with excellence across the board, with two tries, 17 carries that yielded 33 metres and a clean defensive sheet.
Relentless physicality flavoured everything Lake did. Had the Scarlets knocked up a brick wall across the pitch, he would likely have smashed straight through it.
All this took place in front of the Wales selectors with Lake opposing his direct Wales rival Ryan Elias, who has had a fine season himself. You can read the player ratings for the game here.
Pivac is his own man in selection and both he and Jonathan Humphreys would have enjoyed the character Elias showed as he battled his way into form after being a target for flak early in the autumn Tests.
But Lake put down a marker at the Swansea.com Stadium that will be hard to ignore. Right now, he looks a decent bet to start for Wales when they play the first of three Tests against South Africa this summer.
How has he taken such a leap forward with his game? “We’ve put some specialist coaching in place with him in the shape of Simon Hardy, who has worked with England, Australia, Scotland and various Premiership clubs,” said Ospreys head coach Toby Booth. “I’ve worked with Simon before. He’s a friend of mine and a well-recognised coach. We’ve brought him in not just for Dewi but for all our hookers to work on their throwing techniques.
“An independent coach often acts as a psychologist for a player, especially in the position Dewi plays, which is like a goalkicker, with no hiding. The ball has to be thrown in under great competition. So I think having that support around him has definitely paid dividends, while he also has 12 months more of experience as part of a programme that pushes standards hard around the line-out and scrums, where there’s no substitute for getting down and getting dirty.
"Those things put together have helped him improve, but, ultimately, it’s his attitude and desire to want to do it, to be the very best and force his way into the reckoning for Wales and be the number one hooker at the Ospreys — ultimately, that's what is driving the whole thing forward."
A schoolboy gymnastics champion good enough to feature in a home nations competition, Lake also enjoyed swimming, football, table tennis and golf as a youngster. He had played rugby in the back row before switching to hooker, with the move requiring him to learn a new set of skills. But in Booth he had the right coach at the right time.
In his own playing days, the Ospreys head coach had converted himself from the back row to the No. 2 position and as a coach he had helped two English players make the same journey, with both ending up as internationals, so it's been handy for Lake to have him around over the past two seasons.
“I have history here,” he laughed. “David Paice, who played for London Irish and went on to play for England a couple of times, was a converted loosehead. We put the same support around him and got the same result. And Tom Dunn at Bath was similar in relation to a positional change.
"It’s about learning to throw and learning the nuances of the game. The common denominator with all of those players, who have all gone on to play international rugby, is that they were unbelievable competitors and were not going to let people stand in their way of getting up the ladder. So it’s a formula I’ve used before with success in different jobs and a similar outcome three different times.”
At 22, Lake is still cutting his teeth in Test rugby but the 6ft 1in, 17st 4lb player’s potential seems limitless.
Watch him play for the Ospreys against the Dragons in Swansea on Sunday. Bringing with him a South African-like physicality, he sets out to put a stamp on games and relishes the battle. Very definitely, he’s a youngster on the up.
