The good news for Warren Gatland was that his Six Nations squad naming was nothing quite as frantic or fretful as last year’s unveiling. Then, as you may recall, the Wales head coach emerged to face the press still dusting off the debris after the landing of a bombshell, news of Louis Rees-Zammit’s bolt for the NFL reaching Gatland mere minutes before releasing a selection in which the wing was set to be included.
It was a moment that set the tone for a disastrous, damaging year for Welsh rugby, one that featured failure from top to bottom. In governance and in performance, Wales separated themselves from the rest in their inadequacy – which is some going considering the ongoing mess across the Severn. A run of 12 consecutive Test defeats did not lead to Gatland’s dismissal perhaps partly because of the sheer scale of the problems elsewhere – a fresh lick of paint isn’t going to dramatically improve a house with significant structural problems.
