Of the seven changes Wayne Pivac has made for Wales' final Six Nations clash with Italy, the selections of Willis Halaholo and Johnny McNicholl have gone a little under the radar.
Alun Wyn Jones coming back in for his 150th Welsh cap has invariably grabbed the spotlight. But, with Wales' attack struggling at the moment through a myriad of minor details, the addition of Halaholo and McNicholl could open different possibilities for what Wales can do with the ball. Such are their respective Wales careers to date, they've only managed 32 minutes on the pitch at the same time in a red jersey.
Qualifying for Wales on residency after the 2019 World Cup, the pair looked to be two exciting attacking weapons for Pivac and Stephen Jones to utilise. However, injuries and the form of others has meant that neither has really had much of a run so far - each winning just nine caps in the past three years.
That 32 minutes of action together came in the final game of the last autumn campaign, when McNicholl replaced Louis Rees-Zammit in the second-half of Wales' narrow 29-28 victory over Australia. In terms of attacking opportunities with both players on the pitch, it was pretty limited as Wales struggled to hold off the charge of the 14-men Wallabies.
In fact, it was only when Wales fell behind to a late Kurtley Beale penalty that we saw an attacking set with Halaholo and McNicholl involved. That set laid the groundwork for Rhys Priestland's winning penalty - but there were also glimpses of what a Welsh attack with these two players could achieve.
Even as Wales fell away from structure in a desperate bid to snatch back the lead, there were elements of what McNicholl and Halaholo could offer. For starters, McNicholl is a player who is keen for touches. The sense has always been that Wales need an extra playmaker either in midfield or across their back-three and McNicholl can certainly provide that, as the shots below demonstrate. From the first phase, he's taken the ball as Wales' third receiver - holding behind the forward option to take the pull-back pass and straighten the line as he targets a drifting forward.
While it's not a monumental gain on this occasion, McNicholl's footwork and passing ability means that he could hit the outside if he wanted to fix Australia's No. 20 Lachlan Swinton. Taking the contact this time, it allows Wales to zig-zag back to the shortside - where a nice offload from Nick Tompkins helps Priestland find the edge and allows Liam Williams to make some metres.
McNicholl helps with the clearout and, after one forward carry to bring Wales in-field, they look to the openside again, where Halaholo has been holding his position. It's a trend of Wales' attack that the centre can often play left and right on both sides of the ball. We've seen that work defensively well with Tompkins and Owen Watkin looking solid during the tournament, but it can also work in attack.
Take this example from Halaholo's Welsh debut against Scotland in the Six Nations last year. As Callum Sheedy shifts the ball to the edge, Halaholo is holding his width on the other side of the pitch.
When Wales do move it back, Halaholo is lurking behind the forward options waiting for the pull-back pass. Crucially, Wales don't push the ball to the widest option, as they've tended to do in recent times, meaning that far forward option becomes a secondary passing option that stops the edge defender from drifting.
That allows Halaholo the opportunity to isolate the Scottish winger. From there, he gives the pass to Rees-Zammit and the young winger does the rest for what would be the winning score. Back to the Wallabies game, Wales try something similar on this phase. Rather than hitting a forward in Adam Beard, they hit Tompkins - but the set-up is largely the same.
However, on this occasion, Tompkins doesn't fix the defence as much as he could do, meaning Australia's 13 Len Ikitau can bounce off the forward option and drift onto Halaholo. Rather than having space outside Ikitau to commit Filipo Daugunu and free Josh Adams, Halaholo is face-to-face with Ikitau.
To his credit, he manages to use his footwork to step back inside - dragging in an inside defender to help out. McNicholl, fresh from clearing out on the far side, has now reloaded and is again looking for work as Wales move it back across the pitch.
Tompkins takes the ball at first-receiver, shipping it on to replacement prop Gareth Thomas. He pulls it back to Priestland, who then finds McNicholl. From here, the Scarlets star could arguably shift the ball on - with Seb Davies, Elliot Dee and Liam Williams outside him. However, with Lalakai Foketi trying to keep McNicholl on his outside shoulder to lessen the work in shutting down an overlap, McNicholl steps inside and makes a half-break.
Some nice work from Gareth Davies and Williams around the fringes sees Wales make a break down the blindside and get into prime attacking position. With Australia on the ropes, McNicholl steps into the first-receiver role to organise the Welsh attack.
On this occasion, the ball never reaches him as Wales keep it tight and force a penalty from the creaking Wallabies defence. But, in a different scenario, we know having a secondary playmaker like McNicholl step in to the role is something the Welsh defence want to build on.
Against South Africa last year, when McNicholl was starting at full-back, we saw Wales do this from a kick-off - which McNicholl coincidentally won. Having him step in at first-receiver meant Wales could hide Dan Biggar and allowed them to reach the edge against a South African side who defend very strongly around the 13 channel.
We've not seen all that much of either McNicholl or Halaholo in a Wales jersey to date, let alone witnessing them together. However, as Wales look to finish on a high this weekend, their presence together could be just what is needed to spark Wales' attack.
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