Wayne Pivac could have been forgiven for sending out a search party to see if he could locate certain members of the Wales team that faced Ireland last weekend, with so many going missing in action.
However, Wales’ head coach has resisted the temptation for a radical shake-up of his side for the game with Scotland in Cardiff on Saturday, instead just making two changes up front and two behind, one of them injury-enforced, to the line-up that took the field in Dublin.
Here are the main headlines from his team selection to face the Scots and the reasons for those alterations.
A Test debut for Jac
One of the big calls to start.
Dragons openside Taine Basham has been playing so well for Wales it didn’t look as if Pivac would be able to accommodate Jac Morgan, another young player who performs in the same position.
But with the Wales pack losing the physical battle hands down to Ireland in Dublin, the selectors have decided to use the pair alongside each other, with Basham named at No. 6 and Morgan taking the No. 7 shirt.
It’s hard to argue that Morgan doesn’t deserve a chance, with the 22-year-old a consistently strong performer at regional level. Good over the ball with his low centre of gravity, the 5ft 11in, 16st west Walian also rarely misses a tackle and has improved his carrying game.
He also takes responsibility.
Some will worry that Wales might lack back-row balance in picking Basham and Morgan but they players have played in roles other than openside before now. Indeed, Morgan led Wales U20s from No. 8 and Basham won a senior cap in the same role against Fiji in the autumn.
These are adaptable players.
Anyway, other countries, such as Australia with Michael Hooper and David Pocock and England with Tom Curry and Sam Underhill, have played with two opensides before and Wales did it themselves with Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric.
The loose game that Scotland have been known to play in this fixture should suit Morgan and Basham if the visitors go down that road again, with the two flankers expert possession pilferers.
A bold selection from Pivac, then, but these young players are quality performers.
Watkin comes in
It’s just not proving to be Josh Adams’ tournament.
There he was, one of Europe’s top wings and a Test Lion, happy in his lot out wide, only for the selectors to ask him to play in the centre.
It’s fair to say he endured a challenging 80 minutes in defence against Ireland.
Indeed, at times he had appeared like a rookie road traffic cop handed the Arc de Triomphe gig in Paris on his first morning at work, with 12 roads meeting at the same roundabout. There was uncertainty, and lots of it, with the likes of Bundee Aki, Andrew Conway and the outstanding Garry Ringrose doing all they could to exploit it.
It would have been no surprise had Adams walked into the dressing room afterwards and told Pivac he never wanted to be considered at No. 13 again.
Anyway, injury has done for his chances this weekend.
We’ll never know if Pivac would have doubled down on his experiment of playing him at No. 13.
Owen Watkin comes in at outside centre instead.
It’s his first start since the game with Scotland a year ago, when he pulled off a match-winning tackle in the final play. His reward for that was to be axed for the next match, and he’s been out in the cold since. It’s reasonable to assume he’ll have a point to prove, then.
The Osprey has won back his place after working hard on his attacking game while maintaining his reputation for solid defence. He has been playing mostly at inside centre for his region but is versatile enough to take the wide role, even if it may not be his preference.
Many will be pleased to see him on the international stage again.
At 6ft 2in and 15st 8lb he’s a big unit and he has more skill than some credit him for. He is adept at stripping possession in contact, doesn’t miss many tackles and is powerful enough to ask questions of opposition defenders.
This is his opportunity to make a statement heading towards the next World Cup.
The return of Ross
There are two ways to go when stuck in a corner.
One is to cower and absorb the punches.
The other is to pick up a chair and come out swinging.
Ross Moriarty’s return to the starting line-up signals Wales are going to try to battle their way out of the tight spot they are in after last weekend’s no-show against Ireland.
There’ll be no literal swinging of chairs above heads of course — that wouldn’t please the TMO — but Moriarty will bring the kind of physicality that Wales lacked from the start in Dublin.
It won’t be enough for him to be a lone battler, though. The whole side will need to up their physicality.
Last week in Dublin, Wales made four dominant tackles as a team. England flanker Tom Curry made three on his own against Scotland.
Pivac will have underlined to his team the importance of winning collisions, and in Moriarty they have a heart-and-soul player who is capable of pointing the way forward.
Wales will look to him this weekend.
He is capable of responding.
Same again in the front five
A surprise?
Again, there are a couple of ways of looking at it.
One is to think that after coming out second best at the Aviva Stadium, the whole front five should have been put under the selection microscope for the game with Scotland.
Another is to wonder if there are any significantly better options in Wayne Pivac’s squad.
Would Ben Carter and Seb Davies have improved matters hugely at second row in Dublin? Probably not. Had Pivac dropped Wyn Jones for Gareth Thomas it would have been a marginal call, while Tomas Francis is Wales’ strongest scrummager.
There might have been a case in turning to Dewi Lake’s extra physicality at hooker, but there remain concerns over his throwing and on a good day Ryan Elias can show up well in the tight, close-quarter exchanges, too.
The point is Pivac’s options were limited.
He didn’t have the luxury of re-energising his pack in the way that Graham Henry did midway through the Five Nations in 1999. Then, after an insipid performance against Ireland, Henry piloted Peter Rogers, Garin Jenkins, Ben Evans and Brett Sinkinson into his pack.
The front-rowers did a number on their French opponents, with Evans putting the world-rated Christian Califano under the cosh, and Sinkinson banged in a nine-out-of-10 debut on the openside as Wales transformed their season.
So much for yesteryear.
Now, Wales have seen Alun Wyn Jones, Jake Ball and Cory Hill tweezered out of the front-five selection picture, while Ken Owens is also missing. That’s a lot of physicality to take out of a side.
But those on the front line will just have to step up.
Last week, the starting Welsh props, hooker and second rows made just 14 metres with ball in hand while their Irish counterparts made 85.
Statistics like those matter.
No-one should expect Francis to morph into an all-action Graham Price for our times, racing 70 metres for a spectacular try, or Elias to transform into a Welsh version of Bismarck du Plessis. Francis will continue to do what he’s good at, scrummaging solidly and tackling well, and Elias will carry on giving his all, as always.
But the whole unit at the sharp end has to be better.
The result this weekend could depend on it.
Cuthbert’s call
How dangerous were Scotland’s wings against England?
Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe beat nine defenders between them and caused problems pretty much every time they came into play.
By contrast, Wales’ wings endured difficulties against Ireland in Dublin. Starved of ball, Wayne Pivac’s side couldn’t work Louis Rees-Zammit and Johnny McNicoll into space and McNicholl was caught in no-man’s land for one of Andrew Conway’s tries.
Alex Cuthbert replaces the Scarlet, with the 6ft 6in, 16st 4lb 2012 Grand Slammer presumably brought in for his size and his experience as well. Potentially, he could mark van der Merwe — and even pose difficulties in defence for the Scotland player who, for all his undoubted qualities as a hard-runner, has been known to hit the odd problem on the other side of the ball.
It will be Cuthbert’s 50th Test cap when his sole appearance for the Lions is factored in, and doubtless many will want to applaud him. His Test career hit problems, with social media trolls not helping the player’s confidence, and he left for a three-year spell in England.
But he has reset mentally and is older and wiser for the experience.
Since he has returned to Welsh rugby with the Ospreys he has shown maturity around the squad and the challenge for Wales will be to create opportunities for him and Rees-Zammit.
Whatever, Cuthbert has shown huge character in battling his way back for his first Six Nations appearance in five years.
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