The importance of the breakdown has perhaps never been as prevalent.
Wales coach Wayne Pivac certainly knows that. Since taking over from Warren Gatland at the end of 2019, there's always been someone in his coaching ticket looking after the breakdown.
"We have a couple of hundred breakdowns in a game," said Pivac before this year's Six Nations. If you compare that to scrums and lineouts, it's such an important part of the game - not only with the ball, but without it.
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"Trying to turn the ball over, take possession over, slow them down and realign in defence so we can come on the offence with our defence if you like. It's a vastly important part of the game."
Despite that importance, it's an area that Wales have struggled to get to grips with. It's also an area in which they've struggled to retain coaching talent.
Former Wales captain Sam Warburton was the first man to look after the area in the welsh camp, before he moved on ahead of Pivac's first autumn in 2020. Gethin Jenkins came in to replace his former team-mate in a technical role coaching breakdown/defence.
But when Byron Hayward left his post as defence coach, Jenkins took over that side of the game. So in came Wales U20s coach Gareth Williams to look after the breakdown.
It would appear he's now leaving the post to help improve the Scarlets' defensive woes. It begs the question why the personnel has been so changeable?
And where does Pivac go next with the role? Will there be another breakdown specialist in camp?
Starting with the first question, there's decent enough reasons why coaches have moved on. Warburton explained how family and business commitments pulled him away from the job.
If Williams goes, it'll be to take on the task of helping Dwayne Peel turn the Scarlets into URC contenders after a season of promising attack and leaky defence. Both are understandable departures on the face of it.
But is there more to it? Perhaps, perhaps not. Such is the nature of Test rugby, coaching time is limited and with each coach, as one former international tells us, having their own KPIs - or key performance indicators - to look after, things like the breakdown can fall between the cracks and get the least amount of attention.
With Stephen Jones working on the attack, Jenkins taking the defence and Jonathan Humphreys sorting out the forwards, getting the point across as a breakdown specialist could be tricky in the time together in camp. Not being able to get that message across as you'd like could certainly be a contributing factor to leaving, particularly given how Wales have struggled in the area over the past few years.
Certainly, when Warburton was in the post, the breakdown formed a crucial part of Hayward's defensive plan, intent on building upon Shaun Edwards' system. The idea was to place more of the decision-making into the players' hands, backing them to make split-second decisions on the fly on top of the rather regimental framework put in place by Edwards.
In particular, the defensive breakdown and when players attempted jackals was meant to be a more reactive, player-led process. The presence of Warburton was seen as a boost for that, but the system ultimately failed to reap any rewards - looking chaotic as too many moving parts got knocked out of sync.
The attack - and, in particular, Wales' pursuit of the 1-3-2-2 pod formation and need to constantly play off 10 - tends to put stress on the attacking clearout. When Wales get their breakdown work right, as they did in the latter stages of the 2021 Six Nations, you get a fairly multidimensional and effective attack that can break down defences over multiple phases.
However, if you don't get it right, the attack becomes disconnected and blunt as we saw in the Six Nations. Given, particularly at the start of Pivac's reign, how crucial breakdown work was, it's easy to understand how frustrating it would be were not enough time committed to it.
Granted, the defensive side has changed since then, but the breakdown remains an important remit, given the sheer number of attacking rucks in a game. It's been described by some ex-professionals as a skill just as important as passing or tackling in the modern game.
Regardless of who takes the job next, or if they even look to fill the role, the importance of getting things right in that area of the game remain high on Pivac's to-do list for the next 14 or so months. Having seen Jenkins come into camp initially to work on the defence and breakdown, the temptation might be for Jenkins to take back some of the responsibility for the latter again.
Of course, it's as much about personnel as it is coaching. Some have described the process of clearing out as a mindset more than anything.
The likes of Justin Tipuric and Josh Navidi simply get it. Former team-mates have described how they want to 'smoke' whoever is over the ball. It's equal parts decision-making and mentality.
The fact that Wales have looked at their best under Pivac when Navidi has been wearing the six jersey is undeniable, but naturally a player of Tipuric's ability, the coaching staff want him out either in wider channels or working as a ball-playing option. As such, his influence at attacking breakdowns is reduced as he's often a distributing figure.
The make-up of the Welsh pack at the minute has dynamic carriers in the back-row, with the likes of Tipuric and Taulupe Faletau best served in pockets of space, decent bulk in the second-row and hooker positions but a lack of genuine carrying options at prop. So it's little surprise that when rugby analyst Sam Larner posted a Twitter thread on which positions were hitting the most attacking rucks, props led the way for Wales, hitting 25% of their attacking rucks.
It's understandable, given the workload already piled on second-rows and the want for Pivac's back-row to be the heart of its attacking game in many aspects, that the front-row would take on the burden of attacking breakdowns. But, as we've seen on numerous occasions, the decision-making under pressure - and Wales' pod formation is only increasing that pressure - isn't always up to scratch.
Little things like knowing when to sit on a ruck and secure possession and when to clear out a threat have been mixed up in the mad scramble, with some questioning the fitness and aptitude of Wales' front-rowers to deal with clearout work in this current system. As one former Wales international told us: "It’s hard work going wide-wide to reload coming back - especially as that’s when you want to split the pitch.
"They’re asking a lot of Welsh forwards but the rewards could be great when it comes off. The Welsh front-five fitness needs to be highest level though."
Given their personnel and the way they want to play, it seems unlikely Wales will want to move away from props being the biggest proponents of hitting attacking rucks anytime soon. However, if their game is to evolve and succeed, tweaks around the breakdown will need to be made.
It remains to be seen how the latest impending departure, expected after the South Africa tour, changes things on that front.
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