Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
Wayne Pivac will know that only too well this week, but what of those who are simply near the crown? The scrutiny, in theory, is just as much on them as it is on Pivac.
"In theory" being the operative phrase. Nobody is really laying the blame at Neil Jenkins ' door right now, for example.
The assistant coach, who focuses on skills and kicking, has been through an awful lot as player and coach for the best part of 30 years with Wales. Anyone who heard what he had to say on Tuesday following the defeat to Georgia ought to know that he takes any Welsh defeat particularly hard.
That is not to say the other coaches haven't taken this defeat hard, but Jenkins is likely afforded some more sympathy from the slings and arrows given his respective role in the ticket and the longevity with which he has performed his duties. It was good enough for Warren Gatland for more than a decade, so he is less likely to face questions now.
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The other assistants in Stephen Jones , Jonathan Humphreys and Gethin Jenkins don't have that benefit, with all effectively coming in under Pivac. Jones took charge of the attack at the 2019 World Cup after Rob Howley was sent home, but had already been appointed as Pivac's assistant.
Each of them are likely feeling the heat, either directly or by association. The question is, what does the future hold for each of them?
Is there the chance that, were Pivac to go, some would also depart or might they be kept on? Change the head, but leave some of the body intact. Or you go the New Zealand route: leave Pivac alone but change the assistants as per Ian Foster's All Blacks axing assistants John Plumtree and Brad Mooar. We've seen that approach in Wales already in Pivac's reign, with former defence coach Byron Hayward.
Once again, it should go without saying that changing the coaching ticket wouldn't fix all of Welsh rugby's ills. That shouldn't need saying, but it appears it often does.
Sam Warburton's excellent Times column pointed out the flaws in all facets of the Welsh game, from the archaic governance structure to the continual impasse between governing body and professional clubs. All of that needs reform desperately, but realistically, it will be the coaching ticket which is amended before any of that gets touched.
It is easier to rip the curtains down and change the bannister than it is to tear the foundations out and start again. But Warburton also pointed to what he had seen of this coaching group while part of Pivac's team during the first half of 2020.
Crucially, that is an insight into this coaching ticket from someone who has been there. The former Wales captain said he liked Humphreys as a forwards coach, although he feared he didn't have the players to deliver the goods he was after. "I feel sorry for him," he wrote. "I would never look at the scrummage and think he is not coaching them properly."
As for Gethin Jenkins, Warburton always thought he was "destined to be a top defence coach", while he added Neil Jenkins' quality was undoubted. Tellingly, perhaps, Jones and Pivac weren't mentioned. In the most basic terms, those two are the most intertwined, having worked together at the Scarlets.
The rest of Pivac's coaching staff members in Llanelli either weren't involved from the start — namely Ioan Cunningham, who is now head coach of Wales Women — or soon departed into his Wales reign: Hayward. Both Humphreys and Jenkins had not worked with Pivac prior to this job.
Let's start with Jones, then. Perhaps the area which had been built up most before Pivac's tenure began was Wales' attack. Gatland's Wales had been pragmatic, which often drew criticism in itself over the lack of attacking flair. Jones was expected to change that. However, the reality is that the attacking blueprint has been hard to fathom at times. What Wales are trying to do with ball in hand has often been a pertinent question.
The premise has largely been about creating options in wider channels for dynamic loose forward and back-three carriers using a pretty rigid pod formation. However, the desire to keep numbers on their feet across the park has led to an inconsistency over committing to clearing out breakdowns and Wales' attacking shape tends to disappear after a few phases.
The total inability to win collisions off 10 doesn't help, given Wales' insistence on playing with pods off their fly-half to aid going out the back, leading to defences being able to swallow up an attack which doesn't challenge the fringes all that much and tends to be too lateral in an attempt to stretch out the pitch.
There has been the odd nice touch. When Wales are getting go-forward ball, we've seen this style of play work, with tries in Dublin in 2020 and Cape Town this year demonstrating that multi-phase build-up play. But that obviously is too few and far between.
There have been some decent subtleties, too. Jones has pushed for fly-halves to take the ball in motion and we've seen some nice variation on strike moves and early phase moves at times.
The use of loop plays is right out of Jones' 2003 World Cup playbook, while the strike move for Josh Adams' match-winning try in South Africa this year was exactly what Gatland wanted to build his Lions gameplan around in 2021: 80 minutes of territorially and tactically sound rugby with the right strike moves to turn rare red-zone opportunities into seven-point scores.
Those little flourishes were occasionaly present at the 2019 World Cup, where Jones coached as mentioned previously. It begs the question whether it is Jones or Pivac who has largely pushed the tactics to overplay around halfway in a bid to break sides down from 40 or 60 metres out? There is no way of knowing without being in camp, but given the hype about attack and how, three years in, this Wales side appears not to know its own DNA, Jones and Pivac's fates seem grouped together.
The others, less so. Gethin Jenkins came in to replace Hayward after the former fly-half had tried to evolve Shaun Edwards' defensive scheme with more real-time decision-making. When that went awry, Jenkins went back to basics. It has worked by and large, although Wales still struggle against ball movement and good footwork in the tight.
Two of their three victories this year came against South Africa and Argentina, sides that bring physicality but won't necessarily test you with ball movement or footwork.
Contrast that to New Zealand who, although they kept it tight, had enough variation to cause all manner of problems for Wales. Jenkins admitted as much afterwards, citing mid-week between the All Black and Argentina Tests how they struggled to make "smart decisions" when faced with good footwork.
That is perhaps why Australia, even when they limp into Cardiff with the cast of Neighbours and whoever is left, will still pose more than a little threat in the Welsh capital. Regardless of who plays, they should be capable of moving this Welsh defence around.
Still, Jenkins feels like he has more credit in the bank than not. Maybe the interesting one is Humphreys. It doesn't really feel like there is much of a consensus on him either way, compared to the other coaches. Wales' set-piece has always been something which seems to fluctuate, even during the course of 80 minutes if last Saturday's outing is anything to go by.
But when Wales have been successful, it has been built on the scrum and lineout going well. That is hardly a revelation in Test rugby.
We have also seen some nice glimpses with set-piece moves in the last two autumns from lineouts to score tries around the fringes of the maul, while the driving variety worked well in South Africa this summer. Humphreys has got his admirers: Warburton for one, while former Wales tight-head Adam Jones swears by him as a coach.
Perhaps, like all the coaches, he was guilty of overcomplicating things at times to begin with, with much of the early lineout work using Wales' safest ball, Justin Tipuric, as a midfield playmaker or scrum-half.
Wales' dearth of Test-quality scrumagging props isn't something you can level against him, either. Like Jenkins, he is another who will probably survive were Pivac to leave.
That is all to be decided, of course. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but the burden beyond it isn't much better, either.
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