Warren Gatland has a good reason for delaying naming his side for their opening Six Nations match away to Ireland
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Wales have tended to shatter images rather than moulds in the professional era. In 2008, the last Six Nations that followed a World Cup, little was expected of them after they sneaked out of France having failed to qualify for the quarter-finals but they won the grand slam in some style.
They were tipped to struggle in New Zealand in the last World Cup, dumped in a pool with the holders, South Africa, the team that had progressed at their expense four years before, Fiji, and their nemeses in past tournaments, Samoa.
The 2010 autumn campaign had ended with the Welsh Rugby Union on the defensive after agreeing a new four-year contract with Warren Gatland who, at the time, said he would be freshening up his management team after the World Cup, a tournament that would decide his fate as head coach.
Wales confounded everybody but themselves by reaching the semi-final, repeating their achievement of 1987, and, while their final record was four victories and three defeats, only in the play-off against Australia were they outplayed. The benefits of two training camps in Poland were shown in one statistic: they did not concede a point in the last quarter in five consecutive matches, including the semi-final against France when they played the final 61 minutes with 14 men.
Wales mixed experience with youth in a blend that worked off the field as well as on it. While some of the younger members of the England squad watched aghast in New Zealand as some of their elders adhered to a code of misconduct, Wales's rookies set the standards, hard-working, abstemious and not weighed down by the fear of failure.
They were a drop goal away from making the World Cup final. More spectators watched the semi-final against France on the big screen at the Millennium Stadium than at Eden Park and, the memory of the previous November deleted, a nation started to romanticise again. Wales expects this Six Nations.
And yet, Wales's achievements in New Zealand came after four to five months spent together, time they do not have leading into the Six Nations. Moreover, the challenge that is still to be met is learning to win the tight games; they lost by a point in a key pool match against South Africa and in the semi-final against France.
Nonetheless, the World Cup was no fluke. It was a well-planned campaign and Wales would not have disgraced the final. Given the relatively youthful nature of the squad, there is every chance that it was a mould-breaking tournament for Gatland's men. Success should in future not be intermittent and on a strictly one-off basis, but this Six Nations does not look timely.
There are two concerns for Wales. The first is an injury list so extensive that Gatland this week postponed naming his side by 48 hours. Seven of the side that started the World Cup quarter-final against Ireland were either doubtful or nonstarters and they will be without some hard-core experience in the form of Gethin Jenkins and Alun Wyn Jones, as well as Shane Williams, who has retired from international rugby.
With the second-row Luke Charteris also injured, Gatland will have to change three of his tight five. The flanker Dan Lydiate and the fly-half Rhys Priestland, two key figures in New Zealand, are having treatment on leg injuries sustained during the last round of European matches, while the centre Jamie Roberts has not played for six weeks.
Wales struggled in the play-off against Australia when they were without Priestland, Sam Warburton and Adam Jones, while Alun Wyn Jones was on the bench. They have depth in most, but not all, positions and one question taxing Gatland this week will be how to replace Shane Williams and the wing's 58 Test tries.
Does he move Leigh Halfpenny from full-back and recall Lee Byrne or does he give a debut to Alex Cuthbert? He is not brimming with options in the back three, which leads to the second caveat about Wales in the next few months. There was an immediate fallout from the World Cup when the players returned home from the World Cup.
The Welsh regions won seven of their first eight matches in Europe, drawing the other; they won seven of the next 24 and it was noticeable in the final rounds in January that some of the young players who made an impact in the World Cup, such as George North, Scott Williams, Jonathan Davies and Lloyd Williams, are looking like they are approaching the end of a long season.
The Wales players have effectively been campaigning for eight months and they will need the mental hardness they showed in New Zealand to sustain them through a championship that will see them in Dublin and Twickenham and entertain France in Cardiff, fixtures they have won in the same campaign only once since the 1978 grand slam.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/jan/31/wales-six-nations
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