Cardiff rugby club once had a spell when they had Gareth Edwards, Brynmor Williams and Terry Holmes on their books.
For the avoidance of doubt, that is what scrum-half strength in depth looks like.
When Edwards called time on his career, David Bishop flashed across the Arms Park radar, playing a solitary game for his hometown club.
Never mind the mythical outside-half factory famously flagged up by Max Boyce, Cardiff seemed to have a conveyor belt of world-class No. 9s at the time.
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The spot has traditionally been a position of strength in Wales, with arguably more great players than in any other role. To the four above can be added Dicky Owen, Haydn Tanner, Rex Willis, Chico Hopkins, Robert Jones, Robert Howley, Dwayne Peel and Mike Phillips. Hopkins won only one cap, of course, with Edwards to compete with at national level, but as Clive Rowlands said: “Had he been eligible for any other country he’d have won 50 caps.”
A solitary cap in union was to be the controversial lot of Bishop as well, a situation that prompted a petition containing thousands of names to be handed into the Welsh Rugby Union. So strong were the feelings over his exclusion that when Robert Jones, the choice of the Wales selectors, went up to Pontypool Park with Swansea for a Welsh Cup tie in 1988, he was spat at by a fan, swiped at with an umbrella by another and offered outside for a fight by a third.
Bishop’s face didn’t fit, but Jones was a wonderful player in his own right, too.
Fast-forward to 2023 and Wales are waiting for one of their scrum-halves to indisputably prove himself the best of this generation.
Warren Gatland has placed his belief in Tomos Williams and the Cardiff player has shown away from the international scene what a fine player he is. The memory is still fresh of Williams undoing the Ospreys in Swansea 15 months ago with a brilliantly crafted kick over the top for Jarrod Evans to score. Around that time, an alien who’d dropped in to watch Cardiff play would not have left feeling there was any debate over the Wales No. 9 position.
But Wayne Pivac started with three scrum-halves in the 2022 Six Nations and Keiran Hardy began all three Tests in South Africa in the summer.
Warren Gatland has gone with Williams, but there were calls for Rhys Webb to start against England and WalesOnline columnist and Wales great Graham Price urged that Hardy be picked for the potential wooden-spoon shootout with Italy a week on Saturday.
Mark Ring, still as free-spirited off the field as he used to be on it, lobbed a fourth name into the mix when said he’d have Gareth Davies in his Wales team, arguing: “He’s skilful, quick and he doesn’t let opponents bully him. I still think he’s the best No. 9 in Wales.” Recent displays from Davies for the Scarlets add to the view that he’s far from given up on the idea of winning back his Wales spot.
It will be intriguing to see whether Gatland starts with Williams against Italy. The Arms Park man was clearly playing to orders in repeatedly kicking against England. If he wasn’t, then he’s likely to have a problem in that his work with the boot served only to highlight the impressive aerial skills of Freddie Steward. It was like continually playing to Bjorn Borg’s topspin forehand in the Swede’s prime.
The results were not great. “The only thing we did was put the man-of-the-match trophy into the hands of the England full-back,” summed up Lions legend Price.
Williams is a better player than he appeared last weekend, but Wales are not playing off the same page in so many respects right now. When the Welsh No. 9 broke on his own from a tapped penalty, spurning a potential three points that could have cut England’s lead to two, his team-mates seemed as surprised as their opponents. Ken Owens did offer support at the ensuing breakdown, but the move didn’t get Wales anywhere.
In a subsequent podcast, the former England full-back Mike Brown referenced the episode while saying of the Wales scrum-half: “I can’t remember his name now.” Williams’ challenge is to make sure people start remembering his name. He is good enough to do so.
We just didn’t see it last time out.
Gatland now has to decide whether someone else deserves a shot or whether any alteration would be change for change’s sake.
Rhys Webb has been playing well for the Ospreys but hasn’t begun a game for Wales since the autumn of 2020. If self-belief were the only requirement to play Test rugby, Webb would be an automatic first choice. He has battled his way back into national contention, but the old saying tells us the wind blows harder the closer you get to the top of the mountain, and the old saying is right. If Webb is to start for Wales again, he needs to show in training why that should be the case.
The same goes for Hardy.
Williams, meantime, will hope for another chance after the mixed reviews that followed his effort against England.
The Guardian once playfully described the scrum-half in a rugby team as "a small, irritating man with thinning hair who shouts a lot".
That's one take on matters.
Wales don't have anyone who fits that description in their setup right now.
But they need one of their nines to supply inspiration.
Can one of them make a convincing play for the jersey just six months out from the World Cup? That is what Gatland will want. That is what the team needs if Wales are to avoid the ignominy of finishing the championship propping up the rest for the first time in 20 years.
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