So much for the notion that experience is priceless in Test rugby.
Veterans everywhere would have shuddered when learning of Warren Gatland’s Wales starting line-up for the Six Nations clash with Scotland, with Taulupe Faletau benched and Justin Tipuric and Alun Wyn Jones not involved.
The trio boast 342 Wales caps and 18 Lions Test appearances and can be counted among Wales’ greatest players. But Gatland evidently feels the clock is ticking towards the World Cup and wants to see how younger players fare on the front line.
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The 34-10 home thrashing by Ireland has prompted the changes, with the hosts outgunned pretty much across the board.
Gatland has now opted for radical action. It's not the first time he has fast-tracked young players, with the New Zealander doing the same in the run-up to the 2011 World Cup but he had more time to bed them in before that tournament.
Whatever, last weekend seems to have forced his hand. There are six changes up front, one them positional. No calls have been deemed off limits.
Here are the main headlines and the reasons for the shake-up.
Faletau benched, Morgan starts at No. 8
He was widely thought to be undroppable. When Taulupe Faletau is available, you start with Taulupe Faletau, the mantra has long gone.
Not this weekend. Warren Gatland has rolled the dice and demoted the Lions No. 8 for the Murrayfield Test.
Many will see it as an eye-opener. But as so many big names have discovered down the years, among them JPR Williams and Phil Bennett, very few players put themselves in a position where their places are guaranteed.
There were even calls for Gareth Edwards to be left out at certain points in his Wales career — and not all of them from Chico Hopkins, a scrum-half former Welsh coach Clive Rowlands reckoned would have won 50 caps had he played for another country.
Faletau is dropped to the bench. He was uncharacteristically indisciplined against Ireland, giving away three penalties in the opening 26 minutes as the visitors Cardiff built their big lead. There were other black marks on his stats sheet, including two handling turnovers conceded and a handling error. But next to no Welsh player was error free on the day.
On the credit side, the revised official figures show Faletau made more tackles (21) than any of his team-mates and more ball carries (13 for 49 metres) than any other member of the Welsh pack. You can read more here about the making of Faletau.
But what the selection shows is that Gatland is not prepared to put up with indiscipline from anyone. “The discipline and soft penalties cost us,” he said immediately after the game.
Jac Morgan at No. 8 will guarantee enthusiasm, aggression and sustained application. A place had to be found for him in the back row.
But Faletau is a player who provides a carrying option, as well, at a time when Wales need ball carriers.
“We’re looking at options at eight if Toby Faletau picks up an injury who’s going to cover there, so Jac gets that chance,” said Gatland.
A trip to Murrayfield in the Six Nations isn’t usually time to experiment, and Wales could have had a ready-made replacement for Faletau had they included Ross Moriarty in the squad.
The immensely impressive Morgan is a player who's going to be in the Wales mix for years.
But Faletau's omission was unexpected. And it will send a shudder through rugby.
Rest of the back row reshaped
Faletau is not the only celebrated back-row player to left out of the starting line-up for the game against Scotland.
Justin Tipuric doesn’t even make the bench. Reputation and past deeds have counted for nothing.
Wales won fewer than half the turnovers Ireland snaffled last weekend and found it hard to slow Irish ball in the opening half. Tipuric wasn’t among those who pilfered possession and he made a couple of mistakes in quick succession which prompted the head coach to replace him after 54 minutes.
The writing was on the wall then. In opting to do drop him, Wales are choosing to do without vast experience, sharp rugby intelligence and a package of skills that few back rowers in the world can rival.
But Tommy Reffell is a turnover specialist who’s as courageous and combative as they come. He has earned respect in English rugby for his breakdown work and can tilt the balance of a game with his ability to thieve possession.
The pick of the 6ft 6in, 17st 7lb Christ Tshiunza at six gives Wales not only height and a lineout option in the back row — something that was critical once the call was made to omit Tipuric — but also power and athleticism.
He is only 21, while Reffell and Morgan are 23. Time is short ahead of the World Cup, but youth is having a fling.
Dafydd Jenkins comes in for Alun Wyn
Jenkins is that highly thought of at Exeter Chiefs that they have made him captain.
This time last year, he had just made his first appearance for the Devon club in the Gallagher Premiership, with Jenkins also playing for Exeter University.
The college’s director of rugby Keith Fleming would go on to tell WalesOnline in the autumn: “He has special qualities. You name me somebody that young in his position who’s come forward so quickly in the last decade. You’ll struggle to find one.
“I don’t want to blow smoke up his backside. I just want him to get out there and do what he does, because he does it very well. He puts everything on the line for you and doesn’t do anything by halves. He’s a hundred percent with everything does and he has such a good rugby brain.
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“What I like about him, too, is that he’s a leader who has an edge. You need an edge in his position."
Nothing that has happened in Jenkins' short career so far contradicts that view.
What of Alun Wyn Jones? Wales indicated in the week that he was available to face Scotland, with a neck problem diagnosed, though not one that would put him off limits for the trip to Murrayfield. Would he have featured had the banged in a top-of-the-range performance in a winning team effort against Ireland last weekend? You'd have thought there would have been a good chance.
But Gatland is widening his options and seeing what the next generation are about.
At just 20 Jenkins is exceptionally young to be starting his first Test as a lock, a position where it can take time to mature.
But he is seen as the future. And right now, the future is calling.
Return of a Gatland favourite
Wyn Jones has started only one game since October, yet he’s named in the Wales run-on XV for Murrayfield.
It’s fair to say Gatland rates him as a player, having made him a Test Lion in 2021.
Jones had a fine tour, reliable in the scrums and good over the ball.
Gareth Thomas was far from Wales’ worst player against Scotland and was one of only two home forwards not to miss a tackle: 14 hits attempted, every one nailed, the same numbers as Tipuric.
Like Tipuric, Thomas doesn’t even make the bench, with Rhys Carre holding his place as shadow loosehead. Dillon Lewis features at tight-head, with Tomas Francis picking up a calf-muscle injury against Ireland.
It means Gatland has bypassed props for his matchday 23 from the Ospreys, the region who have one of the strongest scrums in the United Rugby Championship.
Another young gun on the bench
Rhys Davies is set for his first Test start after being named among the replacements.
At 6ft 6in and 18st 3lb, he packs height and weight and has added to his game with a couple of outings at blindside flanker this term. He is a strong defender who competes over the ball and will enjoy the physical challenge of the Test game.
Leon Brown has had just 34 minutes of rugby in 10 months because of an injury, but he made an impact when he returned for the Dragons against Emirates Lions last month. The tighthead is hard to stop on the charge and Wales will see him as having the potential to add to their carrying game.
Rhys Patchell takes over the fly-half bench spot held last week by Owen Williams.
But it's same again behind
Gatland has opted for continuity behind, preferring not to draft in Alex Cuthbert for a marking job on Duhan van der Merwe. Instead, Cuthbert has to be content with a place on the bench.
Tomos Williams has held off Rhys Webb’s challenge at scrum-half and there continues to be no place in midfield for Nick Tompkins, a Wayne Pivac favourite.
This is Gatland seeing what tomorrow looks like, while hoping those picked are up to the challenges of today.
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