With 186 Wales caps between them and a host of honours within the game, rare are the days that Taulupe Faletau and Justin Tipuric struggle to deliver in a red jersey.
Yet that's exactly what we saw against Ireland. When Peter O'Mahony, Josh van der Flier and Caelan Doris rolled into Cardiff, they put on a back-row show that overshadowed their opposite numbers.
Rarely have Tipuric and Faletau struggled so much to make an impact. Granted, there were other issues, but it would seem the Welsh breakaway trio of Jac Morgan, Tipuric and Faletau is one that lacks a certain balance to work.
Morgan didn't let himself down with another all-action display, but we undoubtedly didn't see the best of the other two. Quite why that was the case is for a myriad of reasons.
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For Faletau's part, discipline and utilisation seemed the biggest issues. A slew of first-half penalties went against him in uncharacteristic fashion.
Three of Wales' first eight penalties were against the No. 8 - with ones for not rolling away quickly enough either side of an offside at a lineout. All conceded within the opening 26 minutes, when Ireland were firmly on top, there's little doubt that those infringements blotted his copybook.
How he was used as a carrier also made life difficult for him. Six metres from 14 carries doesn't exactly read well, but Faletau was given a difficult task - being asked to carry in the tight over and over again.
In contrast, Jac Morgan - who is a more explosive carrier - made 54 metres from seven carries, although some of those touches came in space out in wider channels. Frustratingly for Faletau, those 14 carries meant he led the way in terms of carries, even if the metres made show he wasn't carrying in the most effective of situations.
Faletau is never going to hammer through defenders at will. The use of his footwork and forward options outside him at least give him a chance of dictating contact, but that's not an exact science given Wales' inability to generate consistently quick ball.
Defensively though, he went well. Baring the early penalties, he made 19 tackles - second only to Morgan. He slipped off a few, but they appeared to come from systematic flaws rather than individual errors, per se.
One early missed tackle came when Johnny Sexton stepped inside him near his own line. However, the fault lay in how isolated Faletau had been left in the defensive line - with Gareth Thomas and Alun Wyn Jones disconnected either side of him.
That all comes from Ireland having broken down the left side after shortening up the Welsh backline. Those phases identify a few issues away from the back-row that should concern Wales fans, as well as maybe the odd reason for optimism.
On the whole, Wales just aren't folding around the ruck area as they should. The likes of Sam Warburton, John Barclay and Tommy Bowe have all pointed this out on TV analysis over the weekend.
Particularly near their goalline, there just isn't the desire to fold around the breakdown and push out. That is what led to George North defending at guard for Ireland's first try, then at the edge of the inside post for their second. That's not the sort of position you should be putting your outside centre in, but what happens when you honeypot around the ruck.
Sure, Ireland's relentlessly quick and efficient carrying sucks you in, but, this early in the game, you have to question why players aren't doing more to get around to the other side of the breakdown. Particularly when Ireland's early scores were built upon, among other things, forwards doing the simple thing of getting back on their feet and getting another body in position, it's disappointing Wales couldn't match what should be a basic thing.
There were exceptions. Morgan does a nice job of making a tackle that allowed Faletau a sniff at a breakdown turnover, before getting back to his feet on the next phase and making another hit.
But, on the whole, Wales don't fold around - leaving them short as Ireland keep moving back to the left flank. Even with Adam Beard slowing down possession, there are not enough forwards guarding the ruck for Tomos Williams to spot-blitz with any confidence and Ireland can reach an easy edge. Once dragged down just short, they work back infield from the touchline.
The first carry sees Tipuric and Ken Owens haul down Tadhg Beirne, with Dan Biggar and Williams out of the game and Josh Adams and Liam Williams also sucked into the area around the ruck. Prop Thomas takes his place at guard, with Williams realising Wales need more numbers around the fringes - pointing on Adams to move out.
Ironically, given how much the Welsh pack honeypot around rucks, here they get caught too stretched. Under Shaun Edwards, Wales' pack made it a principle to push out and help the backs fill the field, but scrambling to get back here, staying wide put the cart before the horse.
No one takes over from Thomas as guard, with Sexton realising this and calling for an inside runner. With options inside and out, a disconnected Faletau is stepped and Ireland move into touching distance of the try.
Despite all that, Faletau's place in the side should be secure. Realistically, there's little in the way of genuine No. 8 options and the odds on Faletau having another quiet game are relatively slim, given his usual consistency.
There will come a day when Wales need to replace him, perish the thought, but, despite the age profile of Warren Gatland's squad and his perceived frustration with that, it won't be soon. Ross Moriarty is out for favour for whatever reason, Morgan Morris is untested at international level and there doesn't seem any great rush to change that, while Aaron Wainwright has only just moved away from No. 8.
So when it comes to addressing the back-row balance, Faletau is unlikely to be the fall guy. Nor will Morgan, who as mentioned earlier, did his best to get into everything in a green jersey.
The Ospreys man led the way in tackles and dominant tackles, while he also made the most metres amongst the forwards. He also, and this is crucial to the back-row balance, made more attempts at jackal turnovers than anyone else in red.
Jackal attempts isn't a traditionally recorded statistic like tackles or metres made, but trawling through the tape shows that Morgan made nine attempts over the ball, winning one penalty.
Faletau attempted to get over the ball three times, while Liam Williams and Rhys Carre managed to win holding penalties. Tommy Reffell, in just 26 minutes on the pitch, made two attempts over the ball and generally disrupted the breakdown as much as Karl Dickson would allow.
However, notably, Tipuric didn't attempt a single breakdown turnover. There are multiple reasons why that might be.
Opensides often talk of not wasting bullets and waiting for the right opportunities - with some adamant that breakdown turnovers only come from clearout errors rather than jackal brilliance. You have to be given an in, so to speak.
Then there's the fact that it is pretty hard to stem the tide when the opposition are winning collision after collision. But still, Morgan and Reffell managed to make some inroads.
Tipuric went close to challenging at the breakdown, as we highlighted in another piece after the weekend, but that brief look at the breakdown sucked Morgan into guard rather than bouncing off the ruck - leaving Faletau isolated against Sexton ahead of an inside ball to James Ryan.
Whether that was looked at in depth, or the fact other forwards fails to fold properly, in the video session at the start of the week is anyone's guess.
Tipuric is a man of many talents, with that multi-faceted game seeing him nominated for European Player of the Year just the other day. On a quiet day for the man in the blue cap, he still went through 14 tackles. But Wales' balance in the back-row didn't seem to work on Saturday so something might need to change.
Right now, there's not a big enough carrying threat, while the lack of breakdown nous is a concern. Morgan is a willing carrier and something of a pinball when it comes to stealing yards through contact, but Wales perhaps need more bulk - particularly given the dearth of challengers to the gainline in the front-five - to allow him to focus on the traditional openside game.
Right now, if the balance is to be shifted, it should be built around Morgan - not just for his talent and work rate, but for the much-needed impetus he brings to this Wales side as a hungry 23-year-old with a handful of caps.
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So maybe that means bringing in Tommy Reffell to assist with the breakdown, or Christ Tshiunza to offer genuine physicality on the blindside.
The back-row isn't the defining issue in this Welsh team - that's the paucity of momentum that the pack as a whole can generate - and the blame for Saturday's failings can't be laid at the door of those wearing six, seven and eight. Gatland will be scratching his head more at how players were failing to fold around rucks 90 seconds into a Test match instead.
But the make-up of this back-row isn't quite settled and it's helped hinder the effects of two of Wales' finest players in recent times. Given Gatland's talk of giving others a chance, we'll likely see other variations get a go in the coming weeks.
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