Wales Strength in Depth.

The last two years have been a bit of a disaster for Wales, weve been plagued by a lack of depth in our squads that we have put out and have rarely if ever been able to field our first team. Actually whilst this has led to poor results and of course the whimsical musings of those posters from accross the severn, Wales have now developed real strength in depth. Perhaps not by design but by accident we are looking like we have a good little squad with 2-3 players in each position. Not only that all of the players below are still going to be available after the World Cup even with the retirement of,Shane, Wellies and Nugget.

1. Gethin, Paul James, Bevvington
2. Smiler, Hibbard, Bennett
3., Adam, Mitchell, Scott Andrews
4. Bradlely. Ryan, Ian Evans
5. AWJ. Charteris
6. Lydiate. Turnbull, JT
7. Warburton, Tipuric,
8. Faletau, Delve, McCusker, Powell
9. Phillips, Tavis, Lloyd Wiilliams
10. Hook, Priestland,
11. North, Stoddart
12. Roberts, S Williams, Gavin
13. JD2, Bishop,
14. Halfpenny, Brew
15. Byrne, Prydie

A few years ago we were complaining about lack of options in the backrow.

Suddenly we have te most depth in the backrow but are struggling in formerly strong areas such as centre (no shanks, no henson, no bishop etc)

We need more competition in the second row, unfortunetly there seems to be little talent coming through at the regions. The Scarlets have struggled to get quality there, the Ospreys are relying on established players, the Dragons dont have great Locks, perhaps Downs at the Blues? Not much really.

We lack backup specialist fullbacks, but with Byrne leaving the Ospreys there will be a new (hopefully WQ) FB there - Prydie?. There is also Fish at the Blues and Martyn Thomas at the Dragons and there is cover in Stoddart, Halfpenny and Preistland. (I especially like Stoddart at FB for Wales because of his counter-attacking)

We could use more depth in the centres, Beck at the Ospreys needs more development. Im a big fan of Hughes at the Dragons in the centre role. The Blues have Allen and O.Williams coming through although that may be another year or 2. The Scarlets are unearthing a lot of talent, and with King gone there will be more opportunities for them - S.Williams, J.Davies and G.Maule are all quality and WQ.

There will be a lot of competition at 10 after SJ retires - Hook, Biggar, Tovey, Preistland or even N.Robinson (if Gatland looks at him)

Hopefully the Scarlets and Dragons will start to produce some Props! Gardiner looks like a good player at THP for the Scarlets and RThomas seems to have found some form.

The 9 shirt will be contested hard both regionally and internationally, L.Williams at the Blues and R.Webb at the Ospreys will both be fighting for a starting shirt next season. G.Davies may challenge Knoyle at th Scarlets, although thats probably too soon to call. Will Wayne Evans ever get a call up?

Some depth on the Wing with Halfpenny, North, Shane and Stoddart - But with Shane retirement imminent, we will need more depth - This could be a problem with Lamont, Walker and Bowe at the regions. There are some player who can do-a-job, Brew, T.James, Prydie, Harries (though he needs more of a chance) perhaps R.Mustoe, but none have really stood out and are really just good regional players that are perhaps reducing gametime for the next generation of Wales players. H.Robinson at the Blues needs gametime, as does K.Phillips, T.Prydie and H.Dirksen at the Ospreys. Not really sure how many new wingers will make it onto the regional scene in the next few year (just look at the rise of G.North to see how unpredictable depth in this area can be)

also the likes of matthew morgan- a bit early but i think next couple of seasons...

We have depth - the strength is questionable and of all the areas we need more strength in the front row as last week showed.

Great article, and great responses too, especially Wales606.

I agree Wales do seem to have a lot of depth and talent coming through.

I don't think Wales need worry about Bryne's replacement. In the long term I'm assuming Tom Prydie will come good for the Ospreys, assuming there is no lasting damage after his knee reconstruction surgery. then maybe he can recover, as bad as the injury is, sometimes a long lay off can do a player good to give him a break.

Steffan Jones at the Dragons is looking a really hot prospect. he looks brilliant with the ball in hand, his try on his debut against the blues had class written all over it, and he was outstanding in the recent game against Russia.

There are a raft of wingers coming through the problem is the Ospreys have them all, and their competing with Walker, Bowe and Shane Williams for places.
The rumour is both Niki Walker will not have his contract renewed at the end of the season, and Bowe might look at going back to Ireland. Shane will also be 35 at the end of this season so you wonder how good he is actually going to be then, as sadly old father time will catch up with him.
Kristian Phillips, Hanno Dirksen, Tom Prydie and Eli Walker all look very, very promising and hopefully they will be given chances this season during the world cup, and next season to develop.

May I suggest we get our A Side back then so these guys can bridge the gap between Region and International.

I am still bit worrird about T/Head and fullback.

Mitchell has struggled last two games and for me Andrews is nowhere near good enough.

When Byrne gets injured we just seem to move players about rather than selecting a natural XV who plays there week in week out. I hope B Davies hits some form for the O's this season now and also that Martyn Thomas can recover from two nasty injuries.

BUT we may have strength in depth now in most positions but as last week showed we still struggle come Line out time so not matter how many we have if the can't do basics.

The areas that concern me are prop, 2nd row and fullback.

After Gethin and Adam we have very little strength as has been seen in the last 2 games.

Also I don't think our 2nd rows would get in many other top 8 teams. I would kill for a Matfield or an O'Cconnell in there.

Fullback is the other one. Byrne has had his day for me and doesn't offer much but after that we are in to makeshift fullbacks/wingers. A good solid fullback can give those players around them confidence and add a lot to the attack but at the moment we seem to be groping around for someone to do that job.

Simon Gardiner looks the business at tighthead, Rhodri Jones, also of the Scarlets can play tight or loosehead, the Ospreys have got some very promising props coming through as well. Short term there's always Rhys Thomas as backup, he's improved his scrummaging a lot, then there's Andrews at the Blues, who's still a youngster. Not as bad as Bedfordwelsh makes out.

Its a little bit disappointing people are simply content to write off Paul James and Craig Mitchell.

Both have been good for Wales for the last 2 seasons, yet they struggle in 2 pre-season games against one of the strongest packs in the world and their written off. Remember the Wales players have been doing fitness work, while England have been doing strength and power work, so if England didn't have an advantage you should be worried!

Their is nothing wrong with either of their work or scrumaging, Paul James actually has 25 caps for Wales and I have never heard anyone query his scrumaging ability until the England game. He was also Wales third highest tackler in the game, only behind Warburton and Lydiate.

Remember Mitchell and Jame have pretty much been our props for 2 seasons during long term injuries to Gethin and Adam and the replacements havent let us down .

this thread/article is about strength in depth, in other words who's the backup to the established players, I haven't read a bad word about Paul James in this article, and it's been mentioned Mitchell hasn't had a good couple of games and that's it, so I'm not sure where your post comes from.

essentially i feel wales strength in depth still need a lot of improvement up to the point we have no less than all the starting players for the regions pushing for international honours (60 players). The back-row is the most developed area so far but even then we must always seek to improve.

Scarlets - Rob Mcusker, Josh Turnbull and hopfully down the line Ben Morgan so there covered. However Rob and josh both prefer openside so maybe im being a little leniant.

Ospreys - Justin Tipuric, Ryan Jones, jon thomas gametime was decreased by the presence of collins and it remains to be seen wherether george stowers does the same

Blues - Openside there coverd with Sam Warburton. Blindside flanker andries pretorious has expressed his intrest in playing for wales however at number 8 they are still far to reliant on rush.

Dragons - Covered at blind-side and number 8 with Faletau and Lydiate. Openside was Gavin Thomas however i expect jevon Groves to replace him in the near future. The Dragons have the best scenario of the regions.

welsh-matfield wrote:

Scarlets - Rob Mcusker, Josh Turnbull and hopfully down the line Ben Morgan so there covered. However Rob and josh both prefer openside so maybe im being a little leniant.

eh? where've you heard that? both McCusker and Turnbull are blindsides, but Turnbull was tried at open and he was brilliant there, to my knowledge McCusker has never played openside.

apologies i meant blindside and yeah i suppose youre right about turnbull Turkster

Paul James was shown as not being that great at all. Remember Stevens hasn't played international rugby for 2 years and gave him a lesson in scrummaging.

The Welsh front five is a weakness without Adam Jones and Gethin Jenkins.

Remember in the world cup you will be coming up against South Africa who have a huge pack.

I thought James did ok and was affected by Mitchells poor performance and cole boring in.

He showed up well against the Argies. I'm hopeful in a few years that Gardiner and Andrews develop well, and Bevington. but it will take at least 2 years to get them anywhere near int standard.

You also left out R Jones, Thomas (for full back), Tovey (for FB and 10) I'd also put McCusker in instead of JT (assuming your on about Jon Thomas).

I think in the next few seasons we'll see a lot more strength in depth, and we're probably about 5-10 years behind Ireland and hopefully will have very strong regions in 5 years who are challenging at the top in europe.