Warren Gatland I salute you!

Fair play to WG,he could easily have picked Martyn Williams on sentimental grounds.A Welsh coach probably would have felt obliged to.He has the advantage of being detached and has made a hard-nosed dispassionate decision but it still cannot have been easy.I bet he agonised over this one!
WG has his favourites and he has his misfits as do all coaches.Nitpicking aside,his selection gives us our best available squad.
Could he have used Autumn games to try out other options?Probably,but we are where we are.
Good luck to him and our boys!

no brainer really MW is not even first choice for Blues & hasn't performed for a long time at a decent enough level. Great player in his time mind but the game has moved on & he gets pinged too often now.

A 38 year old Shaw being picked was a braver decision perhaps?

WG has picked S Jones, he has at least two better flyhalves, Jones lost his 10 position during the 6N but nobody else had much of a chance even against the BaaBaas. I feel MW has more to give the team than S Jones but he is still there, why not take Tovey or Biggar to give one of them experience for 4 years time.

Biggar has had his chance and was found wanting...what better back up 10 , Lion and senior member of a squad can you have than SJ...brings so much more to a campaign than any other option could...now is not the time for sentimentalism or try outs. We need experience and ability to TCUP.

glamorganalun wrote:WG has picked S Jones, he has at least two better flyhalves, Jones lost his 10 position during the 6N but nobody else had much of a chance even against the BaaBaas. I feel MW has more to give the team than S Jones but he is still there, why not take Tovey or Biggar to give one of them experience for 4 years time.

It was always a no brainer for me for over a year and it didn't go down well with other Wales fans. But nj was right as always. Makes even more of a mockery of Blues imo, the ones who extended his contract.

nottins_jones wrote:It was always a no brainer for me for over a year and it didn't go down well with other Wales fans. But nj was right as always. Makes even more of a mockery of Blues imo, the ones who extended his contract.

I hear what your saying but the guy has more experience of top modern international rugby than virtually any player on the planet. If not as a player then Williams is a valuable asset in other ways.

He has obviously, and reputedly been a magnificent mentor to sam Warburton and my haven't we benefitted from him.

I can see why the Blues are hanging on to him.

I'd like to see Wales add him to the back room staff.

Imagine being Warburton and having Martyn Williams bring you a bottle of water on the pitch in a tough match. He is bound to be able to offer some valuable insight.

Definitely not as a player maes.

I also think it's a myth he's been a mentor to Sam. His school and now his Region probably did most of that; but he had the potential anyway. Plus he's in the past revealed how he's idolised McCaw, so not much to do with Martyn it seems.

Sadly MW was in poor form for the Blues all season. Seeing 3 young back-row forwards in the U20s from the Blues catchment area who each look like young Warburtons then knowing they re-signed Martyn makes you want to go slap the guys in charge of recruitment...

Well the Blues recruitment guys have lacked any form of sound investment in players for a while now. Dan Parks, Sam Norton Knight.

To be fair compared with those blunders, Martyn Williams contract is almost a visionary new wave decision...!