One of the characteristics that made Wales successful under Warren Gatland was their power of recovery. In the 12 years the New Zealander was in charge they suffered successive defeats in a Six Nations campaign three times and an early test for his successor, Wayne Pivac, is how the champions respond to last Saturday’s defeat to Ireland in Dublin.
“We have lost one game but it is not all over,” says the Wales full‑back, Leigh Halfpenny, whose return to form after missing half of last season with concussion has helped conceal the absence of the injured Liam Williams. “We can still win the title. We lost our first game in 2013 to Ireland and then won the rest to retain the championship so we know we are still in the hunt.”
France arrive in Cardiff on Saturday armed with one of Gatland’s former lieutenants, Shaun Edwards. Not only do the hosts have to win to retain an interest in the title before their trip to Twickenham in the following round, but to prevent unfavourable early comparisons between the two regimes.
Gatland tasted Six Nations success in Dublin with Wales twice and two years ago lost in a match similar to last Saturday’s, outplayed for the most part but in with a chance of sneaking victory until conceding a late try. But he oversaw a defeat by France in Cardiff once, in 2010. Six years ago, Wales were beaten 26-3 in Ireland in the second round and recovered to overcome France by 21 points at home two weeks later.
“It means focusing on ourselves and working hard on the training field to put right what went wrong in Dublin,” says Halfpenny. “We know we have to put in a performance against France. What was disappointing in Dublin was the errors we made throughout the game: sort them out and we are in a better position.”
The 31-year-old Halfpenny is the lone survivor from the two starting lineups in 2010 when France won 26-20, although the hooker, Ken Owens, was an unused replacement that Friday night. The closest of the four matches since was two years ago, when a late missed kick allowed Wales to scramble a one-point victory and France’s past six away victories in the tournament since they won in Dublin in 2011 have come in Rome and Edinburgh.
“France have an exciting team across the park and Shaun will give them structure in defence,” says Halfpenny. “We know how difficult teams found it to break us down when he was our defence coach and the challenge for us, which we are working on, is to identify where we can overcome their system.
“It will be weird to see Shaun with another side but that is rugby: time moves on. He is a great coach to work with and what he did with Wales was fantastic. Working with him brought on my defensive game immensely. He taught me a lot. I had to adapt and kept working with him so I have a lot to thank him for. It is exciting to be going up against his defensive style.”
Under Edwards’s guidance, Halfpenny became one of the best defensive full-backs in the world, rarely caught out of position and courageous under the high ball, as he again showed in Dublin. His attacking game did not evolve as much and a player who was on the wing in the 2010 match became largely risk-free in his approach.
That has changed under Pivac and in the opening round against Italy in Cardiff, most of his kicks out of hand were strategic, seeking space and advantage, rather than giving the ball back to the opposition and trusting the defensive line to thwart a counterattack. “We are looking to make good decisions on the ball,” he says. “When it comes to kicking and chasing, it is about identifying where the space is, scanning and shifting the ball into it to make sure you keep going forward.
“I am enjoying being out there and am hugely grateful to be back after the injury last season. I still have things to work on, but I am loving being a dad [his daughter, Lily, was born 13 months ago]. It puts everything into perspective.”
