Steve Tandy on winning, the importance of performances and his Wales selection
Steve Tandy wants Wales to be 'super competitive', but believes that only comes through performances
©Photo by Steve Haag - Nations Championship/Nations Championship via Getty Images
Steve Tandy has named a 39-man squad ahead of Wales' November matches in the Nations Championship.
The Wales head coach has selected three uncapped players, including Dragons duo Aneurin Owen and Che Hope, as well as Cardiff's Rhys Barratt, who featured against the Barbarians earlier this year.
More than a third of the squad currently ply their trade outside Wales, including captain Dewi Lake, who has settled well into life at Gloucester alongside flanker Jac Morgan.
But what were the key takeaways from Tandy's squad selection on Tuesday?
'Our ambition is to win' - although performance remains a priority
After facing criticism for focusing on performances in previous campaigns, Tandy made his ambition clear when announcing his squad.
However, he stressed that building consistency would depend on maintaining high standards, both on and off the field.
"We want to win," said Tandy. "We want to be super competitive, but the only way we're going to get that consistently is through performance.
"I'm not going to get away from our performances, so the more consistent we are with our performance, both on and off the field, the closer we will get to winning more consistently.
"So that's something I'm not going to move away from - the performance base. Our ambition is to win. There's no doubt in my mind about what everyone wants to do.
"But we also want to make sure that every time we do it, every day, whether it be planning, preparation or recovery, we have to keep growing.
"We have to keep getting better so we can get to that point where, hopefully, we can do that consistently."
Importance of alignment camps with full coaching team
From alignment camps for centre pairings to Friday scrum sessions for regional props not involved in matchday squads, there appears to be a greater connection between the regional rugby set-up and the international squad, something that has received less attention during the Tandy era.
The head coach admitted that this could benefit the national side in the future, alongside a full coaching ticket following the appointments of Alex Davies as kicking coach and Ben Whitehouse as specialist coach focusing on discipline.
"Our point of difference is our sort of geography, with how quickly we can get people in the building," said Tandy.
"I think it's all about the learning. We run alignment camps because we're massive on connection, but also the detail, whether it be refereeing, a bit of history or backfield exposure, or Alex [Davies] getting the nines in and looking at how we kick, how we want to do that and practice.
"Paul [James] (scrum coach) is going to do a little bit more on the scrums. We've had scrum school on Fridays with the regions, with the boys who might not be involved at the weekend.
"So it's about looking at how we can accelerate growth in any way, shape or form, whether it be our coaches going into the regions.
"It's about speaking to the regional coaches, whether it be individual performance plans or looking at workshops on how we accelerate them, both on and off the field.
"And just hopefully keeping that value and supporting these players."
Youngsters mentioned as exciting prospects
While Cardiff centre Steff Emmanuel and Ospreys full-back Liam Edwards were not named in the squad for the autumn matches, Tandy was full of praise for the pair.
Emmanuel impressed against Gallagher Prem champions Northampton Saints in Sunday's 28-12 Champions Cup defeat and had featured in an alignment camp, like uncapped centre Aneurin Owen.
"Steff Emmanuel has been super consistent for our 20s, and again, playing at the weekend was awesome to see," Tandy added.
"We've had him in our alignment camps. He was in when we had the 12s and 13s in last week as well. We see a real bright future for him."
Tandy described Edwards as an 'outstanding player', having watched the 19-year-old develop through Wales Under-20s and gain regular game time in Super Rugby Cymru.
"I think he's an outstanding rugby player," said Tandy. "I've watched his SRC stuff, watched him in the Under-20s, and I think he's got huge potential.
"It's just making sure that we manage our process, so how we accelerate them as well to get them the exposure that's needed to come on to the international stage."
Page misses out as Scarlets duo head to South Africa
With two more rounds of the United Rugby Championship (URC) remaining before Wales' opening autumn fixture against Japan on 7 November, there are still a couple of Welsh derbies to be played at the redeveloped St Helen's ground, with the Ospreys hosting both the Dragons and Cardiff.
As for the Scarlets, they face a tough trip to South Africa, with five of the seven players called up by Tandy rested - Ryan Elias, Sam Costelow, Eddie James, Ellis Mee and Blair Murray.
The Llanelli-based side endured a difficult start to the season, losing derby matches against Cardiff and the Dragons, but bounced back with a brilliant second-half comeback to beat Benetton 27-26. They followed that up with a thumping 47-14 victory over Newcastle Red Bulls in the EPCR Challenge Cup last Saturday.
Taine Plumtree and Joe Hawkins are expected to travel to face the Stormers this coming Saturday before returning next week to link up with Wales.
Macs Page is another player who will head to South Africa with Nigel Davies' side, but missed out on Tandy's squad despite the wing being in good form for his region.
Tandy discussed the situation and how he wants to develop Wales' current and emerging backs.
"I'm probably seeing Macs as more of a winger who can probably play 13," Tandy admitted. "We want to build cohesion and consistency around the cap numbers, but I also think we have to look at potential.
"If we think that potential is going to elevate our performance, then I'm open to doing that. I agree that probably, in particular, our back line is where you want to create cohesion and probably get to 20 or 30 caps as quickly as you can.
"But also still making sure the performance is there. It's a fine balancing act, in particular when you've got, outside of Josh Adams and Tomos Williams, not a massive amount of caps so we've got to nurture that.
"We have to be patient, and I don't think it's about chopping and changing everything because I feel we've got so much potential in an already young group in certain departments.
"But we've got to be brave enough. If we think there's talent that can add value to it, then we've got to have the ability to do that."
Wales squad for Nations Championship
Forwards (22)
Rhys Barratt (Cardiff Rugby - uncapped), Taine Basham (Cardiff Rugby -17 caps), Adam Beard (Montpellier - 68 caps), Liam Belcher (Cardiff Rugby - 5 caps), James Botham (Cardiff Rugby - 24 caps), Rhys Carre (Saracens - 31 caps), Ben Carter (Dragons - 21 caps), Ryan Elias (Scarlets - 51 caps), Seb Davies (Dragons -17 caps), Tomas Francis (Sale Sharks - 82 caps), Archie Griffin (Bath Rugby - 16 caps), Kane James (Exeter Chiefs - 1 cap), Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs - 31 caps), Dewi Lake (Gloucester Rugby - 34 caps - captain), Dillon Lewis (Dragons - 60 caps), Alex Mann (Cardiff Rugby - 18 caps), Jac Morgan (Gloucester Rugby - 27 caps), Taine Plumtree (Scarlets -15 caps), Nicky Smith (Sale Sharks - 66 caps), Gareth Thomas (Ospreys - 44 caps), Aaron Wainwright (Leicester Tigers - 70 caps), Teddy Williams (Cardiff Rugby - 10 caps).
Backs (17)
Josh Adams (Cardiff Rugby - 72 caps), Sam Costelow (Scarlets - 22 caps), Rio Dyer (Dragons - 24 caps), Dan Edwards (Ospreys - 13 caps), Gabriel Hamer-Webb (Leicester Tigers - 1 cap), Joe Hawkins (Scarlets - 13 caps), Louie Hennessey (Bath Rugby - 1 cap), Che Hope (Dragons - uncapped), Eddie James (Scarlets - 11 caps), Max Llewellyn (Gloucester Rugby - 13 caps), Ellis Mee (Scarlets - 11 caps), Reuben Morgan-Williams (Ospreys - 3 caps), Blair Murray (Scarlets - 19 caps), Aneurin Owen (Dragons - uncapped), Louis Rees-Zammit (Bristol Bears - 43 caps), Tom Rogers (Ospreys - 13 caps), Tomos Williams (Saracens - 75 caps).
