So that’s a wrap. The end of one of the longest seasons in international Welsh rugby history as mid-July’s scorching sunshine signalled the conclusion of this unique campaign.
The British and Irish Lions have three weeks remaining of their Test series in South Africa and Wales boast a sizeable contingent. But for Wayne Pivac’s national side, that is finally it.
Defeat against Argentina means Wales have finished how they started, when they lost to France back in Paris in October 2020. In between those losses there has been plenty of drama, silverware and experimentation.
After rugby’s resumption following the break caused by Covid-19, Wales have played 14 games in just under nine months spanning two seasons of competitions and three different tournaments.
There have been seven wins, six defeats and a draw in a campaign that has ranged wildly from despair to triumph and back to disappointment.
A poor autumn campaign saw question marks about whether Pivac was the right man to follow Warren Gatland as Wales coach.
Home games were played behind closed doors at Parc y Scarlets because Principality Stadium was a field hospital for Covid-19 patients. Just a remarkable reminder of the turbulent times we have lived in.
Those Pivac doubts were allayed when he and skipper Alun Wyn Jones led Wales to the Six Nations title.
It should have been a Grand Slam triumph, except for a last-gasp heart-breaking try for France in Paris in March. Welsh players and fans still think about that remarkable night in Stade de France.
With their leading lights on the Lions tour this summer, Wales were left to field a shadow side against Canada and for two Tests against Argentina in Cardiff, a couple of matches that should have been played in south America.
So a series defeat against the powerful Pumas – containing a draw and a loss – for a depleted Wales side has brought the curtain down on a season like no other.
At least the final three home matches were played in front of a small Cardiff crowd, after the other 11 games were played behind closed doors.
The Wales boss has used 57 players in those games as he builds towards the 2023 World Cup in France and unleashed some stellar talent, nobody more so than Gloucester wing Louis Rees-Zammit – making such an immediate impact for Wales that the 20-year-old now finds himself a Lion.
Pivac has been forced to live through a range of conflicting emotions during the campaign but he insists he would not change the experiences.
“Internally, we’re very happy,” he said. “We’re happy 18 or 19 players have been exposed at this level of the game in about as many months.
“Even though that will hurt at times and players can get exposed at this level, they’ll be better for it in the future.
“That’s going to help with our depth and as you saw against Argentina, our depth was tested. We had about 27 players unavailable by the end of this summer series.
“The autumn and this series has been what we needed in terms of the development phase. Everyone was pretty pleased with the competition phase, the Six Nations, because we were able to get a result.”
That successful Six Nations gave Wales their healthy Lions contribution, which forced Pivac to expose more players in the last three games.
The New Zealander believes he has realised some players are not ready for the rigours of international rugby as he looks to develop five players for each position.
“That’s what the whole exercise is about,” said Pivac.
“When you bring in a raft of new players, they’re not going to just hit the ground running against a team like Argentina, who caused Australia and New Zealand problems.
“Some players put their hand up and did very well, but some players showed they had some work to do on their game.
“We’ve learned we’re not as strong as we need to be in certain positions. We still need to be building depth and it’s how we do that with tricky matches to come between now and the Rugby World Cup.
“In certain positions you’ll be able to work it out for yourselves, we’ve got a lot of quality, and in other positions we’re a little bit thin. That was exposed.
“With last autumn and the summer series here, we’ve had a good look at a lot of players. With it being a Lions year, it was a no-brainer that we’d do that here.
“We’ve got a few injuries on top which has exposed a few more players than we would have ordinarily liked to, but we’ve had a good look at a lot of players across a lot of positions.
“We’ll go away and look at our depth chart.”
There will be no development or experimentation with regards to the autumn international series against New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Fiji.
Welsh domestic rugby returns at the end of September with the new United Rugby Championship (URC) that replaces the Pro14, while the All Blacks are scheduled to be the first international opponents on 30 October at the Principality Stadium.
“We will review the whole month over the next week and then we’ll send some messages out to the players in terms of what we’d like to see them work on in their club environments,” said Pivac.
“Then we have to enjoy a break and then look forward to what will be a very challenging autumn series.
“We look forward to that because it’ll be a big test for us. We haven’t played southern hemisphere opposition outside of Argentina for some time.
“When it comes to the autumn, we’ve got four very difficult opponents. There is no walk in the park in that series. That will be about putting out sides that we believe can get the job done on the day.”
It was in 1953 Wales famously last defeated New Zealand. That is the next challenge, but it can wait for now.
Let us enjoy the rest of the summer.
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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