Tandy’s day of destiny as Wales search for elusive win

It would have been the date circled in Steve Tandy’s calendar after deciding to leave Scotland and return to Wales.

The day that old meets new for the Tandy household with the Scots travelling to Cardiff in the Six Nations.

The first two games in the tournament have been chastening for Wales with heavy defeats by England and France.

Now there is the chance to face a side closer to Wales in the world rankings, a team that their head coach knows all about. But an opposition that knows all about him too.

Tandy and his opposite number – his former boss Gregor Townsend – were sitting metres apart in the Arms Park stands watching the Under-20s match which the hosts won. The senior coaches had contrasting results last weekend.

Scotland arrive in Cardiff buoyed by a 31-20 Calcutta Cup victory over England that saw them bounce back from their opening defeat to Italy.

Wales were clinging to the positives from the 54-12 loss to France, which they say included an improved set-piece and evidence of a developing attacking game.

The WRU are expecting a bigger crowd than the 57,744 who attended last week. That figure was the lowest for a Six Nations game at the Principality Stadium since it was built in 1999.

This is the consequence of Wales losing 23 out of the previous 25 matches, with 13 successive Six Nations defeats stretching back to March 2023, and the off-the-field turmoil surrounding the game.

Captain Dewi Lake faced the now regular weekly question about the importance of home support.

“It helps massively and you speak about people being a 16th man, especially in this stadium with the roof closed,” said Lake.

“That sound echoes and the anthem was class last week. It’s our job to get fans in the stadium, off their seat and in the game.

“Principality Stadium can erupt and it’s unbelievable when that happens. It’s the heartbeat of the nation when it’s like that and it’s our job to get people rocking and put smiles on faces.

“I suppose all we ask for in return is support and noise, and people feeding us that energy, because we feed off the crowd, their noise and reactions.”

Those stirring words have not been backed up by success in recent times. The ground is no longer a fortress. It has not been for some time.

It is now the venue where other teams come to enjoy themselves with England, Argentina, South Africa and France boasting record victories in Cardiff in the past 11 months.

Wales have not won a Six Nations game in Cardiff since the February 2022 success against Scotland, some 1,470 days ago.

Wales will get the crowd involved if they begin positively. The problem is they are notorious slow starters with deficits of 27-0 and 28-8 yielded to Scotland in the past two games that they have not managed to overhaul.

That issue has been magnified during this campaign in the opening quarter against England and France with the matches practically over halfway through the first half in both contests.

Wales trailed 29-0 away against England at half-time, while they conceded 19 points in the opening 15 minutes against France.

“That’s something we’ve spoken about, not giving ourselves a mountain to climb after 15 or 20 minutes of rugby,” said Lake.

“We are a group that will fight back but we don’t want to have that battle.

“We don’t want to give ourselves that mountain to climb and start chasing things, so that first 20 minutes will be vital.”

There is a growing feeling this Wales team should not be losing games by the large margins, when you look at the talent and experience of some individuals.

Some ex-professionals have been scathing in their appraisals of Wales players this week, likening mistakes to that of made by club or even youth sides.

Wales have conceded 302 points and 42 tries in the six games Tandy has been in charge, with the head coach currently combining that role with defensive duties.

That will be addressed after the tournament with a permanent coach coming in.

In this tournament they have shipped 102 points and 15 tries in the first two games.

“It’s been spoken about,” said Lake.

“We’ve played two of the top four teams in the world in the first two rounds.

“That’s not an excuse over the tries we’ve conceded and we’ve worked hard defensively this week on aspects of our defence, getting off the line a bit more, getting a bit wider because we were getting too tight around rucks.”

Tandy echoed that Les Bleus exposed Wales’ narrow defence.

“There were moments in the game against France we could have got wider,” said Tandy.

Discipline improved last week after Wales conceded 16 penalties against England. Against France they infringed nine times.

Scarlets flanker Taine Plumtree has been given a start as he aims to shake off the ill-discipline tag following three yellow cards in three Wales games and six sin-binnings this season.

Tandy has selected another new-look back row with Aaron Wainwright, Wales’ best player in the opening two games, switching back to his favoured number eight role as they face a Scotland trio without injured duo Jack Dempsey and Jamie Ritchie.

Cardiff’s Alex Mann continues in the unfamiliar open-side role, despite Josh Macleod, Harri Deaves and James Botham in the squad and Tommy Reffell continually overlooked.

“The way we want to play at the minute and for the game against Scotland, we feel Manny’s the right fit,” said Tandy.

Wales will also have to smarten up the kicking game after France punished them last week.

“We weren’t as accurate as we were against England, where we felt there was more of a competition,” said Tandy.

“We still feel that is still a part of our game that could be a real strength.”

Uncapped Leicester wing Gabriel Hamer-Webb is considered an aerial threat and has been selected at the expense of Ellis Mee, with Josh Adams keeping his place.

Tandy has changed the fly-half with Sam Costelow replacing Dan Edwards, who had started the past seven matches and all six games under Tandy.

“We feel this is a reward for how Sam has played. I believe we’re starting to get a bit of competition in that area,” said Tandy.

“Dan’s been good, he was excellent in the autumn. He’s played a lot of rugby, he’s a young man and there are no issues with him.”

Tandy was seen talking to Edwards in the final training session of the week with the fly-half warmly tapping his coach on the back after the conversation finished.

It proves Tandy is a well-liked man in Wales and Scotland. Somehow he needs to deliver a win from somewhere. Anywhere.