Who wants to be associated with a losing team? Not Mason Grady, the 6ft 5ins Wales wing who has played in all eight of his country’s Tests this year, which have all been lost.
“I’ve had enough of losing now, I just want to win,” Grady tells The i Paper. “We are a young team, we’re still learning, and we’ve got to be realistic. But we need to kick on and start winning matches, and hopefully we can do that in the autumn and that’ll kick us on to the rest of the season. I think we’re definitely on the way up now.”
The message from everyone in the Wales squad is the same: two wins out of three this month is the minimum requirement, and Fiji in Cardiff on Sunday and Australia a week later are the obvious targets. Adam Beard, the second row, believes the world champions South Africa can be overcome, too, on 23 November. “We are putting pressure on ourselves as players, and as management, to get those results,” says Beard.
There are reasons to explain if not excuse Wales’s demoralising run, that started with the World Cup quarter-final loss to Argentina 13 months ago, followed in 2024 by defeat in all five matches in the Six Nations, and the summer Tests with South Africa at Twickenham and Australia in Sydney and Melbourne.
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The squad has been through huge changes in the last couple of years. Just four survivors from the 23 who played in the final match of the Six Nations title success of 2021 will face the Flying Fijians this Sunday: Beard, Tomos Williams, Nicky Smith and James Botham (the last two are on the bench).
In the World Cup pool stage in September 2023, Wales edged Fiji in a thriller, 32-26. But Wales have a completely different starting backline on Sunday, without Liam Williams, Louis Rees-Zammit, George North, Nick Tompkins, Josh Adams, Dan Biggar and Gareth Davies. The pack has some continuity, with Gareth Thomas, Will Rowlands, Beard and Aaron Wainwright starting again, and Ryan Elias and Jac Morgan on the bench.
“With that many boys going, especially the quality of the boys going, there was always going to be a drop-off, a little bit,” says Grady. But Beard says: “That grace period is over now.”
The no-excuse mentality is admirable but, as The i meets the squad in their Vale of Glamorgan training base, it is fair to remember other elements of turmoil, summed up in the still burgeoning career of the 22-year-old Grady.
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He recalls his debut against England in February 2023 in “a crazy week” of the Wales squad’s strike threats connected to financial wrangles with the regional sides. Not forgetting the pandemic in his late teens.
Grady is still finding his best role – probably not inside centre, as he does not possess the same straight-line threat of the past master Jamie Roberts, so it is either No 13 or this Sunday’s position on the wing. English giants Bath wanted to sign him but after a “couple of months” thinking about it, he stayed with Cardiff and their emerging youngsters.
Grady says of that England debut match: “I remember going down Westgate Street to the Principality Stadium and seeing all the fans. I got a little bit emotional, and I’m not an emotional person.” The public acclaim is waning but it’s there for Wales if they can re-establish a solid base.
The loosehead prop Gareth Thomas calls it all on. “There is a pressure on us, I love being under pressure, and I feel like we should be as well,” says the 33-cap Osprey, who has the captain Dewi Lake and the callow Archie Griffin alongside in the front row.
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“I look at England away at Twickenham, during the Six Nations, and that game was there for us to win.” Beard chips in: “Yes, with better game management towards the end.”
Gatland has picked Tomos Williams and Gareth Anscombe, both now at Gloucester, as experienced half-back generals. Preparation-wise, Lake is in charge of “team stuff”, Beard leads on set-pieces, Botham – “he’s got good contacts” – is on the entertainments group, while Thomas helps looks after “environment”, which means team standards such as helping the kit man tidy up.
Beard says the younger players are encouraged by Wales’s head coach Warren Gatland to speak their minds and believe in their skillsets. Beard says Wales believe in “speed over shape”.
For Grady, a “big emphasis” against Fiji will be on him chasing kicks and competing. Asked a wider question about the style Wales need to play, his reply is intriguing.
“When I was younger, I used to think Wales was a really good defensive team. We need to get back to that, putting some big hits in, some big defensive performances, and then I think the rest will come. To get off the line and put pressure on the other the other team.”
On the Fijians, second row Rowlands says: “It can be one of the toughest games because they’re full of freak athletes. There can be points in the game where you’re just chasing shadows or getting run over by someone.”
Ultimately this autumn, as Grady says: “It all starts with the Fiji game. If we don’t win that then…” He recalibrates and says: “We need to win that game.”
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