On the evidence of Welsh involvement in European rugby over the weekend, there really is no substitute for experience.
It doesn’t need a scan of the reviews of Paul McCartney’s triumphant return to the UK stage at the grand old age of 82, or a read of the plaudits that continue to go the way of the 75-year-old Bruce Springsteen, to appreciate that age needn’t be a barrier to top performance. A watch of some of the latest games featuring Welsh players with miles on the clock will tell you as much.
OK, maybe there were deserved headlines in the Welsh press for a couple of freshly located comets in Huw Anderson of the Dragons and Tom Bowen of Cardiff.
But those two would be probably the first to admit that the displays of more senior colleagues helped them to shine last weekend.
Taulupe Faletau broke his arm playing for Wales at RWC23 and then sustained a shoulder fracture on his Cardiff comeback in April (Photo Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
Cut to the Arms Park, where a 34-year-old Taulupe Faletau started only his second game since the 2023 World Cup. Logic suggested it would be tough, with a certain degree of rust tending to form on mere mortals who have spent much time on the inactivity bench. In Faletau’s case he had taken to the field for just 29 minutes in 434 days before his European Challenge Cup return for Cardiff against the Cheetahs. But he has long stood apart from the ranks of the ordinary.
His first 10 minutes against the South African team were extraordinary, featuring three major interventions. First, he teamed up with Aled Davies and Corey Domachowski to hold up an opposition drive over the Cardiff line, with Faletau’s left arm preventing a try. Seconds later, carrying the ball one-handed, he rampaged forward from the ensuing scrum, giving his team the platform to clear their lines; and third, he hauled down visiting centre Carel-Jan Coetzee in full flight with the line beckoning.
‘You want someone to save a try? No worries. I’ll be there in a trice,’ seemed to be the unspoken message.
It was as if a Marvel comic-book character had returned after time away on a different planet. In just 52 minutes, the 104-cap No.8 made 16 carries and put in 13 tackles, topping his side’s stats in both areas. “Class,” team-mate Josh Adams said of him, while Cardiff’s coach Matt Sherratt settled for “brilliant, wasn’t it?” when asked about Faletau’s effort. Both were bang on the money.
Especially to the fore were the back-rower’s powers of anticipation, allowing him to be in the right place at the right time, the hallmark of a quality player. Potential problems were pinpointed quickly and sorted out with grace, style and a bare minimum of fuss. ‘You want someone to save a try? No worries. I’ll be there in a trice,’ seemed to be the unspoken message. Allan Bateman once operated that way in backlines around the world. Such players are priceless to a team.
Liam Williams marked his return to Saracens from Japan with a try in their win over Stade Français (Photo Franco Arland/Getty Images)
Over in Paris against Stade Français, Liam Williams was playing his first game of the season after rejoining Saracens. Again, he had no right to excel after so long on the sidelines. But, again, the former Scarlet doesn’t seem subject to the rules that apply to the rest of us.
Whether it involved taking high balls, driving forward in contact or tidying up in defence, Williams stood out. The official player-of-the-match award went to Theo McFarland, who was excellent, but it said everything about how well Williams played that the Welshman could count himself unlucky not to have walked off with the gong.
World champions South Africa have drawn from a pool in 2024 that contains 19 players who are aged 30-plus, including five who will have more than 34 candles on their next birthday cakes.
The other Welsh 30-something who rolled back the years was Dan Lydiate, making his 100th appearance for the Dragons fully 17 years after his club debut. The man Shaun Edwards once described as his “favourite player” made 15 tackles, a handful of them properly piledriving affairs, as the Gwent outfit lowered the colours of Newcastle Falcons at Kingston Park. Aaron Wainwright took the ball forward a gargantuan 22 times, and young Anderson made five line-breaks, but without Lydiate’s resolve, the Welsh team’s effort would have been incomplete.
What is there to say? Some continue to advance the idea that Faletau and the 33-year-old Williams are too old to be part of Warren Gatland’s Wales plans.
It’s one way of looking at things.
Another is to consider the example of world champions South Africa, who have drawn from a pool in 2024 that contains 19 players who are aged 30-plus, including five who will have more than 34 candles on their next birthday cakes.
Key Springboks like Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi and Bongi Mbonambi are 33 but have enjoyed more success this year (Photo Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images)
For Rassie Erasmus, rugby is about the here and now, with individuals picked on what they can do in this moment rather than at a point three years down the line. For him, rolling momentum is achieved by drip-feeding young players into a winning team that contains battle-hardened seniors.
Partly through injuries, Wales have struggled to operate along similar lines during Gatland’s second stint in charge. And with the regions also finding the going tough, the result has been a number of young players have seen defeats pile up.
Rio Dyer, for instance, has won just two out of 25 games for club and country in 2024. He has a number of fine qualities and will likely go on to win many more caps for Wales, but you wonder how demoralising it is for him and other Welsh youngsters to have lost so frequently, with failure’s nail repeatedly hammered into them.
During a torrid autumn, it seemed the first two verses of the McCartney classic ‘Yesterday’ might have been written for Wales’ head coach, with his troubles seemingly here to stay
Nor will it be easy for the situation to be corrected when the 2025 edition of the Six Nations starts at the end of next month.
But the likely availability of Faletau and Williams should improve matters. For Gatland that has to be a welcome tonic, given all he and his team have been through of late. Indeed, during a torrid autumn, it seemed the first two verses of the McCartney classic ‘Yesterday’ might have been written for Wales’ head coach, with his troubles seemingly here to stay.
But as well as seeing Faletau and Williams return last weekend, there has been the heartening sight of another seasoned campaigner on the comeback trail in Josh Adams, who helped himself to two tries against the Cheetahs to go with the one he picked up the previous weekend against Lyon.
Lions wing Josh Adams has made a try-scoring return for Cardiff over the past fortnight (Photo Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
For the avoidance of doubt, Wales are not suddenly going to emerge for the Six Nations as a team transformed, tearing it up against France in the opener in Paris next month and sweeping past the rest all the way through to an open-top bus parade through the centre of Cardiff at the end of March.
Without a scrum capable of holding its own amid ongoing issues at tighthead, they might find it hard to register even one win.
But let’s sip from positivity’s cup and suggest it should help that a trio of players who have been around the block more than a few times in Faletau, Williams and Adams will be on hand to offer direction.
Who knows? Maybe at some point in the future, the likes of Ross Moriarty, George North and Tomas Francis may be seen in Welsh colours again. Admirers of Jarrod Evans and the in-form Sam Davies would also like to see them in the mix once more, selection rules permitting. All would bring on-pitch nous built up over the years, something Wales have been painfully short of during Gatland’s so-far inglorious second tilt at the job.
A drop of know-how can count for as much as anything. Faletau has it in spades, so do Williams and Adams.
Amid difficult times, it’s something for Wales to cling onto.
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