Wales: Matt Sherratt reveals the ‘advantage’ of selecting snubbed Warren Gatland pair against Ireland
Matt Sherratt has explained why he has picked the Glouester pair.
Caretaker Wales head coach Matt Sherratt has explained why he has brought in Gareth Anscombe and Max Llewellyn for the Six Nations clash with Ireland.
The Gloucester duo were overlooked by Warren Gatland for the opening two rounds of the tournament but Sherratt added the pair and Harlequins pivot Jarrod Evans when he took charge of the team.
The Premiership-based trio have all been named in the matchday 23 to tackle the defending champions in Cardiff with Anscombe and Llewellyn starting at fly-half and outside centre respectively while Evans takes a spot on the bench.
Ascombe and Llewellyn selections
Sherratt made ten changes in total to the team – including two positional switches – that started what proved to be Gatland’s final game in charge but the most notable calls were starting the Gloucester pair who were completely overlooked.
When asked about his decision to start the Gloucester duo, Sherratt explained that he wanted some cohesion in his backline with Anscombe and Llewellyn joining clubmate Tomos Williams in the starting line-up.
“Obviously, with Liam Williams and Owen Watkin going out of the squad, I felt we needed some players who have relationships with each other and play with each other every week,” he told reporters.
“I’ve coached Gareth and Max so they know my style of play a bit.
“That was an advantage, Gareth is very good at driving the week and with him and Tomos, I’ve got relationships with them and I knew they’d grab what I was trying to do and spread it through the team. It’s just that familiarity.”
Cohesion was a key factor in the selection with Wales going up against an Ireland team that is very ‘Leinster-heavy’.
“If there’s one word to describe Ireland, it’s cohesive,” he added.
“They’re a team that’s been together for a very long time. They’re very Leinster-heavy and have mostly come through two schools.
“The players have a lot of familiarity so I thought it was important to pick a team that had some familiarity, around 9-10-12-13 in particular. I don’t feel playing Ireland is a time to experiment.
“So just having those combinations together, who have got relationships and can talk to each other on the field, pick up each other’s habits, is important. Japan in the summer is the time to blood youngsters. But just personally, I don’t feel Ireland is the time to experiment.”
Earlier this week, Gatland broke his silence for the first time since his departure from the role and addressed the reasonings why he did not select Anscombe and Llewellyn.
Gatland explains snubs
The now ex-head coach was looking to the future in the fly-half role backing 26-year-old Ben Thomas, who usually plays inside centre for Cardiff, in the number ten jersey over the 33-year-old Anscombe.
“I can understand the criticism for not picking Gareth Anscombe at 10. Yeah, you could pick him, and you could play him, and he could probably do a job for you over the next year or two,” he told the Telegraph.
“But he, unfortunately, had a number of injuries and I’m thinking if you’re playing him for the next two years and then you get to a World Cup and all of a sudden he’s either come to the end of it or breaks down, well, who’s been in there in the meantime? Who have you developed as a 10 to take over the mantle? If you pick up an injury, you’ve always got someone like him to be able to go back to, to bring in into the squad because of experience.
“We made the decision that if we were looking at a young 10 and someone else, to give Ben Thomas, who can play 10, some more time.
“People are going to disagree with that selection, which is fine. But sometimes a young player needs the freedom to be able to express himself.”
On Llewellyn, he added: “That’s a tough one. We’ve got lots of 12s and probably struggled a little bit at 13. Is he a 12 that can play 13? He’s been playing well for Gloucester… He’s got some really positive attributes.
“Like I said, he’s done really well for Gloucester. Against South Africa, you can play out there for 80 minutes and you don’t touch the ball. So for me, if I was going onto the rugby field and I hadn’t had any touches of the ball, I’d make sure I went looking for the ball.”