Dewi Lake exclusive part two: Wales camp was ‘best campaign I’ve been involved in’
Wales captain Dewi Lake has hailed Steve Tandy’s first camp as Wales head coach as the “best [he’s] been involved in” throughout his international career.
Lake was first capped for Wales under Wayne Pivac during the 2022 Six Nations, and established himself as a senior player under Warren Gatland, between 2023 and 2025.
He captained the squad on their tour of Japan this summer and stepped up in the absence of Jac Morgan this autumn.
The pair of Wales captains announced on Monday that they would be leaving their hometown club Ospreys for English side Gloucester, with Lake citing the uncertainty around the future of the region as a reason for his decision.
You can read his thoughts on the move here.
Speaking to Sportin Wales podcast co-hosts Alex Cuthbert and Dillon Lewis, Lake revealed that the recent campaign – the first under Tandy – was “class.”
“It was class,” Lake said on the podcast.
“Results didn’t go the way we wanted, but the actual campaign was probably the best I’ve been involved in from a learning perspective and a coaching perspective.
“You’re going in feeling like you are getting better every day. I think the enjoyment and how close we all got in that campaign, the environment allowed us to do that.”
Tandy brought in a number of changes to how the camp used to be run under Gatland for the best part of 17 years, with a change in training schedule and switch of changing rooms at the Principality Stadium.
“Changing room change was strange,” Lake added. “You used to come into the stadium and turn left.”
“Did anyone forget?” asked Cuthbert.
“Have a guess,” Lake replied. “Nicky [Smith] went straight to the left and into the away group! It was nice to have that change after so long.”
With regards to the training schedule, traditionally the Welsh players would train on Monday and Tuesday, have Wednesday off, and then train again Thursday, with a Captain’s Run at the stadium on the Friday.
Now, Wales train three days in a row, Monday to Wednesday, with Thursday off.
“Monday was a review day,” Lake explained. “We’d do walkthroughs, skills, and things like that.
“Tuesday was more of a load day. So, big running but not much bang. And then Wednesday would be your physical day where you’d go live mauls, scrums, and up the tackle stuff in 15 vs 15.
“We had a good balance throughout the week. I felt like we’d done enough running, felt like we’d done enough physical work, and still fresh going into the Captain’s Run.”
With a day off on Thursday and run through on Friday, the week is less strenuous towards match days.
“It was a nice change,” Lake said. “I think once we got used to the flow of weeks, the boys felt like they were full of energy rather than drained from training.
“It was alright as we were at home throughout the autumn, but for club when there’s a lot of travel. The Ospreys travelled to Montauban this weekend and then doing three days straight after that would be good.”
One of the coaches that Lake singled out for praise was Dan Lydiate.
Having played with Lake at Ospreys, the legendary flanker was brought into the coaching group to specialise on breakdown and contact areas.
“He was class,” Lake said. “I’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of work with Lyds, we were injured at the same time at Ospreys and had similar lower limb injuries.
“He coaches the breakdown and just loves doing that. Couldn’t wait to join in [with training]!
“All the coaches were a bit like that, Patch [kicking coach Rhys Patchell] was in boots, Dunc [scrum coach Duncan Jones] was doing scrums one day.
“Tandy couldn’t wait to get involved in the defence. That’s what I mean in terms of how close we were as a group of players and coaches.”
Despite the results not being positive, where a tight victory over Japan was overshadowed by heavy defeats to Argentina, New Zealand, and South Africa, Lake asserted that the squad were honest with each other about their work-ons.
“I think that [being close] probably made us more able to question standards because you knew it was coming from a place of wanting everyone to be better,” Lake said.
“Whereas, sometimes if you’re not as close to people and you call out standards, some can think you’re just having a go or picking on individuals. But because we are a tight group, it was a lot easier to drive standards because you knew it was coming from a good place.”
After so long under a disciplinarian coach like Gatland, Tandy has made a clear effort to reduce the pressure on what is a young group of Welsh internationals.
“That’s what we spoke about a lot this campaign is playing with freedom and enjoying what we are doing,” Lake explained.
“But it’s obvious, if you play with freedom but do something daft, then you’re probably going to get pulled up on it. But if you go for something and it was a good decision, but the execution was off, you can accept that.
“Allowing the boys to play with freedom but within reason, where you understand the picture in front of you and can see if something is a wild option or if something is clear.”
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