Three tests, three defeats.

Wales’ win against Queensland Reds may have been their first of 2024 and was rightly celebrated given its dramatic nature, however the fact remains that the run of losses is now at nine test defeats.

Warren Gatland’s side are now at an all-time low in the rankings of 11^th.

There were several positives from the tour. More attacking intent and cohesion, epitomised by Regan Grace’s try against the Reds, a try-scoring machine in the driving maul and some superb individual performances.

Archie Griffin, Ellis Bevan and Ben Thomas have all impressed on their first starts for Wales while Aaron Wainwright and Dewi Lake have both put in some commanding performances.

A Hill To Stand On

The positive end of the summer, which begun with Wales’ performance in their second test against Australia, has been overshadowed by talk of Cory Hill.

The second row was brought into the squad from fourth division Japanese side Secom Rugguts to cover for the injured and unavailable Adam Beard, Will Rowlands, Seb Davies, Teddy Williams, James Fender and then Ben Carter while on tour.

In fairness to Hill, while he made errors during the game, on the pitch he had showcased some sharp moments. An offload off the floor to keep play going, drawing the defender to create a two on one for Rio Dyer’s try in the second test.

The main reason for the outcry for Hill’s selection was due to a case in 2021 where Hill and some friends caused a disturbance and damage outside the house of a woman and her children.

With Hill moving to Japan, initially there wasn’t a public apology, but when he was named captain for the game against the Queensland Reds, the former Cardiff and Dragons second row faced the press and apologised for the incident.

The main response was frustration at the comments by head coach Warren Gatland as he seemed to dismiss the situation. Comments such as “young men make mistakes” and that the “time-frame has gone” didn’t help.

Roughly an hour prior to kick-off on Friday morning it was announced that Hill had pulled out of for “personal reasons” meaning scrum half Gareth Davies would lead the team in his place.

Post-Match Response

Following the match Gatland admitted that he needed to hold his hands up to his mistake and that he “probably shouldn’t have put him [Hill] in that position.”

Also, there was the admission from Gatland that he “didn’t appreciate there was going to be some negativity about making that call”.

The latter point is frustrating. Anyone in or around Welsh rugby media, fan groups or have passed through Welsh rugby X (formerly twitter), could have told you there’d be “some negativity”.

This wasn’t a sudden outcry. Merely a focusing of the voices at one decision, at one time. With the game itself essentially a dead rubber, it merely added to the focus, it was almost all anyone talked about.

It seems bizarre that Gatland was unaware of that. Perhaps he doesn’t go through the depths of rugby twitter but that he is not briefed on what the response will be is surprising.

The response from several has been that “a lot of sportspeople who have had similar situations that, for whatever reason, are back in the fold,” as Gatland said or that there are those who have done worse and are playing top level rugby or other sports.

You only have to look to America and the number of cases of alleged domestic violence and sexual assault against American Football players to know that what he is saying is true.

However, after the allegations of sexism, misogyny and racism within the WRU last year and subsequent restructure, the WRU must understand that the decisions made by them and their employees are done so under a cloud of heightened scrutiny.

Member of the Senedd Heledd Fychan told the BBC she does “question the steps that were take by Warren Gatland to make Hill captain.”

While Nigel Walker said that the WRU were “admitting that we got this wrong.”

“The important thing is that we recognise that we got this wrong, we’ve admitted that we’ve got it wrong and perhaps in the past we wouldn’t,” said Walker.

“Are we a perfect organisation at the moment? No, we’re not.”

“Are we striving to be more perfect than we currently are and were 18 months ago? Yes, we are.”

Regardless of whether the WRU are striving to be better, incidents such as these will reinforce the feeling amongst fans that they are out of touch with a complete and utter lack of understanding for the wider press along with the thoughts and feelings of fans.

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Where Do We Go From Here?

Hill still has a year-long contract remaining in Japan and his future within the Wales setup.

Post match Gatland stated that Hill “would potentially look to come back to Wales and one of the regions.”

“If that’s the case, he’s got that experience that he could potentially come back into the fold.”

Should the decision be taken to reintegrate Hill within Welsh regional rugby then one would hope lessons will have been learnt from this summer’s tour.

Before that, Gatland has several questions to answer on the field.

This Autumn, Wales face Fiji, Australia and South Africa, a tough task in stopping their run of defeats.

To win any of those games, Wales will need to finalise a style of play and decide on the players who fit that style best.

The positives from this tour mean Wales perhaps have more strength in depth than first believed with Jac Morgan, Beard, Rowlands, Josh Adams, Joe Roberts, Tomos Williams, Ryan Elias, Taulupe Faletau and Sportin Wales co-founder Gareth Anscombe all in line to return to the fold.

Questions on selection will remain however. What is the best role for Cardiff duo Thomas and Mason Grady, neither of whom are expected to play the positions where they featured against Australia once regional rugby resumes in September.

Christ Tshiunza, another of the huge positives from the tour but it is unclear whether he will be used as a second row or flanker going forward.

Whatever the plans, Welsh rugby fans need to see improvement from their team and organisation and quickly.

 

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