In keeping with the significant number of job opportunities in the economy right now, Wayne Pivac is looking for applications for several highly demanding positions in the Wales rugby side for an assignment in Cardiff next weekend.
Those interested must be skilful, reliable, capable of taking responsibility, have a positive mindset and be able to flourish in a team environment.
Oh, and if they truly want to be in the Wales starting line-up to face Australia on November 20, it wouldn’t hurt for them to front up if the opportunity is there in the game with Fiji this coming Sunday.
READ MORE: How Wales will deploy Josh Adams at centre as Wayne Pivac leaves clues
The game with the Wallabies will be important as it could define the autumn campaign for Wales.
Super-optimists apart, no-one would have expected Pivac's team to beat New Zealand, and not many would have been banking on them sending world champions South Africa packing, either.
But the match with Australia will be different.
The men in green and gold jerseys are without the likes of Samu Kerevi, Quade Cooper and Sean McMahon, after all, and Scotland have just beaten them.
So there will be hope that Pivac’s side can get the job done as well.
That said, the coach has been grappling with injuries, with Alun Wyn Jones, Ross Moriarty, Taulupe Faletau, George North, Ken Owens, Justin Tipuric, Josh Navidi, Dan Lydiate, James Botham, Josh Macleod, James Davies, Dewi Lake and Leon Brown among those who are off limits this November. For the avoidance of doubt, that’s a lot of quality stripped from the cupboard.
Thinking positively, he has seen a number of players step forward and nail down positions over the last two weeks. A win may have escaped Wales against South Africa, but they largely played well, with the relief on Springbok faces at the final whistle underlining as much. Pivac’s side had surprised many, maybe even themselves, with a game effort that pushed the Webb Ellis Cup holders to the limit.
Can we say every position is settled for the series finale against the Aussies, though?
No, we cannot.
There are still a number of areas where Pivac and his fellow selectors have much thinking to do.
In the back three, if form counts for anything, Johnny McNicholl will start at full-back, probably with Josh Adams alongside him on one wing — though if Adams resembles Philippe Sella, Brian O’Driscoll and Allan Bateman all rolled into one when he plays in the centre against Fiji, it’s not impossible he could be in with a shout of taking the No. 13 jersey.
Let’s assume, though, that Pivac will want him in the position where he has started every one of his 34 Wales Tests until now, along the way scoring 17 tries.
That leaves one back-three position to be filled, with Liam Williams, Louis Rees-Zammit and Alex Cuthbert the leading candidates. Rees-Zammit fell short of his best against South Africa but on a good day can make finishing seem as easy as drinking a cup of tea. Williams has had a tough year with injuries but is a steely competitor with feistiness written into his DNA. Cuthbert is 6ft 6in, vastly experienced and a player deemed good enough to feature in Exeter Chiefs’ back three for the Gallagher Premiership final last season, with Stuart Hogg on the bench.
Best of luck with that one, Wayne Pivac.
In truth, it’ll probably come down to how the trio have trained and who delivers this weekend. Maybe Williams, with his aerial skills and counter-attacking boldness, and ‘Test animal’ stamped on his forehead, may just edge it, but you wouldn’t bet big on it.
At centre, both spots appear open, with Adams’ selection at 13 to face Fiji complicating matters. If he proves an unqualified success in his new habitat, who knows? Wales have scored just one try this autumn and desperately need an injection of pace and energy in midfield.
But to avoid clouding matters, we’ll focus on the specialist 12s and 13s in Pivac’s group. The best performance by a centre for Wales over the past fortnight came from Nick Tompkins against South Africa. It may not have been an effort to blow the mind, but he passed nicely, almost setting up a try for Rees-Zammit, and put in one corkscrew run that saw him leave several defenders clutching handfuls of thin air.
The head coach likes Tompkins, too. Indeed, of the seven midfielders Pivac has started with during his two-year reign, the Saracen has featured in more run-on sides at centre than anyone else bar Jonathan Davies.
Davies himself has begun Wales’ last eight Tests, hoisting his cap tally to 93 for his country. With six more for the Lions, he could play his hundredth international game next weekend, which would be a wonderful achievement for one who’s suffered more than his fair share of serious injuries.
But the Wales captain’s substitution after 60 minutes against South Africa, suggests there’s nothing guaranteed about Pivac picking him to take on the Wallabies. While Davies came up with a try-saving hit against South Africa, there were still too few post-Bonfire night fireworks from him.
Still, in making him his go-to centre during his tenure so far, Pivac had previously shown faith in him.
If a bout of Covid has knocked Willis Halaholo back in the reckoning, with the Cardiff man not starting for Wales this autumn, then Johnny Williams has a chance to make a statement when he features against Fiji.
Pivac has previously made no secret of how highly he rates him, but lack of rugby has been a problem for Williams. A big performance against the islanders would be timely and put the Scarlet in the thick of the selection debate for the final weekend of the campaign.
Let’s cut to the front row, where it would be misleading to suggest Wales have convinced everyone. There’s a battle few would have expected for the loose-head shirt, with Wyn Jones starting in a Test for the Lions just three months ago. But he’s looked undercooked this autumn and the coaches evidently like Rhys Carre’s industry around the field.
The assumption had been that Jones might start against Fiji, to bank minutes on the field, but Carre goes again. It’s another big opportunity for the Cardiff player.
On the other side of the scrum, Tomas Francis needs to seize the day, too, or at least seize the scrum initiative. A national head coach declaring in a press conference that a player has work to do (albeit Francis has apparently admitted as much himself) isn’t exactly what a player would want to hear. The Ospreys No. 3, then, needs to up his game, with WillGriff John doubtless eager to prove a point off the bench.
Five places still to be nailed down for the Australia game, then?
That sounds about right.
There could be a potential for a sixth if Aaron Wainwright doesn’t recover as expected from the shoulder knock he sustained against South Africa. Ellis Jenkins and Taine Basham will start next week, assuming they avoid injuries against Fiji, and Jenkins could switch to No. 8 if Wainwright proves unavailable. Shane Lewis-Hughes and Thomas Young would then be left to fight it out for the remaining back-row slot.
But let’s take Pivac’s word for it that Wainwright is “on track to be good to go”.
Warren Gatland tended to reward performances in the autumn with his selection for the final game of the series. Pivac is likely to think the same way.
For those battling for places against Australia, the message is you had better deliver this weekend or in training thereafter. Otherwise — well, otherwise you can probably forget it.
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