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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Graham Price

Wales legend calls for Gatland to make two key changes for Six Nations clash with Italy

Where do you start? What do you do?

Not just against Italy next up for Wales, a game that has taken on the horrible feel of a Wooden Spoon decider, but beyond that heading into the World Cup, as well.

After bad losses to Ireland and Scotland, the England game was supposed to be the next step in Warren Gatland's plan for his Wales side to regain respectability and credibility. Unfortunately, it proved to be anything but.

READ MORE: Wales need major surgery to avoid years in doldrums

To say the preparation of the team was far from ideal is a massive understatement, given what was happening behind the scenes. However, ultimately you are judged by performances and Wales weren't very good. The 10-point margin of defeat would have been much greater had Owen Farrell not had a rare bad day with his goalkicking.

The possession stats of the two teams were actually quite similar, but as always it's what you actually do with the ball that counts. England looked dangerous and executed three excellent tries; we were limited to a Louis Rees-Zammit interception score.

They were quick and clean in possession, we were slow and laboured, didn't look like creating. Which I find incredibly frustrating given Rees-Zammit and Josh Adams are proven finishers, while the young centres Joe Hawkins and Mason Grady definitely look to have something about them and need to be persevered with.

Scotland, Ireland and England have each given us a lesson in a) how to win quick ball and b) how to use it to unlock a defence. It's something Gatland will have learned again from Saturday, but I actually don't think wholesale changes to the team to play Italy will help at this stage.

Indeed, I advocate just two, but one of those for me is key to Wales playing with a quicker tempo.

To that end, I think Tomos Williams needs to stand down at scrum-half and perhaps Kieran Hardy be given his chance.

Look, slow ball for the back division is hardly totally the fault of Williams, but he also doesn't help himself by appearing to get the ball away ponderously from rucks at times.

Sometimes the service from the forwards was so laboured on Saturday that Williams no option but to kick. However, his kicking game was poor and I really couldn't fathom why we kept booting high balls straight down the throat of Freddie Steward, as comfortable under that kind of threat as anyone in the world game. The only thing we did was put the man-of-the-match trophy into the hands of the England full-back.

There were other parts of the field where England players were not standing and for me we needed to vary it far more than we did. Too much of Williams' kicking was inaccurate or too deep, but the chase from his team-mates wasn't exactly great, either.

Compare how many times Leigh Halfpenny was clattered by England's chasers, their half-backs kicking with more precision, as opposed to what I felt was an armchair ride Steward was given.

For me the focus needed to be changed by Williams at nine, but it wasn't.

Owen Williams wasn't given a great opportunity to show his true capabilities at No.10 so I'd leave him alone for the Italy game, and the rest of the back line outside him, but Gatland does need to consider change at scrum-half.

Williams has had his opportunities during this tournament and I just don't feel he's taken them well enough. You could easily make the case for Rhys Webb's experience in Rome, but perhaps we need to give Hardy his head and see if he can speed up the Welsh game.

I'd also by and large leave the forwards alone, but I do advocate one change with young Dafydd Jenkins, who I like the look of, coming back into the second row.

Not at the expense of Alun Wyn Jones, though, who had a good game against England - remarkable, really, when you think he should have been pensioned off, yet manages to keep going and going.

His tackle count was high and that comes from Alun Wyn's ability to read a game, knowing where to be at the right time.

Perhaps Jenkins needs to come into the side for Adam Beard. He is someone with a hugely promising future who I believe would do well next to Alun Wyn in a young-old partnership. Jenkins was only on the field for a short while against England, but he did well again and definitely deserves another go.

The front row went well enough and I'd also leave the back-row as they are. Faletau, Tipuric and Tshiunza put in a heck of a lot of tackles. Indeed, I noticed from the stats we actually achieved more turnovers in broken play than England.

Despite three losses on the trot, that team should be more than good enough to account for Italy. However, the Azzurri have demonstrated this season they are not the pushovers any more were are accustomed to and they will definitely target us as a game they can win.

So let's hope this time we do finally see the kind of progress Gatland wants from Wales. If so, it won't be before time.

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