And so Gareth Anscombe, inexplicably excluded from Wales’s original squad, was not only brought back into the fold this week but is airdropped straight in to the starting lineup, one of eight changes Sherratt makes to the team that capitulated to Italy in round two.
As a result, Ben Thomas, whose talent is not in doubt, gets to swap the No 10 jersey Gatland had thrust upon him, the weightiest of all in the red of Wales, for the more familiar one with a 12 on the back.
It may distress some in Wales that more than half the starting team play their domestic rugby somewhere other than the Principality, but Sherratt knows the emphasis of the job he has been given is on the now.
Matt Sherratt, newly installed as Warren Gatland’s replacement, however temporarily, has picked his first Wales team.
This is not suddenly a team bursting with experience, but where some of Gatland’s selections seemed wanton rejections of received wisdom Sherratt has responded with the selector’s equivalent of putting his foot on the ball.
.jpeg?auto=webp&width=800)
