Quick injection of traditional Welsh flair needed

No doubt I ought to be looking forward to Saturday's match between Ireland and England in Dublin – as, indeed, I am – but Wales' abject performance in Cardiff is, to be honest, more on my mind now.

The game of rugby union football, we tend to forget, obsesses the inhabitants only of a narrow coastal strip of south Wales extending from Carmarthen in the west to Newport in the east. It is, however, heavily populated compared to the rest of the country. Within its bounds, slightly extended to the north and the west, the game unites both Welsh and English speakers.

But rugby holds little appeal either for the Welsh speakers of the North-west or, come to that, for the English speakers of the North-east, who tend to look towards the Liverpool, Everton or Wrexham teams. David Lloyd George, who came from the north, once remarked that the south was consumed by "morbid footballism'', by which he meant rugby.

There is no disputing its significance. It is, or used to be, one of the few activities – the others being oratory, singing and, sometimes, poetry – in which Wales could take on and defeat the rest of the world.

Graham Henry, the national coach, professes to find it surprising that this obsession persists as it does. As a New Zealander, he should surely not be, for much the same attitude exists in his own native land. So does it likewise in Afrikaans-speaking South Africa. For both countries the reasons are much the same as they are for Wales.

Both Gerald Davies and Robert Jones have attributed the Welsh decline to the supremacy of the coach – the coach as a recent phenomenon rather than Henry in particular. The coach is not suited to Wales as he maybe to other countries because, in the nature of things, he likes to make the crooked straight and the rough places plain, so eliminating the individuality on which Welsh success was traditionally founded.

This is probably right up to a point, though Carwyn James coached the Lions in New Zealand and Llanelli in Wales without destroying anyone's flair. Looking at Saturday's encounter, however, I found it difficult to believe that any player's enterprise had been bottled up by Henry or anyone else on the training pitch or in the dressing-room. It was not there to begin with, not, at any rate, for this match.

Rob Howley, for instance, is generally good for one, two or more breaks in an international, from which a try sometimes results, by him or another player. In Cardiff he was unusually quiet. This was partly because of the back-row efficiency of Eric Miller and David Wallace.

They should both have been in the side taking the field in Edinburgh. So also should David Humphreys, Pete Stringer and Kevin Maggs. If Warren Gatland, the Ireland coach, can breathe again after Saturday's win – which could have been 46-6 rather than 36-6 – it is principally because he remedied the simple and obvious errors of selection which he had made for the Scottish match.

It is tempting to accuse Henry of making equally simple and obvious errors with the Welsh team. But it was not quite so straightforward. Mark Taylor, Gareth Thomas, Martyn Williams and Scott Quinnell were all injured. Taylor or Thomas might have made a break or two. Williams would have been as quick as Wallace. Quinnell was missed most of all because (as I have written often enough before) he possesses inspirational qualities whatever his technical deficiencies may be as a No 8.

And yet, on the other hand, Henry's mistakes were by no means all down to misfortune. Barry Williams and Craig Quinnell should both have been in the starting line-up. Colin Charvis and Geraint Lewis should have swapped places. The gallant David Young is now clearly over the top and should be replaced by another tight head.

Neil Jenkins is now presumably out of the reckoning altogether. So is the retired Scott Gibbs, though there is talk of luring him from the commentary box, where he is as grave as the leader of the council. Jenkins would almost certainly have kicked the penalty which Stephen Jones missed and would have put Wales only six points behind Ireland. Henry claims that Jones' natural position is inside centre. Well, from my observations of his performance as an outside-half, you could have fooled me.

The Wales coach goes on to say that, before transferring Jones to this new position, he must first settle on a satisfactory outside-half. But the first move should surely be to persuade Llanelli to play Jones at inside centre. His inside partner could then be a lad from Swansea, who has not been having many games lately, called Arwel Thomas. With Henry in charge, some hope!