Stuart Barnes’ talking points: Dan Biggar should start for Wales against England

Stuart Barnes assesses Wales’ fly-half options for their Six Nations game against England, and wonders whether Chris Boyd is a Bob Dylan fan…

1 Who will play fly-half against England? Dan Biggar limped off after 20 minutes for Northampton and he has hardly been in the form of his life.

Gareth Anscombe is, arguably, the incumbent, with the Northampton Saint only starting in the weakened Welsh team selected for Rome.

Jarrod Evans raised a few eyebrows against Glasgow, a game his Cardiff Blues side lost. But Biggar is my man; Wales need to test Elliot Daly beneath those bombs that Biggar is so brilliant himself at chasing.

They need a fly-half who will put pressure on, and rough it with Owen Farrell, and they need an extra man capable of dropping deep at times to counter England’s kicking game; not to mention a proven Test-match goal kicker. I reckon Biggar – if fit – fits the bill.

2 Former Hurricanes coach and now Saints boss, Chris Boyd, expects his fly-half to be fine. Precautionary, minor: these are words he bandied about with regards to the Welsh fly-half’s injury.

It is what he said about Tom Wood, his No 8, that entertained me most. Wood, “by his own admission, he’s got a diesel engine, not a turbo-charged one, he just keeps keeping on”.

Not good for the cause of saving the planet from global warning but Wood ‘keeps on keeping on’. Like a bird that flew. Is Boyd a Bob Dylan fan? He’s a great man, warm and friendly; does he play Tangled Up In Blue to prepare for a game? We should know.

3 Former Saint, Chris Ashton, is out of the Wales match. It’s a blow for Ashton, who played with real intelligence against France. He’s a smart footballer and is developing an interesting and intelligent back-three relationship with Daly.

From an England perspective, Jones has plenty of options. There’s every possibility he might not have opted for Ashton anyway. Jack Nowell is in fine form, buzzing here, there and everywhere, while we wait to see the Six Nations introduction of Joe Cokanasiga.

for Cokanasiga to play against Wales away, the English acid test, would be a sign of supreme confidence to select the Bath man. Nowell is the likeliest starter but with Jones in confident mood, you never know.

4 Sticking with Jones, I loved the way he talked of the space in rugby, matter of fact, after the France game. No mumbo jumbo.

If there’s a clarity to the way the team are playing, it’s emanating from the head coach… a team rushes up to put maximum pressure on the midfield and cut the back three off, there’s space behind. If the opposition are slightly slower off their line, there’s space for the pass.

There’s always space on the field, there always has and there always will be, despite some of the stupidity spouted by coaches speaking in their specialist tongues over the years. Jones sees it clear and he says it so.

5 Wales’ 11-game winning run means very little ahead of their match against England.

England themselves know that when the performances stop, so too will the winning streak. It’s been a while since Wales were genuinely impressive. If the two sides play anywhere near their current levels England will win and win well.

Cardiff is not a place to intimidate England. The red rose has won more games than it has lost there this century. The onus is on Wales to step up a few levels if they are to make it what would be a ‘deadly dozen’ from England’s perspective.

6 Mako Vunipola is undoubtedly a major loss for England but in no way is his absence any bigger a blow for his side than Taulupe Faletau’s is for Wales. International rugby is as much a matter of how you handle your injured absentees as the skills and power of a side at full strength.

The possibility of Ben Moon and Tomas Francis grappling with one another is a little sideshow (well, quite large actually) to fascinate Chiefs supporters.

7 I couldn’t help but smile to see Franck Azema keep Greig Laidlaw on for the entire 80 minutes of Clermont’s game on Saturday, even though the result was in no doubt for at least the last 20 minutes.

The Scottish skipper survived and will lead his international team against some of his club colleagues when Scotland travel to Paris to face France.

Both sides were pretty average – to be kind – in their last games. Scotland and Finn Russell were threatening for forty minutes but when Ireland got into their slow pick-and-drive routine, frustrations and errors enveloped them.

France were in trouble, even before the kick-off, with some crazy tactical selections in the back three. It is not just France under the microscope this Saturday but Jacques Brunel, who is making something of a mess of France’s national team.

8 On the subject of French rugby, there was a minor miracle last weekend. Perpignan not only won their first game of the season, but they won away against a Montpellier team so shapeless that I’d bet big Vern Cotter is in line to become the next French coach.

France have a thing against a coach on the rise. No one can say that about Cotter and Montpellier.

Elsewhere, the possibility of Toulon being relegated remains after Agen beat them and moved above Grenoble. It is unlikely but not impossible. The Empire on the Med is imploding. It was great while it lasted.

9 Italy is a favourite destination for Six Nations fans. Why not? Rome is my favourite European city and Italy is a game you can enjoy without too much concern regarding the result.

Good for the fans but not for the game. The Six Nations looks like a monopolistic cartel, refusing to even consider a play-off between the Six Nations’ sixth-place team and the next tier’s champions.

10 Time for Ireland to emerge from their mid-winter hibernation and show another sign to the cautious control-freakery some consider their trademark.

The big question surrounding Ireland – in my head at least! – is whether Ireland are keeping the next phase of Joe Schmidt’s World Cup-winning master plan hidden or whether they peaked against the All Blacks, a year ahead of schedule.

There’ll be no answers for a few months, whatever happens this weekend.

(c) Sky News 2019: Stuart Barnes’ talking points: Dan Biggar should start for Wales against England