With the Six Nations taking its second week off, a number of the Wales squad were released back to the regions/ clubs for game time. These are my key performers in the fallow week.

Positives-
Taine Basham- The 20 year old was at his barnstorming best against the cheetahs on Saturday night on a quagmire of a pitch. Basham formed part of a quality back row with Owen Griffiths and Harrison Keddie. He was in the middle of all of the action and was awarded player of the match as the Dragons battled their way to a victory at home. I couldn’t help but think that Basham seems to be a Welsh version of Tom Curry where he is relentless in defence and at the breakdown and powerful and athletic with the ball in hand. Were it not for the poor surface which has been ravaged by the recent weather I would have backed Basham to get over the line on one of his breaks. I can’t wait for Basham to win his first cap.

Sam Davies- The spotlight was most definitely on the Gowerton school product as fellow Gowerton old boy Dan Biggar suffered a painful looking knee injury when he was playing for Northampton earlier on Saturday. Conditions made Davies’s day difficult but he steered the ship and ran the backline well, he kicked the winning penalty in the 85th minute and later noted that he had already been training with the Wales squad last week. If Biggar isn’t for against England I would back Davies to be on the bench ready to replace Jarrod Evans.

Rhys Webb- He is due to sign for the Ospreys for next season, but he has joined Bath for the rest of this season. Webb was brought into the team for the west country derby against Bristol at the Rec. Webb’s service looked really good and his mind still works as quickly as it did pre 2017 when he was one of the sharpest Scrum Halfs in the world. Webb looked frustrated to see his replacement Will Chudley cross after a break by Rhys Priestland as he would have been on the same support line of he hadn’t been brought off a few phases before. A try would have done Webb the world of good and it is good to see him get game time. But I don’t think this performance will see him force his way into the 23 man squad.

Callum Sheedy- Whilst he hasn’t nailed his colours to a mast at international level just yet the Cardiff born and raised Sheedy is still eligible to Wales. He also qualifies for Ireland and England, who he has represented at senior level against the Barbarians. He would face a lot of competition for a place in Eddie Jones squad let alone in the starting team. He played superbly against Bath and created a try with a moment of magic by breaking though the defensive line and drawing a tackle before executing a cross field kick to Alapeti Leiua. Sheedy also made 13 tackles and kept his team in the lead once they had established it. His Goal Kicking needs to improve for test level but with Halfpenny on the team this wouldn’t be as important at the moment. Who knows maybe spending some time with Neil Jenkins would help? Personally I would call Sheedy up and see how he responds. He is 24 now and will want to increase his salary by playing international rugby.

Negatives-
Dan Biggar- In many respects Biggars move to Northampton has brought the best out of him, the caveat being that he is open to selection during the fallow weeks of a tournament. Biggar put his body on the line in Cardiff last week and would have benefitted from sitting it out this week espeically as he received his sixth career concussion against Ireland three weeks ago. But he was named at 10 in the clash against Saracens. Biggar lasted 20 minutes before he was helped off the field having suffered a painful and potentially serious knee injury after claiming a high ball. This leaves Wales with one fit Outside half in the squad in Jarrod Evans who has very limited test level experience. Evans is talented but he’s not at Biggars level yet.

Taulupe Faletau- He didn’t have a bad game by any means, but I don’t like the fact that he played 80 full blooded minutes on a very heavy pitch. Faletau has had some awful luck with injuries and has been thrown straight back into test rugby whilst still finding his feet again. This I feel places him at a higher risk of reinjury. He will now have six days rest heading into the showdown with England at Twickenham on Saturday evening. Which does not aid Wales cause.

Will Griff John- Sale are flying at the moment but Griff John did not do enough against Gloucester on Friday evening to seize a test jersey next weekend. He was yellow carded for some indiscipline at a breakdown, but did well in the scrums.

It was a shame to see Louis Rees Zammit miss out on a chance to continue his Try scoring streak for Gloucester on Friday evening due to illness. I’ve got my fingers crossed that this was just a cover story due to him coming into the starting team for Wales at Twickenham. I think the squad will look quite different come the summer tour and expect Basham to have been capped by then and can hope for Sheedy to have made his mind up about who he wants to play for. The Ospreys game against Zebre was called off due to the concerns around the spread of the Coronavirus and as such, players like Adam Beard and Owen Watkin missed out on valuable on field minutes. Liam Williams and Josh Navidi were retained in the training camp at the Vale of Glamorgan Hotel.