Biggar has no one to blame but himself
PETER JACKSON
THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW
Had Wales only opted to man the picket lines outside Murrayfield instead of the barricades inside, Dan Biggar, for one, would have been spared a nightmarish experience.
A more miserable international weekend for the displaced captain is hard to imagine, one almost entirely of his own making which began badly before the match and went rapidly downhill during it.
As the main man under Wayne Pivac, Biggar had hardly put a foot wrong in his leadership of the team, his easy, outgoing manner projecting the friendly face of one whose sheer professionalism had deservedly won universal admiration. His rant the day before the Scotland match could hardly have sounded more out of character.
His gratuitous dig at Scotland's historical failure to follow one impressive win with another inspired headlines which almost look worse in large print splashed over every back page from John O'Groats to Dumfries: “You're All Talk And No Medals.''
In the same conference, Biggar lapsed into self-pity. “It's the same old really in Wales,” he said. “You lose a game, you get slagged off. You win (and) it's just brushed over really.”
Wrong on both counts. No Test victory tends to be more widely acclaimed than in Wales. Conversely, anything below-par will be just as widely criticised because the game matters more than in most countries.
Where Biggar really put his foot in it was his dismissive attitude to the opposition, pointing out how Wales had filled their cabinet with medals while Scotland's stood empty. Then he said: “We do have a bit of a laugh when other teams get a fair bit of praise without really backing it up.”
It cannot have occurred to him that such a snigger had the potential to give the Scots a source of laughter which would have left them in need of treatment for split sides. Biggar really ought to have known better.
Others sharing the same opinion would have kept it unsaid rather than tempt fate. In Buddhism and Hinduism, they call it ‘bad karma'.
Before Finn Russell really went to work on a field day to beat all field days, Biggar issued another rant, this one aimed at Rio Dyer after the novice Test wing had flung a less than perfect pass in the ex-captain's direction. His rollicking of the Dragons' newcomer was bang out of order with no thought of the demoralising effect on a young team-mate.
A quiet word or a sympathetic gesture would have been much better. As if missing a penalty wasn't bad enough, Biggar then had to watch his opposite number pick Wales off. Russell was halfway through engineering all four Scottish second-half tries when his fellow Lion made way for Rhys Patchell.
Whether Biggar starts against England remains to be seen. Gareth Anscombe would have been Warren Gatland's first choice but for a serious shoulder injury against Australia before Christmas.
The head coach will also think long and hard about the immediate future of two other Lions in a back division which failed to fire a single shot at Murrayfield. Having jettisoned Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric with almost 250 caps between them, Gatland will be tempted to do likewise with some or all of his three oldest backs.
It's been a while since George North ripped it up at outside centre. If Gatland wants a like-for-like replacement built on the same imposing physical lines he has an uncapped one straining at the leash, Mason Grady.
According to Gatland, the 20-year-old Cardiff centre has been “training the house down. He's really come on, being with us, and you like to see these guys get an opportunity.'' No time like the present. Then there's Liam Williams, still Wales' best attacking full-back by some distance but one whose recurring indiscipline in a team guilty of it on a widespread scale makes him high-maintenance.
If Gatland is reluctant to pick Leigh Halfpenny after three false starts already this season, he could start Louis Rees-Zammit there as Pivac did last autumn before the WRU sacked him for losing one game too many. The double-barrelled Gloucester wing started his come-back off the bench against Harlequins on Friday night, just in time for a Wales return.
Heaven knows they need something far more than offered in their first two matches if they are to avoid a Six Nations whitewash. Calling a wildcat strike is not the answer although it would ensure an end to the losing sequence, if only temporarily…
