The Wales international hasn’t played for his country since November 2024Mason Grady in action for Cardiff(Image: Mark Lewis/Huw Evans Agency)

Watching on at the Arms Park on Boxing Day, the first thought that probably through Wales attack coach Matt Sherratt’s head is how less stressful Christmas is without a festive derby to worry about.

Having left Cardiff at the start of the season to join Steve Tandy’s coaching team, his visits to his old club now take the form of watching briefs. And, if the lack of Christmas coaching headaches was the first takeaway for Sherratt on Friday, then what he will be able to get out of Mason Grady in the Six Nations next year might have been his second.

The 23-year-old is now four games into his comeback trail – having missed a year of competitive action.

An ankle injury against Fiji in the autumn of 2024 was followed by a shoulder injury in pre-season. Only now is Grady getting a run of games.

There have been moments in the previous weeks, but the clash with the Dragons was perhaps Grady’s most complete performance since returning from injury.

Only the peerless Taulupe Faletau and Aaron Wainwright made more carries than Grady’s 14. Just three players – Faletau, Wainwright and Cardiff replacement Alun Lawrence – averaged more carries per minute than Grady’s 0.18.

His three linebreaks were the most in the match, as were the seven defenders beaten. The 134 metres he made were more than double what any other player achieved.

So often, when Cardiff got the ball in his hands, defenders felt compelled to swarm around him. Even so, he was able to bounce the odd one off.

Watching on, Sherratt would likely have been drawing up ways in his head to get the ball to Grady on the Test stage.

Grady, like George North before him, thrives on touches. The more you get him into the game, the better he is.

North would set himself the target of 15 touches, but they have to be quality touches. It’s not enough to give them the ball early and hope for a miracle.

That’s where Sherratt has been so good as an attack coach – drawing up little ways to get people into the game on first or second phase.

During his time at Cardiff, they had a number of lineout moves to get their best carriers – be it Grady or Rhys Carre – taking the ball at pace. It was the same in the autumn with the two-phase tap penalty moves.

That’s the exciting thing about Grady. You sense there’s more to come if you can continue to get him in the game.

His Boxing Day performance wasn’t perfect by any means. He gave away more turnovers than anyone else and missed more tackles than he completed.

He also spilled Aneurin Owen’s overcooked kickpass – allowing the Dragons to open the scoring. However, he put all that behind him to end up as the official player of the match.

“I’m sure he’ll want to forget about that first kick catch, but that’s part of it – standing up and doing the next thing,” said Cardiff coach Corniel van Zyl. “It’s lovely to see him go full pace and beating defenders.

“That’s good to see. The way he beats defenders is nice to see.”

Of course, there’s a debate about what position is right for Grady in the long-term. A lot of his rugby in recent years has been on the wing – other than Warren Gatland’s 12 experiment in the summer of 2024 – but there’s a belief 13 could suit his game more.

For the man himself, it’s just about having some consistency.

“Coming off a long injury, I think it’s important for me to get my mojo back,” said Grady. “Get started in one position for now but if that means in the future I have to move in then I will happily do that but I’m getting back into it at the moment.”

The toss-up between whether a player has more influence on the wing or in midfield is an interesting one.

Moving infield along the backline tends to increase touches, but there’s a greater licence to roam on the wing. Grady’s size also helps out wide – with van Zyl highlighting his aerial skills last week.

Again, there’s more to come on that front – with Cardiff’s attack starting a flounder a little. That’s perhaps natural given Sherratt’s departure at the start of the season – the loss of Wales’ attack coach was only ever going to be noticeable after the first block, given he’d got most of the work done for that in pre-season.

The test for Cardiff now will be how they tweak their attack to find that clinical edge from earlier in the campaign. Getting the best out of Grady will go a long way to helping that.

“We’ll find a way to make it best for the team in the coming matches,” added van Zyl. “I think the big discussion regarding him was to just let him focus on one position.

“So I wouldn’t say that (it’s harder to get him into the game on the wing). You can always tweak stuff to get the ball in his hands. The main focus is still the same – letting him focus on one position.”

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