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Steve Tandy watches from the coaching box(Image: 2025 Getty Images)<\/p>\nThere’s still plenty of roles to be filled in Wales’ coaching ticketSteve Tandy watches from the coaching box(Image: 2025 Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Such is Welsh rugby’s chaotic state, the end of the autumn and that 73-0 defeat to the Springbok somehow feels both five minutes and a lifetime ago.<\/p>\n
38 days have passed since that chastening day against South Africa, with another 32 to go until the start of Wales’ Six Nations<\/a> campaign. It’s a fairly quick turnaround between the two campaigns.<\/p>\n That could play a part in one facet of Steve Tandy’s preparations for his first Six Nations in charge of Wales.<\/p>\n Because, while Tandy, Matt Sherratt and Danny Wilson are all permanent members of Wales’ coaching staff, that’s as far as the full-time staff goes.<\/p>\n In the autumn, Dragons coaches Rhys Patchell and Dan Lydiate, as well as Ospreys<\/a>‘ Duncan Jones, joined Wales on secondment.<\/p>\n Patchell looked after kicking, Lydiate helped out Tandy with defence, while Jones was the scrum coach.<\/p>\n Right now, with no names really floating around, it’s hard to see Wales not going back to those three for another short-term secondment. The squad is due to be announced in two weeks, with coaching team likely to be confirmed around the same time.<\/p>\n Patchell already has his admirers – with some former team-mates having marked him out as a future coach some time ago.<\/p>\n Of course, the flipside for both him and Lydiate – as it was in the autumn – is that both are still very early in their coaching careers.<\/p>\n Both hung up their boots last year. Jones, at least, has got some coaching experience under his belt.<\/p>\n The three former internationals were the latest in a long line of coaches in a turbulent 2025 for Wales.<\/p>\n