Tour diary entry #6: Here's what you could have won and babies called Dan
Wales' tour of Japan is into the final few days, with the focus on getting a long-awaited victory in Kobe
Even out here in Kobe, there’s a sense that the growing uncertainty is reaching boiling point back home.
Upon arriving in Japan, there was the suggestion that a meeting between the Welsh Rugby Union and the professional sides had been cancelled at the last minute the Friday before - just days after Ospreys players came away from a meeting with club bosses unimpressed with the lack of answers on offer.
Uncapped second-row James Fender is seemingly on the move to France. The Ospreys, as I understand it, have the final say on whether he leaves a year before his contract expires, but it seems likelier than not he goes.
Others may follow, given the uncertainty.
It doesn’t make for ideal preparation for a tour, especially when the pressure is on to end a losing streak that nearly spans two years. Lose tomorrow and it’s the worse run of defeats by a Tier 1 nation in Test history.
So, yeah, not a great way to head into the final days of the Welsh Test season.
This isn’t win or bust on Saturday. Nor is it win and everything’s fine again.
Welsh rugby is still damaged almost beyond repair. Victory over Japan won’t change that.
But for the players, the ones taking the slings and arrows day after day as everyone else in Welsh rugby points fingers, it will mean something monumental.
Vindication, even just the smallest bit, in themselves. The monkey off their back. That’s what they’re working towards this weekend.
Perhaps Dan Edwards, the man thrust into Wales’ greatest obsession - the No. 10 jersey - for the first time can be the one to guide them there.
One Japanese journalist asked this week if, should Edwards be successful in ending Wales’ 18-Test run, there would be a spate of newborn Welsh babies all called Dan.
Matt Sherratt, unsure how to reply, simply raised his thumb in response. As he left the press conference, he turns to the travelling press pack and noted: “It not as if Dan Biggar hasn’t been the Welsh fly-half for the last 15 years!”
The press conference itself was also interrupted by a loud whirring sound that brought proceedings to a standstill.
Turns out it was one local journalist’s laptop, seemingly working a little too hard. Nothing a quick hit didn’t fix, though.