For years the Welsh fly-half chat has been a horror story. With Dan Biggar retired, Gareth Anscombe injured and the regions cycling through stand-ins, the No. 10 jersey became the symbol of Welsh rugby's drift. Squidge Rugby's latest More Squidge video argues that — finally — there are signs of life.
The trigger was a Wales Online piece by journalist Ben James suggesting 18-year-old Scarlets stand-off Carwyn Jones should be called up. Co-host Joe Whitfield was quick to defend the article, noting James' piece itself was more measured than the headline implied, but used it as a springboard to rank the entire Welsh 10 pool under new head coach Steve Tandy.
At the top of the pile, Squidge and Whitfield landed on Ospreys playmaker Dan Edwards. They had Edwards a hair ahead of Sam Costelow, with the duo leaning on Edwards' own admission on the URC podcast that Costelow probably would have started Wales' next Six Nations match had he not picked up a knock. "I think those two are probably they're neck and neck, but I think it's probably advantage Edwards at the minute," Squidge said, citing Edwards' control, drop goal and try in Wales' win over Italy.
Whitfield offered a measured corrective on the Costelow narrative. "Sam Costelow, I've been a fan of since watching when he was 17," he said. Both presenters argued the Scarlets continue to mismanage their flagship 10 by playing him without a senior fly-half partner, with Joe Hawkins routinely shoehorned into the role to cover.
At three, Cardiff's Jarrod Evans got the nod. "He's been a really good number 22," Squidge said. "If there was a World Cup tomorrow, I'd take Jarrod Evans." Cardiff club-mate Callum Sheedy, long a Squidge sceptic, was promoted to fourth on the back of his best season as a professional. "I've really done a U-turn on that. This season, he has played the best rugby of his career," Squidge said. "He's finally looking like the player I hoped he would be."
The most striking call came outside the picking order. Asked who his actual Wales player of the season was, Whitfield nominated Dragons co-captain Ioan Lloyd. "He's also one of the top five players to kick the most 50-22s in Europe," he said, arguing Lloyd's distribution, kicking and organisational nous would suit Wales perfectly — but as a fullback partner to a frontline 10, not the 10 himself.
The Sam Davies conversation drew a wistful nod. The Grenoble outside half is technically barred by Wales' 25-cap law, but Squidge was clear about the eligibility loophole: "One of the clauses is if you don't get an offer from a club in Wales, then you're eligible." Treated hypothetically, Davies would slot in around fourth or fifth choice, Squidge said.
Gareth Anscombe was nudged into the conversation. Despite his age, dropping form and recent public criticism of the WRU, the duo agreed Tandy would still pick him in a crisis. "If it's a World Cup and you're calling someone up because there's an injury crisis, you're calling up Anscombe," Squidge said.
That brought them, at last, to Carwyn Jones. The teenager played for his sixth form one weekend and made his Scarlets debut the following Christmas derby, then asked his region for time off to sit A-Levels — a back story Squidge clearly relished. The verdict: don't rush him.
"Dan Edwards made his professional debut at 20," Squidge noted. "He's two years younger and at a similar point in development. There's no linear way in which everybody learns at the same time. We need to be patient with him. His style of play reminds me a bit of Rhys Priestland, and that's one of my favourite Welsh 10s ever."
The ranking, as agreed: Edwards, Costelow, Evans, Sheedy, Anscombe, Davies, then 31-year-old Dragons utility Angus O'Brien, with Jones a respectable eighth. "It's completely fine to say he'd be eighth choice," Squidge said. For a position that has been Welsh rugby's nightmare for half a decade, eighth-deep counts as progress.
