“You need more than effort”- Matt Sherratt frustrated with Six Nations opener against England

Wednesday, 11 February 2026 at 16:19

byHarry Tovey

Matt Sherratt, one year ago today, took over as Wales’ head coach on an interim basis following Warren Gatland's departure after a harrowing 22-15 defeat to Italy four days earlier.

His first game in charge was against the then reigning Six Nations champions, Ireland, at Principality Stadium, and Wales’ attacking game thrived in that contest.

Watch the Guinness Six Nations at your local Greene King sports pub.

There were many questions in the lead-up to that match about whether Sherratt would have enough time to impose his attacking plans on Wales.

And it was made clear rather quickly that Sherratt had brought his attacking plans to Wales. Compared with their previous two outings against France and 'The Azzurri', Wales played a completely different, more fluent style of rugby.

There were flashes of optimism amongst the Welsh rugby public, but after the meeting against the Irish, Wales suffered a hat-trick of losses against Scotland, England, and Japan.

They have posed questions to sides with the ball in hand despite some further bruising defeats. In Steve Tandy’s first game as Wales head coach, his side crossed four times against Argentina.

But after shipping 121 points in their last two outings against South Africa (73-0) and England (48-7), Wales’ attacking flair has seemingly evaporated, leaving a number of questions about where the dismantled side goes.

Speaking at the Vale Resort on Wednesday afternoon, following Wales’ lacklustre performance in attack against the ‘old enemy’, Sherratt said: “No, it wasn’t (acceptable).

“It doesn’t sting anyone more than players and staff. It wasn’t because of a lack of effort, but at the top end of sport, you need more than effort. The review (of the game) was honest, it wasn’t brutal, it was honest.

“We had two days afterwards, which helps because it is a bit of a grieving process. The players understand as well, but it’s all pretty joined up.

“We are trying to grow a group there. We are not going to grow with coaches standing up and giving them answers. They’ve got to be involved. You want players talking.

"It was very honest, but also, you get to a stage where you can’t look back too much in this competition because you’ve got France coming over the hill. By the time we came back in on Tuesday (we’re) looking forward to France.”

His side’s attacking game was not helped by England’s pure domination last Saturday, with Wales having 44% possession and only accumulating six line breaks. This was trumped by England having 56% possession and a dozen line breaks, which led to seven tries.

This was helped due to some poor displays in defence, despite second row Dafydd Jenkins making a heroic 17 tackles in the contest, but in attack, there were some uncharacteristic performances.

Particularly with speedster Louis Rees-Zammit, who had a quiet game at fullback and was unable to make much of an impact as expected wearing the 15 shirt.

Ben Thomas has faced a considerable amount of criticism around whether he should be starting at inside centre for the clash against ‘Les Bleus’.

On Cardiff Rugby’s Thomas, Sherratt added: “You’ve got to have balance, haven’t you, across your team.

“You can see like Ben and Joe (Hawkins), actually, when they are on their game, they can give you go forward. They’ve got good feet, and they’re pretty athletic.

“Then at 13, there’s some bigger athletes. So it’s about getting the balance in your backline, because you also need organisation in the middle of the field. A route to get the ball to what is a very dangerous back three, if we get possession.

“So it’s just about getting the balance in that area.”

Despite the fact that, on the whole an uninspiring performance last time out, Sherratt insists Wales will not change their approach to games. “It’s a balance, it’s like with any job,” continued Sherratt.

“If you start changing course every two or three weeks, you lose confidence in what you’re trying to do. Also, we’ve been clear from the start. We’ve got a group of players we want to play in a certain way.

“It’s been consistent. We’ve seen shoots of it against Argentina and New Zealand, and then not in the other games. So it’s about trying to get more of what we’re trying to do on the field, and not changing.

“We’re not stubborn, so we will look at what’s the best chance for the team to get a result at the weekend. But you can’t be scrapping your plans each week as well.”

Wales come up against a relentless force in France on Sunday afternoon, but there will be a familiar face in the blue corner. That being, former Wales coach Shaun Edwards. “I know Shaun well, I worked with him with Wales, Cardiff and Ospreys,” added Sherratt.

“They’re good defensively, and Shaun is a world-class defence coach. It’s more about the players going against their defence rather than me against Shaun, because on and off the pitch, he’s pretty formidable.”