{"id":51581,"date":"2025-08-08T01:08:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T01:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/51581\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T01:08:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T01:08:13","slug":"steve-tandy-offers-brutally-real-take-on-turning-wales-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/51581\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Tandy offers brutally real take on turning Wales around"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New head coach Steve Tandy says Wales<\/a> must show ambition to restore national pride after sliding down the world order.<\/p>\n

Tonmawr-born Tandy, a former Ospreys<\/a> player and coach, has ended a six-year stay as Scotland<\/a> defence coach to return home to Wales.<\/p>\n

Tandy becomes the first Welshman to coach the national side since 2007, at a time when Wales have slipped to 12th in the world rankings and had lost 17 successive matches before beating Japan<\/a> last month in the final game of Matt Sherratt\u2019s interim reign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe privilege and the honour to be head coach of your national country is massive,\u201d Tandy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in the changing rooms is even better. I\u2019ve got huge pride as a sense of family and what a great rugby nation it is.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wales <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Argentina <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s a feeling of absolute pride and an honour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wales were 2019 World Cup semi-finalists under Warren Gatland and Wayne Pivac\u2019s side won the 2021 Six Nations<\/a> Championship.<\/p>\n

But Pivac\u2019s reign quickly unravelled and Gatland\u2019s return \u2013 the Kiwi had overseen a glorious chapter between 2007 and 2019 \u2013 produced no upturn in fortunes, with his departure coming during the 2025 Six Nations in February.<\/p>\n

The Welsh Rugby Union has stated it wants to see Wales in the top five in the world by 2029.<\/p>\n

But is that a realistic target given the problems facing the Welsh game at a time when four regions could be cut to two and the talent pool is shallow compared to rival nations?<\/p>\n

Tandy said: \u201cI believe in the talent we have in Wales, to get us to where we want to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not going to be a magic wand or a quick fix and then it all changes, but I do believe in the pathway.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately you want to have ambition. We want to have ambition to meet those targets, but ultimately there\u2019s a process to get to that as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to build performances incrementally. From campaign to campaign we have to be better and looking at how we can build that performance through the exciting group we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tandy won the Pro12 competition in six years at Ospreys but left the Welsh region in 2018.<\/p>\n

He worked for NSW Waratahs<\/a> in Australia<\/a> before moving to Scotland, while Gatland made him defence coach on the British and Irish Lions\u2019 2021 tour of South Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing that has really driven me from the start is I want to be the best person and the best coach I can possibly be,\u201d Tandy said.<\/p>\n

\"SteveSteve Tandy answers questions \u2013 PA<\/p>\n

\u201cDid I ever think I\u2019d be a Lions<\/a> coach? No. Did I ever think I\u2019d coach the Waratahs? No.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think it\u2019s surprising what happens when you have the mindset to be better and to understand as well you have got blind spots and you have got things to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tandy takes up his role on September 1 and will prepare for autumn home games against Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.<\/p>\n

He will shape his backroom team along with WRU performance director Dave Reddin, saying there is a \u201cblank canvas\u201d after Gethin Jenkins<\/a> (defence), Danny Wilson (forwards), Adam Jones<\/a> (scrum), Rhys Thomas<\/a> (assistant forwards coach) and Leigh Halfpenny<\/a> (kicking) assisted Sherratt in Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New head coach Steve Tandy says Wales must show ambition to restore national pride after sliding down the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-51581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}