Matt Sherratt changed three things behind the scenes to transform Wales
Last Monday, an hour or so after Wales had finished their first press conference of the week, one of the Welsh players was wandering through the lobby of their Vale HQ when he stopped for a brief chat.
This was day one of Matt Sherratt's first week with Wales. The Cardiff coach had arrived back from Galway the day before, meeting up with his coaches on the Sunday to discuss the week and introduce T. Rhys Thomas to his staff.
Time was against him, with just a handful of sessions ahead of a clash with Six Nations favourites Ireland. Across the week, expectations were tempered with realism in press conferences.
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There's only so much you change in a week, after all. Wales would stand for something, finally, but getting that on the pitch at the end of the week is another matter.
And yet, speaking in the lobby, there was a sense that - more than they were willing to admit publicly - things were going to change. The subtext was that, frankly, they had to.
Even on Monday afternoon, the suggestion was that the players were dealing with the new terminology and shapes well. Hours later, Sherratt held his first selection meeting - settling on the side that would ultimately push Ireland so close.
Only those who were in the room will know what happened in the meeting, but the fact is they walked out of it with a front-row of Nicky Smith, Elliot Dee and WillGriff John.
Common sense selection
The selection of John in particular raised some eyebrows. This was just his third cap and second start for Wales - almost three-and-a-half years since the last.
However the decision was reached, it's hard to escape the notion - as Sam Warburton himself has said - that Sherratt didn't just empower scrum consultant Adam Jones to pick the best scrummaging props in his view and go from there.
Certainly, picking players in the right positions has been a theme in the last week - with Gareth Anscombe at fly-half and Ben Thomas moving to inside centre.
The fact that defence coach Mike Forshaw even dropped when Wales would pick their team casually into an answer during his press conference on Monday was a change from the norm. In the past, Wales have been quite protective, almost paranoid, about details like that.
As someone remarked recently though, there's often been an element of Wales caring a lot about the details that ultimately don't matter, while it often seemed that the ones that do were overlooked. Sherratt, as anyone who has played under him would tell you, is a details man.
The challenge this week has been focusing on the right ones. Coming into camp this week, Sherratt instinctively knew this was a good group of players. Hard workers willing to learn and a good bunch of lads, above all.
It was just a case of prioritising what to get across. At times, Sherratt has had to pull back on his messages, for the fear of bombarding the players with too much detail.
The recalls for Anscombe, Jarrod Evans and Max Llewellyn brought familiarity to Sherratt's style of play. The Cardiff coach has always been wedded to an entertaining gameplan.
Bravery within structure
At the Arms Park, that proved the perfect tonic to the general austerity of Welsh rugby. Having witnessed his interactions with Cardiff players in the confines of the dressing room first-hand, what Sherratt espouses most of all is bravery and enjoyment within structure.
This was a different level altogether, yet the message didn't change. In Monday's team meeting, Sherratt - a teacher at heart - reiterated the importance of simply enjoying what you do.
Monday was about establishing clarity over what Wales would stand for - showing emotion and ambition to 73,000 fans in Cardiff. Tuesday and Thursday were where the hard work was done on that front.
Tactically, Sherratt didn't make sweeping changes. Instead, the key was about bringing in structures that players felt comfortable within.
Wales have long had pods of forwards playing off nine or 10, with options out the back. But - be it a lack of belief, an absence of detailed coaching or both - it hasn't really worked.
That changed on Saturday. Much of the shape Wales used - with Anscombe and Thomas usually acting as options behind a group of carriers - was similar to stuff Warren Gatland and Rob Howley used in Paris. The difference was execution.
Back in pre-season, when Cardiff played Bath in a friendly, Sherratt drilled into his players before kick-off the message about being positive and not being afraid of making mistakes.
"Don't look for the easy option," he added. Sometimes, in the last year, you sense that the lack of confidence in Wales' system has seen players not take risks or put themselves in the position to make mistakes. On Saturday, that wasn't the case.
Offloads were tried. Some landed, some didn't. But, and the reason the shape suddenly worked better, is everyone was a believable carrying option. There were no lazy decoys, secretly hoping the ball didn't actually come their way.
A lot of it was just turning the typical shapes you'd see into something functional through good coaching. You can read more about that in the latest Inside Welsh Rugby newsletter.
Something new
This isn't to say that Sherratt didn't introduce anything that was entirely new. Former England scrum-half Ben Youngs admitted on his For The Love Of Rugby podcast that he can't think of another team in international rugby that runs the shape that the interim coach introduced on Saturday.
"From a breakdown, the nine gets out, picks up the ball and runs laterally," explained Youngs. "He might get two or three metres away from the ruck.
"He has a forward that comes on a short ball off nine. He then pulls the ball out the back to another forward. So it's like one short, one out the back.
"That forward then gets it, he digs in at the line a little bit, on a 45. He then plays it out the back to Anscombe (or Evans).
"It's a bit of a lateral play. What it does is get you away from all those defenders. If you're defending those spaces, you have to respect the 9 running out, respect the lead line and then it's very hard to get inside pressure when it goes out the back to that first ball-playing forward.
"Naturally, that gets Wales to the outside and they ran that shape quite a bit. It's something that Matt Sherratt has introduced straight away and they looked better for it."
Being able to get all this across in a week is frankly impressive. But Sherratt is a hands-on coach. While Huw Bennett was leading the Wales players in a warm-up during Friday's captain's run, Sherratt - twirling the whistle in his hand - was down the other end of the pitch, retrieving balls.
Not a moment was wasted in the pursuit of improving. In the space of a week, Wales improved and then some.
