Gloucester fly-half Gareth Anscombe and centre Max Llewellyn could both help new Wales interim head coach Matt Sherratt improve the fortunes of the struggling Six Nations side, believes Cherry and Whites forwards coach Trevor Woodman.

Gloucester-born Sherratt replaced Warren Gatland as head coach of Wales on Tuesday afternoon and now has nine days to whip his new side into shape before they face tournament favourites Ireland at the Principality Stadium on February 22.

Gatland opted to leave out 43-cap international fly-half Anscombe from his squad for the tournament, citing his ambition to bring through a younger generation of players with the 2027 Rugby World Cup in mind. Instead, he opted for Dan Edwards and Ben Thomas as his fly-half options despite the latter being an a centre by trade for Cardiff.

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While Anscombe, now 33, might not be a viable option out in Australia at the next World Cup, Woodman believes he has a lot to offer the Welsh national side in the short-term if Sherratt changes his focus following 14 straight defeats.

Woodman said: “If their plan is short-term to get a win, then you're probably picking experienced players. If their plan is to create experience for longer-term tournaments, World Cup cycles, then that's a decision that they have to make.
“Gareth, right from the start when he's been in this building [the Gloucester training centre], you draw from his experience. When he talks, the room goes silent, everyone listens and he is accurate 9.5 times out of 10 with his messaging. Sometimes it's timing. Sometimes people talk too much, but his timing just seems to perfect, he just seems to nail it.”

Explaining his strengths as a leader in the Gloucester backline, Woodman continued: “He knows the game inside out. He knows what needs to be done, the intensity levels that we need to play at and train at.

“He's on to other people to make sure they're in the right positions and delivering their job. “He's just worried about himself. When you've got players like that, that are so experienced, they know where the person next to them should be and what he should be doing, and it's very hard to buy that and have that in the building and I think we're pretty lucky to have had him here this year.”

Turning his attention to Llewellyn, who is Gloucester’s leading contender for the player of their season accolade with just over half the campaign completed, Woodman said: “Max has been influential in terms of our attack this year, the amount of tries he has scored, but not just the amount of tries he scored, but just his work rate, his connection, what he gives us, how he frees up other people as well. If Wales think that he's the man for the job, then we've got no complaints, he's performing well for us.”