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Winners and losers before Wales name Six Nations squad

BBC Sport Wales assesses who has impressed or fallen away as Steve Tandy prepares to name his first Six Nations squad.

4 hours ago

OPINION: Losing Tony Brown to the All Blacks will be a hammer blow for Boks

It’s one thing losing Tony Brown, the coach, and quite another having him share everything he’s learned about the Springboks with the All Blacks. That is the most concerning part of the possibility of Brown, the Springbok assistant coach, leaving the national rugby team for a position with the New Zealand side. Of course plenty has to happen for this to occur, but as things stand Brown is a wanted man in the All Blacks set-up, especially if, as many are predicting, Jamie Joseph becomes the new coach in place of Scott Robertson, who was fired last Thursday. Keep in mind Joseph and Brown are big buds and have a coaching relationship similar to the one between Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber. Understanding how Boks operate If Joseph becomes All Blacks head coach you can be sure he and the New Zealand Rugby Union will do whatever they can to get Brown involved. They’d be silly not to, especially knowing what the backline attack specialist might be able to bring into the All Blacks set-up. And that, of course, is always the danger of employing someone from another country … if they leave they take with them all sorts of knowledge, information and intelligence. Brown would do the same and the team who’d lose out are the Boks. Brown has certainly picked up plenty under Erasmus in the last two years. He’ll know the inner workings of the Boks, have a good understanding of how Erasmus operates and how the Boks go about planning for big Tests, including against the All Blacks. Brown would also have intimate information about the strengths and weaknesses of the Bok players. So while the current world champions would suffer a bit of blow in the coaching department should Brown depart, a lot of what he’s already put in place and shared among the other coaches and with the players, would remain. It’s the transfer of inside information that would really be the hammer blow. And let’s be honest, while everyone in the Bok set-up and the fans would love to see Brown stay on, at least until after the 2027 World Cup, his leaving is a big possibility. The All Blacks are desperate to get back on track and catch up to the Boks, and a coaching team of Joseph and Brown has already been talked about as the best combination for the job needed to turn things around in New Zealand.

5 hours ago