WELSH forwards coach Robin McBryde has played down fears over Welsh squad players playing in the Aviva Premiership and Top 14 this weekend.
McBryde said: “It hasn’t been bad this week because we have got fifteen players playing in the right positions, so that’s allowed us to do some team based stuff.
“It becomes hard when players have to play out of position in order to fulfil a team run, but that was one of the reasons for a larger squad initially to cater for that.
“The difficulty comes when players go back to different systems with their clubs, so they have got to relearn and obviously come back into us on Sunday.”
The former Swansea and Llanelli hooker was quick to praise the importance of unused squad players in creating a competitive training environment.
“I made a comment last week in the changing room as soon as we had that victory over Scotland,” said McBryde.
“A lot of it is down to the work behind the scenes of the players who haven’t had an opportunity to start yet.
“Your Dominic Days, your Jake Balls from a forward perspective anyway, Aaron Jarvis, Paul James have also been excellent with regards to creating that environment in training.
“We missed that during this week, but its important that those players have game time as well.”
In recent weeks the balance of the Welsh back-row has been questioned, with the decision to select two out and out fetchers intensely scrutinised.
However, McBryde insists that the Welsh management are happy with the performances of the loose-forwards.
“It’s been heavily documented week in week out with regards to the make-up of the back-row,” he said.
“Before every game the issue is going to be raised, and that’s not going to go away.
“We are happy with the way things have gone, we are happy with the impact that the replacements have given.
“To a man when they’ve come on you could say maybe that’s been the difference in the two games.
“However, its horses for courses and different teams play in different styles.
“So it’s a case of measuring where we think we need to pick the best players suited for those games and those decisions will be made both on the opposition and on the form of those players when they are playing for Wales.”
