These are tough times to be a Wales fan. The hardest in living memory for a generation who grew up with regular Six Nations success and a team full of stars such as Sam Warburton and Alun Wyn Jones.
There are many issues at play in Welsh rugby, but by any measure, recent results are a complete horror show as Sunday’s record loss to France made it 13 consecutive Six Nations defeats and a 10th straight loss at home in the championship.
It’s now 1,072 days since their last Six Nations victory in March 2023 v Italy in Rome and 1,464 days since their last championship win at home against Scotland in February 2022.
It appears supporters are starting to vote with their feet. The attendance against France was 57,744, making it the lowest ever Six Nations crowd in Cardiff.
But speaking after the game on BBC One, former captain Warburton was encouraged by some parts of Wales’ play and said they need to look at what went well such as the maul defence, line-out and the performance of Eddie James.
“Some aspects of the game went quite well, they weren’t outpowered, they were outclassed with ball handling. There are some positives to take into next week,” said Warburton.
“Looking at the small wins, there’s no point kicking them when they’re down. It has to be how can we get better from this point? Which young players look like they’ve got the mentality?
“We’re not trying to solve this in one week, we’re in this for a couple of years so let’s all get tight and every week look for small improvements and move forward.”
Jones said there had “definitely been green shoots”.
“The effort was there but it’s international rugby and you’re going to be judged on results, but it was there from an effort standpoint,” he added.
Ex-England captain Martin Johnson also offered words of encouragement.
“Wales can always play and score tries, they have good rugby players so you’re never that far away and they can sit there thinking they’ve been smashed at home against a very good French side. But there will be some games coming up where they think we can win this.”