Shane Williams: Sorry Gav, you’ve just had one good game

I felt the full wrath of the Welsh public in my career. It’s brutal and there’ll be no-one hurting more than the team after the defeat to Scotland. I’m not surprised to see calls for change, but this is no time for bringing in players from the cold.
Whenever there’s a fallout from a Wales defeat, people always seem to talk about Gavin Henson and the fans get excited when his name is mentioned. I’m not sure if that’s for reasons of nostalgia, but I don’t think he should be included in the team.
Gav is one of the most talented rugby guys I played with and he had the opportunity to be one of the best to ever play the game.
I watched the highlights of the game between Bristol and Bath with a smile on my face. I enjoyed the way he played and some of his subtle touches were brilliant. His passing and stepping was almost lethargic in its ease.
It was the type of performance I’ve wanted to see from Gav for the last four or five seasons.
We all know he is capable of those types of displays and I’m sure Gav would do anything to be involved, but he’s played one good game and that’s not enough to warrant a place in Rob Howley’s squad right now.
If he gets more game time for Bristol and plays regularly, maybe he could be involved further down the line.
I can’t see Rob making sweeping changes for Ireland but if people want to see another playmaker option involved, I think Sam Davies, not Gav, is the way to go.
He’s impressed off the bench against Italy and Scotland, but wasn’t given much time at Murrayfield.
I think Dan Biggar has played very well in this tournament and deserves to continue at fly-half. But Sam is an exciting option to bring on. He plays flat to the gain-line and takes on the opposition defence. I’d like to see him get more of a run in the last two games against Ireland and France.
Dan has had his fair share of stick after the Scotland game over that penalty decision but for me, it’s time to bin the issue and move on.
I can tell you now that no-one in this Wales squad is overruling Alun-Wyn Jones. He’s a stubborn git at the best of times, so there’s no way Leigh Halfpenny or Dan would have told him what to do.
I’ve seen Alun-Wyn and Dan have some serious discussions on and off the field, and Dan is quite a stubborn man, too. I think there was a bit of frustration when Alun-Wyn said he wanted to go for goal after the game, but, hopefully, we can move on from here as there are bigger issues for Wales to worry about.
The two biggest concerns for me in Edinburgh were the failure to take chances and ill-discipline but now is the time for Wales to pick themselves up, there’s pride at stake here.
There were poor individual displays in Scotland and so many mistakes were made. To me Wales looked disjointed and frustrated and, after a good display against England, we’ve now taken a backward step. What I noticed was how Scotland frustrated Wales. There was a lot of ill-discipline, chatting back to the referee, and so on.
That’s not what you want when you’re trying to win a game which is slipping away.
Then there were the missed chances. When you’re behind sometimes you force things and that’s when games slip away. The best teams don’t do that. They keep hold of the ball and run through the phases.
But Wales chased the game, forced passes, and turned the ball over. They must learn from that because they’re playing a world-class Irish side next.