Shane Williams column: So, could Dai Young and Rob Howley work together?

Rob Howley and Dai Young could be the dream ticket to succeed Warren Gatland. Wales will need a new head coach after the 2019 World Cup and from now until then, I imagine everyone will be linked with the job.
Most recently that has been Dai Young and it’s easy to see why.
He was a stalwart of the Wales team for many years. I won my first cap alongside him and was lucky enough to play many times with him.
He was a great prop and a real team-man – and he has transferred those attributes to his coaching.
Dai did a great job at Cardiff. They were twice runners-up in the Celtic League, won the Anglo-Welsh and                 European Challenge Cup and, famously, came within a penalty kick of reaching the Heineken Cup Final. That’s something I never tire of reminding Martyn Williams who missed that kick in the shoot-out.
And it’s not a coincidence that Cardiff have struggled since he left.
Now he is doing a similar job at Wasps and judging by their start to the European Champions Cup, this could be their year.
He knew when he arrived that he could not perform miracles overnight. It was always going to be a long-term job – if he was given the time. Thankfully rugby is not like football and Wasps were patient in allowing him to build a team.
With the move to the Ricoh Arena, everything now seems in place for Wasps to really compete for silverware.
They were ruthless against Leinster and then did the unthinkable in taking Toulon apart. Right now they must rightly believe they could go all the way.
So could Dai go all the way? He has stated publicly he wants to have a crack at international level and that, really, should be with Wales.
We really need to see a Welshman back in charge of the national team.
Mike Ruddock and Gareth Jenkins were both only in the job for two years each, between the New Zealand trio of Warren Gatland, Steve Hansen and Graham Henry, who arrived in 1998.
That means by the time Gatland leaves in 2019, Wales will only have had a Welshman in charge for four of the previous 21 years. For a proud rugby nation like Wales, that’s a damning statistic.
Of course, Dai is long enough in the tooth to know there is a long, long time to go before the powers-that-be at the Welsh Rugby Union appoint a successor to Gatland.
Dai has turned things around at Wasps, they are on the up and have made a great start to the season but let’s wait and see what the state of play is in a few years’ time.
Many inside and outside the Union would want to see an element of continuity to the success of the Gatland era, and that would point to Rob Howley.
Rob is the natural successor to Gatland having worked under him since 2008 with Wales and on two British Lions tours.
He has also done the job already and won a Six Nations title in 2012 while Gats was preparing for the Lions tour.
Could we have both Rob and Dai, with the latter in charge of the forwards? It would be a perfect combination and both know each other well from their days together as players with Cardiff, Wales and the Lions.
But the question would be whether either would want to be a No.2. They’re both big characters and somehow, I doubt it.
Thankfully this is all something we don’t have to worry about until after the next World Cup.
I’m sure England must have sounded out a move for Gatland but he committed himself to Wales and we could all breathe a sigh of relief.
It would have been a massive blow had he left – and a kick in the you-know-where if he joined England!