The first 12 fixtures of Steve Tandy’s career as head coach of Wales in November may have flown by since he took charge in November 2025 but there will be little time to relax with his next assignment a mere 110 days away.
That will be Round 4 of the new Nations Championship, when Japan arrive at Principality Stadium on 7 November. The All Blacks are in Cardiff the following weekend with the Wallabies facing Wales on 21 November.
The last time the Japanese played in Wales they were beaten 24-23 thanks to an 83rd minute penalty from the trusty boot of Jarrod Evans. Eddie Jones’ side managed one win in their three home games in the first half of the Nations Championship, beating Italy 27-10 in Round 1.
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They were then beaten 36-20 by Ireland and 42-15 by France. They finished fifth in the northern hemisphere table, comparable to Wales’ finish in the Southern section.
Next up Tandy will get the chance to see if his side can improve on the first win of his international career as a head coach in the re-match with the Japanese.
After posting a bonus-point win in the first round against Fiji, Tandy admitted to being disappointed in the results against the Pumas in San Juan (35-21) and Springboks (43-0). Even so, he still believes progress is being made.
“I think there have been lots of green shoots and building of momentum, but again this is the path we’re on and how do we accelerate faster,” said Tandy in the wake of the defeat in Durban.
“There’s no dead time for us. We’ll go back and reflect, see what we’ve done well, but also where we need to go and how quickly we go there.
“It was pretty one-sided when it comes to us defending and getting the ball against South Africa. Probably the one or two moments we did get an opportunity we weren’t accurate enough.
“We probably could have been a bit more ruthless when we had three or four penalties in a row, but we didn’t take that. South Africa are physical at the breakdown and they’re a well-oiled defensive unit as well.
“There are lots of things we have to get better at to grow our game. But when you’re going up against the best team, probably one of the most physical in the world, unfortunately these are the experiences we have to go through.”
“I’m bitterly disappointed with the score but I commend the team around the effort, they stayed in the fight for large parts of the game. There’s massive pride in our players.”
Despite losing their last two matches, Tandy’s side actually rose from 12th to 11th in the official World Rugby Rankings at the weekend. That’s down to Italy dropping down from 10th to 12th following their 57-10 thrashing by Australia in Perth – their lowest ranking since the 2023 World Cup.
At the end of the six rounds of pool matches there will be three days of play-off matches between the northern and southern teams, with each team from 1-6 in the two hemispheres playing their comparable opponent. Those games will be played at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham from 27-29 November.
| Southern Hemisphere | ||||||
| P | W | L | PD | PTS | ||
| France | 3 | 2 | 1 | +41 | 12 | |
| Scotland | 3 | 2 | 1 | +11 | 11 | |
| England | 3 | 2 | 1 | +48 | 10 | |
| Ireland | 3 | 2 | 1 | -1 | 10 | |
| Wales | 3 | 1 | 2 | -42 | 5 | |
| Italy | 3 | 0 | 3 | -94 | 0 | |
| Northern Hemisphere | ||||||
| P | W | L | PD | PTS | ||
| South Africa | 3 | 3 | 0 | +81 | 15 | |
| New Zealand | 3 | 3 | 0 | +51 | 15 | |
| Australia | 3 | 1 | 2 | +29 | 12 | |
| Argentina | 3 | 1 | 2 | -2 | 7 | |
| Japan | 3 | 1 | 2 | -26 | 4 | |