Aaron Shingler was one of Wales’s standout players in the Six Nations but the Scarlets flanker goes into Good Friday’s European Champions Cup quarter-final against La Rochelle feeling he has something to prove after being left out of the final match against France.
The 30-year-old forward, whose international career looked to have tapered off last year when he was left out of a largely reserve squad for the summer Tests against Tonga and Samoa, excelled in the opening rounds of the championship but after sitting out the penultimate match against Italy, when Wales made 10 changes, he made only the bench six days later.
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As befits a former opening bowler – he took the new ball for England at Under-19 level – used to sending down bouncers, he asked the Wales head coach, Warren Gatland, why he had been dropped. “I felt I had done enough to keep the shirt and I was very disappointed not to start against France,” says Shingler, who came off the bench in the second half. “I had a word with Warren: you have to ask him what is going on. He said I was unlucky. I have to keep putting him under pressure to pick me and fulfil my goal of playing in a World Cup.”
Shingler will not fade into relative obscurity now the Six Nations is over, as regional players have often done this decade with European campaigns tending to end at the group stage: it is nine years since Wales supplied a semi-finalist in the European Cup and the Scarlets have not reached that stage since 2007, when Shingler was still trying to make it with Glamorgan.
“It is the first time in my career that I have been involved in two competitions at this stage of the season,” says Shingler, who helped the Scarlets win what was the Pro 12 last season, routing Munster in the final at the Aviva Stadium after defeating Leinster with a flourish in the semi-final in Dublin. “It will not be easy, starting with La Rochelle, who are a massive side that likes to move the ball, but we are a difficult team to beat and it is not often in your career that you have the chance of a double.”
The Scarlets finished last season playing like rugby’s version of the Harlem Globetrotters: not even Leinster could live with their perpetual motion, all offloads, angles and support play, but at the beginning of the campaign they struggled to adapt to the new system brought in by their coaches, the New Zealander Wayne Pivac and the former Wales outside-half Stephen Jones.
“We lost the first five matches,” says Shingler. “The pattern was totally different from anything I had experienced before. A lot of hard work went into the detail of what we wanted to do. The basic message was to play like the All Blacks, running from anywhere, counter-attacking and offloading. We had the players to do it and with the way defences are these days, you have to take a few risks. We constantly work on skills so that they are a habit under pressure and come naturally.”
Wales, missing a host of their Lions, started with 10 Scarlets against Scotland in the Six Nations and were rewarded with their first try bonus point in the tournament after missing out in 2017. “It takes longer for a new style to evolve with a national side because the players are not together for as long but we showed in the last couple of months that it is coming out,” says Shingler. “We are building towards the World Cup and it is about peaking at the right time.”
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A year ago the World Cup was a distant dream for Shingler, who was first capped in 2011. Wales played a power game then, which did not suit the athletic, running and handling back-row, but the progression to a style similar to the Scarlets helped resurrect his international career.
“Twelve months ago I was nowhere to be seen. Now I am asking questions when I am not starting,” he says. “I think I showed what I was about in the Six Nations. What struck me about the tournament was how matches sway on one-off moments: towards the end of the England game I made a break and then kicked ahead because I did not see anyone around me. Owen Farrell got back and just held on to the ball. I wish I had kicked it a bit harder because I felt I had the pace on him. Games are so tight, coming down to a pass here or a disallowed try there. Other than in Rome, there are not many away victories.”
Shingler still wonders how his career would have turned out had he remained a cricketer. “It is a tough sport mentally,” he says. “If you are not playing well in rugby, you can get physical and play simply, running and tackling hard. Cricket is more technical and a harder sport to make it in. Looking back, I tried too hard, practising every day of the year and trying to model myself on other bowlers. Knowing what I know now, I would be smarter with my training and be my own bowler.
“Rugby was the right decision for me as this week shows. The Six Nations is followed by a big European game. It is hard to put into words what making the semi-final would mean for me. You do not know when you will get the opportunity again. It is about getting the detail right and nailing it on the day. We lost our first two matches in the group and needed two tries in the last three minutes of the third. I thought we had had it, but as well as being able to play when it is on, this side has character. Physically and mentally, we are where we need to be.”