Wales Six Nations 2026: Chaos has new man starting on back foot

You have to go back to March 11, 2023 for the last time Wales won a match in the tournament, beating Italy 29-17 in Rome.

The wait for a home Six Nations victory is even longer, almost four years. The last one was against Scotland in Cardiff on February 12, 2022. Having only once previously ‘won’ the wooden spoon in the Six Nations era, Wales have finished bottom in each of the last two seasons and are favourites to make it a hat-trick.

Their run of consecutive defeats in the competition now stands at 11 and, since being crowned champions in 2021, they have won just two of 20 matches in the tournament.

Hoping to end this tale of Welsh woe is Tandy, the much respected former Scotland defence coach who was lured home after six years at Murrayfield. He parted ways with Gregor Townsend in the summer, leaving with his boss’ good wishes. While sorry to lose him, Townsend realised this was an opportunity the proud Welshman could not turn down.

But what has he inherited? When Tandy took over Wales had lost 17 matches in a row in all competitions, a record for the proud rugby nation who have six times won the championship in the Six Nations era (six times more than Scotland). His first game in charge brought a heavy defeat by Argentina in the first of their autumn Tests but Wales finally won a game a week later when they beat Japan 25-24 at the Principality.

A stirring performance against the All Blacks followed but ended in defeat and the autumn campaign concluded with a 73-0 thrashing by South Africa in a fixture scheduled outside the Test window which meant Wales faced the Boks without several of their best players.

It was a humbling experience nonetheless and not one Tandy should have had to endure. The game brought in extra revenue but at what cost?

Tandy the Welsh firefighter

The new coach now finds himself trying to douse more fires started by the Welsh Rugby Union, with the latest conflagration threatening the very future of the Ospreys.

One of the four Welsh franchises in the URC, the prospects of them still being around for much longer look bleak. The WRU is keen to reduce the number of men’s professional regions to three and Ospreys owners Y11 Sport and Media have been named as the preferred bidder by the governing body to take over domestic rivals Cardiff, who went into administration in April 2025.

Should the deal go through, Ospreys and Cardiff will continue as separate sides but be owned by one organisation. But the Ospreys have only been given playing guarantees until the end of the 2026-27 season.

Tandy, a former Ospreys man himself, has named a squad with eight players from the Swansea-based side and has urged everyone to pull together in what is a challenging environment. He stressed that the players have to come first and that he would be there for them throughout.

“When you represent your country, you represent your region, your community club, you represent where you grew up… and there is no better stage than the Six Nations to go and do your talking on the field,” he said.

It’s England up first for Wales, a daunting test for Tandy’s squad who then host Scotland at the Principality in round two. England are on an 11-game winning run and will be overwhelming favourites at Twickenham. The Scotland game is something else entirely and Tandy would dearly love to emulate the side of 2022 against his former employers. He knows the players inside out and will be acutely aware of how close Wales came to pulling off a stunning comeback against the Scots two years ago. Townsend’s side led 27-0 at the start of the second half but scraped home 27-26 in the end.

Tandy has included two uncapped players in his squad in Leicester Tigers wing Gabriel Hamer-Webb and Bath centre Louie Hennessey.

Bath-born Hamer-Webb is a former England Under-20 international and his decision to switch allegiance was shaped by family bereavements and the wishes of his Cardiff-born mother. He lost his father to a heart attack seven years ago and his brother to illness last year.

“The losses meant that I'm a sole male figure in my instant family,” said Hamer-Webb. “That weight brings pressure but I would do anything for my sisters and my mum anyway.

“So I asked my mum a while back, ‘What would be better for you?’ She said, ‘Wales of course, that's where we're from, where your family is from’.”

The Wales breakdown

Head coach: Steve Tandy.

Key player: Dewi Lake.

One to watch: Gabriel Hamer-Webb.

Record in past 5 years: 2025 - 6th, 2024 - 6th, 2023 - 5th, 2022 - 5th, 2021 - 1st.

World ranking: 11th

Did you know? Wales have not won a Six Nations game at the Principality Stadium since beating Scotland in 2022.