AT A time like this it is just as well Warren Gatland is not given to idle sentiment, certainly not to the tears with which Stuart Lancaster admitted he imparted his worst news to his England World Cup discards.
The Wales coach has it easy by comparison, with the selection of his best Pool A XV so straightforward that he still has available a dozen of those he sent out against France in the 2011 semi-final on that bittersweet night in Auckland.
Or at least he will have once he has distilled the existing 38 into the squad of 31 he must resolve by tomorrow’s tournament deadline. The really tough choices — dispensing with Richard Hibbard, Mike Phillips and to a lesser extent James Hook from the original 46 — were made by Gatland fortnight ago.
The coach’s iconoclasm was less surprising than it was portrayed here and there. In January, he had done the same to Adam Jones. The hirsute prop promptly retired from international rugby and left Gatland with a tighthead hole that is now occupied by youthful inexperience that is out of keeping with the World Cup.
Most famously, or infamously if you happened to be Irish, he was willing to put a hard-won reputation to the test when he dropped Brian O’Driscoll from the third Lions Test two years ago. Gatland’s vindication was a record victory over the Wallabies.
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His problem in this selection, and the effect it will have when the dreaded pool of misery for someone kicks off, is that the coming cull concerns fringe players. If your fringe players are your bench players, you are clearly at an immediate disadvantage.
However painful Lancaster may have found his final cut on Thursday last week, he knows he has the luxury of two more or less equivalent players in most positions. For England in their home tournament the ramifications of genuine “impact” off the bench are huge, not least because of the Welsh comparison.
Wales have nothing like this depth — which places a premium on the first-choice team not only performing to their optimum but also simply staying intact. Wales have already long since lost Jonathan Davies. A few too many others for comfort are in recovery.
So assumptions have to be made that Gareth Anscombe, Liam Williams, Samson Lee and — heaven help us — Sam Warburton will come through better than is necessarily the case when a coach expresses optimism.
His ankle permitting, Anscombe would be a more solid prospect than Matthew Morgan as cover at fly-half and full-back, even if Morgan certainly has the point of difference that Lancaster, for one, is forever seeking. A season of Championship rugby with Bristol is no preparation for Pool A.
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Anyway, Anscombe has the precious advantage of a dual contract between the Welsh Rugby Union and the Blues which is as logical a reason for picking him as any comparison with Morgan. The same could be said of Hallam Amos, 21 next month, and Tyler Morgan, 20 next month.
Amos and both Morgans are prodigious prospects whose time will come at the next World Cup but with their dual contracts Amos and Tyler should get a crack now, mainly because there is no one worthier. Morgan showed great strength of character to recover from an inauspicious beginning in the first Irish warm-up.
More to the point for Gatland is which forwards will have an England- or Australia-style influence as replacements. However regrettable, it could well be a coach’s manipulation of his match-day 23 as much as the XV he chooses that decides Pool A.
Paul James’ convenient capacity for packing down at tighthead as well as loose means that Wales should be able to manage with five props. James King is an equally useful option, covering the second and back rows.
But with the best will in the world, games in the World Cup are not going to be turned or saved by even the most versatile or worthiest. There is one more who might have this precious ability to add to Gatland’s back row to complete his favoured split of 17 forwards and 14 backs.
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Ross Moriarty is only 21 but the Welsh forwards are not packed out with heavy-duty, bulldozing ball-carriers. While it is barely conceivable that Gatland would break up his familiar back row of Warburton, Lydiate and Faletau, Moriarty as a proper impact player is entirely feasible.
Pity there are no more like him. Born in St Helens when his father Paul was playing rugby league, Moriarty is really a Swansea lad and both Paul and Uncle Richard were in the Wales squad who fared the best at any World Cup — third place in 1987.
Just like his older generation, young Ross has a hint of “nasty” about him that Gatland likes. Moriarty is a Junior World Cup winner too, with England. Taken together, this is a pedigree that calls for inclusion after his combative showing against Ireland three weeks ago.
There again, expectation can be an irrational feature of Welsh rugby and as Moriarty was coming through impressively at Gloucester late last season he was also prone to mistakes. He has a history of indiscipline. In this World Cup, Wales are obliged to eliminate both.