Wales face Ireland at 2.15pm this Saturday at a sold-out Principality Stadium in the third round of this year’s Championship.
“My mindset coming in [to this role] was just to make sure that firstly I enjoyed it and secondly that I was going to try and do things my way in terms of how I believe the game should be played, so some of the selections err towards that a little bit.
“But also I just feel if there’s one word to probably describe Ireland it’s cohesive.
“They’re a team that’s been together a long time. Obviously, very Leinster heavy – come through two schools – so that the players have got a lot of familiarity.
“I don’t feel playing Ireland is a time to experiment. I thought it was just very important to pick a team that had some familiarity, having those combinations together who’ve got relationships, can talk to each other on the field, kind of pick up each other’s habits – I thought that was that was very important.
Scarlets wing Ellis Mee will become the 1,211th Wales senior men’s international on Saturday after being named to start in the red 11 jersey: “One of the reasons you coach, actually, is to name a team and see a young kid who’s dreamt of playing for his country get that opportunity,” Sherratt added.
“I’m sure his family will be massively proud of him, so to see his face on selection was part of the reason you coach.
“He’s had a really good week [in training]. I hope he just goes out and enjoys playing for his country.
Ellis Mee will earn his first Wales cap against Ireland
Sherratt’s first day in camp as Wales head coach was on Monday and he has had three training days so far with the squad with a team run at the stadium taking place on Friday.
“This week has been about how we try and get the mindset right and a good positive attitude and then just put a framework in place where the players feel comfortable enough to put all their energy into something,” said Sherratt.
“I’ve been pretty pleased, we’ve just finished training and I think we’ve got a framework where the players have got some clarity.
“What we talked about on Monday is there’s not been any lack of effort with this squad.
“They’re massively proud to play for their country. We just needed them to all channel it in the right direction, so hopefully we’ll see some signs of that on Saturday against one of the best teams in the world.”
“For us, the challenge is to make sure we stand for something and have a clear identity. I want the players to be brave – if they see space, I don’t want us to die wondering.
“If there’s an error, there’s an error, and I can coach that in the week. It’s having a system that we stick to.
“I’m not going to just say go out and have a crack as that gets messy. We’ve worked really hard in the week on how we find and keep shape. It’s just making sure the players are very, very clear on how we play.
“Hopefully it shows up this week, but it’s probably in a few weeks that we’ll see a better identity of a Welsh team.”
