Well at the Principality Stadium at around 8pm on Saturday night, Warren Gatland had some ideas about what his Wales team could do better against the Barbarians.

In particular, it was about making attacking decisions when they were close to their line.

“I said at half-time that it would be a great opportunity for us, playing against a team like that, if we saw an opportunity two meters from our goal line and they backed away,” said the Wales manager. “Is there an option to hit on the field?

“Is there a chance to change this by ensuring we are examining and looking for opportunities? Who in front of you is a closed attacker if you are a winger? Communicating it externally.

“It’s about making sure we’re vetting who’s in front of you and communicating from the outside. These are the areas we still need to continue working on. We create things, but we don’t always communicate that well from the outside with the guys scanning and stuff.”

About an hour and a half later, around 50 miles off the M4, a young player from Wales did exactly that. Young Cardiff full-back Cameron Winnett received the ball close to his own line, examined it and saw there was an option for a cross.

Seeing a wide field of defense and six Scarlets jerseys in front of him, he crossed the field, standing in the shadow of his own goalposts. His delicate shot found Theo Kabango on the rebound and the speedy winger did the rest with a magnificent attempt.

Obviously, given the way the two matches coincided (which shouldn’t have happened), there is no way Winnett could have been aware of Gatland’s comments.

And the young defender probably wouldn’t have paid attention to them if he had seen them. The 20-year-old has only made a handful of appearances for Cardiff, but smaller teams amid budget cuts have seen him start each of the Arms Park side’s first three games at full-back.

It may seem premature to call up Wales for the youngster, who started the year with the under-20s, but that is the harsh reality of a national game that is about to throw a number of young players into the deep end and a national team national team that has just lost two full-backs who played the majority of matches as a starter at number 15 in the last decade.

Anyone in Wales who can get regular minutes for the region at full-back suddenly becomes a solid option. And so that ability to analyze and find an opportunity to try and score deep in his own half might have been timely for Winnett.

Most pleasing for the short-term future is how Winnett fits in with Cardiff manager Matt Sherratt’s own philosophy. After the derby defeat to the Scarlets, Sherratt lamented that his back was not braver.

A few days later, he continued to defend this view, pointing to Winnett’s moment of dominance as one of the rare occasions when they managed to be brave in attack.

“Our coasts need to be bolder,” Sherratt said. “We were probably waiting for the perfect opportunity, but it didn’t happen.

“We were allowing our forwards to carry a little more between the 15 yards rather than dropping back and demanding the ball go into the wide channels.

“We got into the wide channels twice when Millard slid the ball to Ellis Bevan for a try and then it was more individual when Cam Winnett came onto the field and Theo scored a wonderful try.

“So, both times we got there we managed to score 12 points. We just need to be braver and achieve more.”

Given the challenges facing Welsh rugby this year, simply being brave with the ball in hand – and trying to give long-suffering fans a product worth watching amid constant disappointment – ​​is a great philosophy for Sherratt and Cardiff.

For it to work, it requires the support of players who are not afraid to take risks and execute. From the looks of it, Winnett could be that type of player.

After all, during the week he responded indirectly to some general comments from club and national team coaches.