Six Nations 2022: Ryan Elias urges Wales to combine clarity with brutality in title defence

"If you've got the clarity, you can bring the brutality."

That's undeniably a masterful soundbite offered by hooker Ryan Elias as Wales build up to kicking off their Six Nations title defence against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.

It's also the basis on which he hopes Wayne Pivac's men can take on that challenge: learn their roles and do their jobs in the cauldron of battle.

But it's unlikely the Scarlets star would be happy if one of his lineout throws was stolen in such a brazen manner with Elias admitting on the Scrum V Podcast: "I have heard it before, but let's just say it's mine. Someone else told me it, but it's mine now!"

In a week when all those directly involved in the annual tournament tend to become more serious as it progresses, Elias can at least put his tongue firmly in his cheek in this particular round of media duties.

However, he is not as accommodating when it comes to an aspect of his role that is often the catalyst for frustration among fans, commentators and those at the heart of the action: botched lineouts.

Let's face it, seeing your team apparently gift vital possession at what are supposed to be well-drilled set-pieces is never a feel-good matter.

Elias has himself been the target of criticism on that front and while he readily admits "a lot of the time it is the [fault of the] hooker, but not every time", he can also point to other fragile aspects involved.

The 27-year-old says other things can - and often do - go awry: A miscalculated jump, inconsistent support lifting, effective disruption by opponents and match officials making the wrong call at a crucial moment.

Elias makes no excuse either for his disdain at those he believes inform their audiences inaccurately.

"Sometimes I can get annoyed watching it," he says.

"If there's a commentator and he's just throwing the hooker under the bus when you can probably see that there's a miss-lift or a rubbish jump - there's a lot of moving parts to it."

Ryan Elias (R) has risen to prominence during the currently injured Ken Owens era for Scarlets and Wales

Even so, the scrutiny on those charged with getting it right is unlikely to ease up anytime soon, a factor Elias says has led to a gradual transformation in how he and his fellow hookers react in private.

"That's a huge thing - I find it much better, talking about it... obviously as a hooker it's a closed skill, the throwing in, and there's a lot of moving parts to it, but at the end of the day it's throwing the ball into the lineout," says Elias.

"So I think sometimes you can overthink it. So I found talking about it [a relief]; probably more so in the last year or two really, like when Elliot [Dee] or these young boys like Dewi [Lake] and things were in camp, we'll talk about how we feel sometimes.

"And when the pressure comes on and [you] just acknowledge it and tough situations, whereas before, as you say you probably would have just bottled it up and got on with it, whereas you do feel as they say 'a problem shared is a problem halved'."

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In the continued injury absence of British and Irish Lion and fellow Scarlet Ken Owens, Elias has the chance to establish himself in the middle of the front row.

He can do so feeling "a lot more settled" than in his formative Wales squad years.

"I think the first couple of campaigns, me personally I was really nervous, on edge, found it hard to switch off," said Elias.

"It can be difficult and it's such an intense environment and obviously you don't want to mess up. You want to always put your best foot forward.

"So early on I felt a lot more pressure. But now I've played a bit, hopefully proved what I can do a little bit.

"You tend to get into the rhythm, you know how weeks are structured and know what to expect now so I've been here, been in the setup for probably four and more years, three campaigns a year.

"So you get used to faces, get used to the training environments so yeah, a little bit more settled.

"I used to probably get too carried away with it, probably play the game too many times in my head prior to it, which can be quite exhausting in the week building up.

"It's now try and stay chilled until about Thursday/Friday and then you slowly start ramping things up in the back of your mind.

"But yeah, I would like to say I would like to stay a bit more chilled out - I think it helps me."

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