DAN BIGGAR: The Wales players are raving to me about Steve Tandy - this is what he's changed, the three things he's demanded from them and what my old Ospreys team-mate says he's learned from past mistakes

Steve Tandy and I go back a long way - he was still in the Ospreys squad when I made my debut in 2008.

Back in those days, we had a half-decent team. I’m sure Steve won’t mind me saying he was often back-up to Marty Holah in the pack. Holah was some player, in fairness!

When I started as a young player, you had to earn your stripes on and off the field. It was very different to a modern rugby environment. Just much, much tougher. Steve was one older figure, however, to make the Ospreys a really welcoming and engaging place for the academy lads like me who were coming through.

Then, quite quickly after stopping playing, he progressed to Ospreys head coach, and was in charge of the team I played in from 2012. He was very young for the job, just 32, and he would probably admit, not quite ready for it. But he soon simplified things brilliantly and we ended up going on to win the Pro12 in his first season.

His biggest strength in that period was making the days short and bringing a really positive vibe to a group that had strong playing talent. When you’re a young coach and the pressure comes on, you tend to do more and that’s what happened at the end of his time at the Ospreys.

I caught up with Steve recently and he openly said he got things wrong in that period. It was brave of him to go and coach with the Waratahs in Australia and then with Scotland. If you speak to Australia and Scotland players, they absolutely love him.

In 2021, Steve was in charge of defence with the Lions in South Africa - a tour I was on as a player - and he looked a totally different person to the one I worked with towards the end of his time at the Ospreys. That Lions squad had a lot of big-name players in it, and Steve managed them brilliantly. His personality was infectious. The players really bought into his work.

From speaking to Steve and a number of the current Wales players, I know he’s created a really positive team environment now he’s stepped up to be head coach of his home country.

I think he’s a good fit for Wales at a time of significant difficulty on and off the field. I’ll go into Welsh rugby politics in a minute - Steve can’t control that. But what he can influence is the performance of the team.

One thing he’s done which I think is very clever is change the training schedule. It had been the same for so long with Wales, first with Warren Gatland, then Wayne Pivac and then Gatland again. By the end of my time in the team, we didn’t need a day sheet because everyone knew it almost to the minute.

Steve has made a smart move by altering that - if the game is on a Saturday, the players train Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. They then have Wednesday afternoon and Thursday off and then an extended captain’s run session on the Friday.

He's also made the Vale Hotel a place for relaxing, ensuring all rugby and team meetings are held at the National Centre of Excellence. In my time, we’d switch between the two.

Freshening up things like that might seem minor details to many. But in professional sport, they are vital. Steve and his assistant coaches Matt Sherratt and Danny Wilson are very hands-on - in contrast to Gatland and, to a degree, Pivac - which is again what is required right now.

Ahead of Steve's first match, against Argentina on Saturday, there has been a real focus on upskilling the team with lots of meetings. Wales want to be defined by three words this autumn: tough, brave and smart.

I expect Steve to bring a hard-nosed defence to Wales with lots of intensity and physicality. From speaking to the players, I also understand there has been a big emphasis on transition play.

Wales don’t have the quality of player to beat the best teams right now. That’s blunt but also a reality. So, I think they’ll look to really break up matches on the back of opposition errors, a bit like England did against Australia when the Wallabies couldn’t deal with contestable kicks.

There's positivity around the camp, but Steve will know he has to oversee an improvement in performances and results in the coming weeks. Now he’s a head coach, the buck stops with him.

Steve hasn’t been helped by off-field distractions. The Welsh Rugby Union want to cut Wales’ professional teams from four to three - but how and when they do so remains unclear.

I do feel a bit for Dave Reddin, the director of rugby. Reddin’s plan was, firstly, to go to two teams. Now, the proposal is three, on the back of some strong criticism. But for a long time, the vast majority of people said drastic change was needed and that someone who was detached from the emotion of Welsh rugby had to come in to make it. Now, when someone tries to bring that in, we say no to it!

I don’t know if three teams is the right answer. But away from that, a lot of the WRU plans are very positive – chief among them is greater investment in a national academy. When I was a player, a lot of our success was down to the production of great talent by the WRU.

It's inevitable that the potential cutting of a team and therefore players maybe losing their jobs will affect Wales this autumn. But I know Steve has been open and honest with the players and encouraged them to discuss any issues they have. That is the right way to do things.

Beating Japan and seeing signs of a clear team progression and identity would represent a good autumn for Wales. But if they could sneak a win over Argentina too, that would be outstanding.

Pollock puts on a show 

I have teamed up with Rémy Martin VSOP Cognac to highlight Moments of Excellence on and off the pitch from this month’s Quilter Nations Series which will be featured in my columns over the next few weeks.

This week’s is how impressed I was by England in their 25-7 win over Australia. Steve Borthwick set his team up perfectly. He couldn’t have done a better job of marrying the players he selected with the game plan implemented.

England have now won eight matches in a row and my Rémy Martin Moment Of Excellence from round one was when Borthwick introduced five forward replacements at the same time in the 52nd minute.

It worked perfectly, with Henry Pollock scoring moments after coming on. Pollock and the rest of the England bench had a huge impact, extending a narrow 10-7 lead into what was in the end a comfortable victory.

All Blacks look so dangerous ahead of Twickenham visit 

After all the build-up and anticipation for Ireland’s meeting with New Zealand in Chicago, I thought it was a disappointing game. It was really scrappy with so many stoppages - you wouldn’t have known it was the second and third best teams in the world doing battle.

I know there’s been a lot said about Tadhg Beirne’s 20-minute red card which hit Ireland very early in the game. I agree with most people that it was very unfortunate and not worthy of the punishment received.

In a similar way to how England used their replacements, it was the New Zealand bench which made the difference in my opinion. While England went for forward power with Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Will Stuart, Pollock and Tom Curry all coming on, New Zealand used new backs to their advantage.

Leicester Fainga'anuku, who came on early for Jordie Barrett, and Damian McKenzie, helped put greater width on the New Zealand attack. Wallace Sititi, who is a forward who runs like a back, was also outstanding. The All Blacks look good.

They will have too much for Scotland this weekend, but their game with England in round three promises to be monumental. That and France against South Africa – which I’m commentating on for TNT Sports in Paris this Saturday night – are my games of the autumn.

Rémy Martin VSOP Cognac – an excellent gift this holiday season. Please Enjoy Responsibly. https://www.remymartin.com/