The Wales team verdict as most intriguing selection and positional swap dominate attention

Back in March, days after Wales' final Six Nations match against Italy, Ben Thomas sat down in front of the media at a relatively lowkey press conference at the Arms Park.

Having seen his Cardiff team-mate Mason Grady thrust into the unfamiliar position of 12 in the dying embers of the Azzurri clash, softening the blow on a wooden spoon defeat with some nice moments, you couldn't help but jokingly ask the talented Thomas if he feared for his place at inside centre after Grady's cameo.

"Scary," said Thomas when asked for his thoughts on Grady's outing at 12. "Nah, he was brilliant when he came on. It doesn’t matter too much where he’s playing. He’s a handful when he gets the ball in his hands."

Still, you came away from the Arms Park still feeling assured that, in Blue and Black at least, Thomas, not Grady, would have 12 on his back moving forward. Moments after discussing Grady's performance, he spoke of his own delight at finally settling into a position this season.

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And rightfully so, having been trusted at inside centre for the majority of Cardiff's season. Following that press conference, Thomas started six of Cardiff's remaining seven matches in the position.

The role, quite clearly, belonged to Thomas and Thomas alone. Grady, for his part, had largely spent the campaign either on the wing or at outside centre.

Now, as the pair prepare to start together for Wales for the first time, the mind can't help but drift back to that run-of-the-mill Wednesday in a quiet room in the East Stand. What was a tongue-in-cheek question turned out to be just a little prophetic - at least, on the Wales front.

In Sydney this weekend, it'll be Grady who will wear the 12 jersey. Thomas, hardly by way of consolation, will don the famous 10 jersey instead.

By pure numbers, it's a fascinating move. In his 85 senior appearances to date, Thomas has started 43 in the 12 jersey. Only four starts have come with 10 on his back.

Conversely, Grady has started just once at 12 in his 59 senior outings. And that was less than two weeks ago, against the Springboks at Twickenham. That little titbit alone makes it interesting on the surface. You couldn't say either player isn't deserving of their place in the team, but you wouldn't be remiss to ask how it'll all come out in the wash at the Allianz Stadium.

Let's start with Thomas at fly-half and look at how that will work. Speaking about his selection, Gatland waxed lyrical about his last outing in a Blue and Black jersey against the Ospreys at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I thought he was excellent in his last game for Cardiff," said the Wales coach. "He was the one player on the field who looked like he had time on the ball.

"Good ball movement, could put people into holes. He's definitely got the running attributes and could run a game for us at 10. He's looked comfortable for us during the week. For us, it's about focusing on those moments to shift the ball and when do you play territory.

"I thought we did that well against South Africa. In the World Cup, we had one turnover in our own 22 and in the Six Nations, we had 11. If you have 11, you're putting yourself under a lot of pressure. In the Six Nations, we were probably playing too much and then you're under the pump.

"We want to encourage players to play heads-up rugby and if there's opportunities to shift the ball, to move it. But we also want them to be smart about how you relieve a bit of pressure and put the opposition under the pump a bit so we can get some opportunities to attack and score.

"Compared to the Six Nations, I think last week was the first time we'd had more territory than possession so that was a result for us."

So, it would seem, the main objective for Thomas will be balancing the desire to play with putting Wales in the right areas. Against South Africa, they perhaps weren't able to do the latter - with the midfield only carrying eight times in total at Twickenham.

Much of whether they muster more against Australia will be as much down to the pack and their efforts as it is down to Thomas' territorial work. And frankly, Thomas' performances for Cardiff this season suggest he'll be fine in that department.

What will be interesting is, given that game against the Ospreys saw Thomas start at 12, is whether Wales slightly tinker with any of their shapes or patterns to help generate that time on the ball for the 25-year-old.

Take his work in Cardiff's first try on Judgement Day. Taking the ball at first-receiver in the front-line, he holds the defence superbly before pulling back a pass to Tinus de Beer, setting up Theo Cabango's score.

Now, the assumption would be, as fly-half on Saturday, Thomas will be the one sitting behind the front-line in Sydney, making the call and reading the defence. In that sense, the shape won't change drastically from what Wales have been using with Sam Costelow in the role.

Later on in that match, when he'd moved to 10, he finds himself sitting in that playmaking role. This time, he doesn't take the pull-back pass and waits a phase later to demonstrate that time on the ball that Gatland was purring about.

Noticing that the Ospreys' outside defender has jammed in ever so slightly, he pushes a pass out to Grady - wearing 11 - and creates a score.

If we see any sort of red-zone attack orchestrated by Thomas on Saturday, it's likely to look more like this than his work for Cabango's try.

But, given how well he creates space out the back by committing to the carry before pulling back a pass late, you'd like to think Wales can find ways of using those subtleties from Thomas both as a first and second receiver down under.

It is, in essence, the skills of a man suited so perfectly to the position of 12. At least, one variation of how you'd want your 12 to play.

"That's the way (Cardiff coach) Matt Sherratt likes to set up his teams," admitted Gatland. "He wants a second ball-receiver who is a ball-player."

Which brings us onto Grady. By and large, most teams now play off 12 from starter plays. Whether that's Thomas above pulling back a pass to de Beer, or Nick Tompkins making late tip-on passes on the gainline in France last year, it's the most common sight you're likely to see from a scrum or lineout.

At Twickenham, Wales continually went to Grady as the first-receiver from set-piece. It accounted for the majority of his six carries in London.

And it probably illustrated where he's at as a raw inside centre learning the position. Being the physical threat he is, he carried willingly against the Springboks, but you'd question whether it's the type of carrying he's best suited to.

As former Wales scrum-half Richie Rees said on Scrum V recently: "Mason isn't a north and south player - straight up and down player. Mason's X-factor is around his physicality, but that's off-line. So his ability to move players left and right, use his long limbs for fends.

"(Saying) run straight and go and run over the top of (Andre) Estherhuizen, who is the same size, if not bigger than him, it just doesn't suit Mason's game. It doesn't use the best of Mason's skills."

Having played in wider channels for much of his career, that's where Grady is bound to find more joy at this stage of his career. He knows how to target a soft shoulder or get his arms free from contact when running at pace in space out wide, but it's a different skillset when being asked to do so further infield.

"That's why we moved him around and we're not just wanting him there at 12," says Gatland. "If we can get some good ball off the top, he can give us go-forward.

"We know he's definitely quick. He defended well last week and didn't get a lot of attacking opportunities. It's just looking at the numbers, how you get his hands on the ball more.

"Probably the comparisons in the game at the moment is that 12 tends to touch the ball 15 times a game, and centre is probably half of that.

"He, for us, wasn't getting enough touches so we were trying to encourage him to get the ball in his hands more. We've looked at 12 as an option to do that, not just using crash-ball, but hopefully his footwork and offloading as well.

"I think if you watch the game last week, we did move Mason around a little bit. Sometimes it was at inside centre, sometimes it was at outside centre. There wasn't a lot of opportunities for both midfields.

"They pretty much cancelled each other out from an attacking point of view. With the 9, 10 and 12 coming from Cardiff, hopefully those combinations will make a difference. We know Mason had a lot of his game-time on the wing at the start of the season and then Cardiff moved him into the centre later on.

"Again, we're looking at him as potentially a 12 option, particularly to get some gainline stuff against defences that come a lot harder and faster than at club level. He's been good. We're seen a maturity in him in terms of scanning, taking on more responsibility and talking. That comes with experience."

Ultimately, as Gatland admits himself, those opportunities to move Mason around effectively didn't materialise as they'd have liked. Just one of his six carries came from something other than a direct carry from first-receiver, and even then, it wasn't a ploy that generated any space for him.

It's the right idea, trying to get him moving laterally - but the South African blitz is in his face by the time he's received the ball, given the initial pull-back to Costelow.

Perhaps, if Wales are serious about moving him around a bit more, having someone like Thomas at fly-half - adept at more than one role himself - can almost force themselves towards the solution.

"From what I’m hearing I think people are obsessing about the number on his shirt," said Grady's club coach, Sherratt, back in March. "As a 12, you get most of the ball in the first couple of phases anyway. You can get him the ball, you just move him off his wing.

“But having a look at Ollie Lawrence and Henry Slade for England on the weekend, they swap on attack and defence because it suits the players.

"Whether he’s on the wing or not for us, we’ll always try and get him involved as much in the first couple of phases, which is easy to plan. Then Mason’s work-on and ours as coaches is trying to get him on the ball as much as possible. The Italy game showed when he gets his hands on the ball, he’s quite dangerous."

It's just one hypothetical, but imagine that starter play with Thomas as the front-line carrier, but with Grady out the back. Thomas can hold the defence as well as he can, while it puts Grady into the sort of space - running laterally at the defence with the ability to go either way - that suits him well.

Maybe, Wales can get the best out of Grady as a 12 by employing the skills of another 12 elsewhere.

Or, maybe, you could achieve all that by playing Thomas 12 and Grady 13. Sometimes, the simplest option is the best one, after all.