This Welsh team has won the Slam playing in second gear. There is plenty more to come from this side. They can win the World Cup and Gatland knows that.
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This Welsh team has won the Slam playing in second gear. There is plenty more to come from this side. They can win the World Cup and Gatland knows that.
Completely agree with you. And for the first time so do I. This team is remorseless. Yesterday they simply ground Ireland into the floor. As they did England. They have a genuine shout. Agree with anscombe as mom yesterday. Probably awj wins player of tournament but how good are navidi and tiperic, individually and together. Exciting times...Originally Posted by Pearcey3
I'm not so sure that we have much more to give as an attacking force - any team in the world would miss Falletau, but do we have anyone who can come in and make us more of an attacking threat?
If you leave aside the 74-24 romp against Tonga in November, it is now eleven matches, and more than a year, since Wales scored more than two tries in a game - I don't think you can be in "second gear" for that long and then start carrying a real try scoring threat when you come to a World Cup.
But it isn't the tries that are winning matches, it's the defence. It is awesome. I was listening to an English player during the week and he said, "If you score a try against this welsh team you know you deserved it" implying the huge effort required to do it.
That defence also throws up the penalties that drive the opposition back into their own half and when we are already in their half give Anscombe the chances to hit those kicks.We will miss Shaun Edwards as much as Gatland. I think he should be man of the tournament.
A try scoring record like we have means, to me anyway, that we are not a well enough rounded team to win a World Cup - our defence might be very good, but we didn't keep one "clean sheet" as far as tries conceded in this season's six nations (in fact we only scored two more than our opponents).
Actually, I've just realised that we did score three tries, with considerable assistance from the opposition, against France, but I think the point I'm trying to make about our lack of try scoring potential still stands.
I can’t say I agree with you bob, we can play any form of rugby we have 2 of the worlds best place kickers, the players we have out injured is phenomenal and for the first time I can remember we are actually patient and can go through a ridiculous amount phases there’s no need to score loads of try’s if it’s a close game going in to the last 20 mins I back us to go and win because I don’t think there’s a fitter team out there
I've been a bit out of the loop for a number of years now, however, I am aware of Shaun Edwards' huge input on our defence. Are you saying he's leaving us too?
Yep after the World Cup.
We have a lot of young players coming through who are going to get better. Josh Adams, Adam Beard,Elliot Dee, Tomos Williams, Arron Wainwright, Owen Watkin etc. Even the likes of Ellis Jenkins, Gareth Anscombe and Ross Moriarty are relatively young. We may also have Rhys Webb back in time for the World Cup as he is very unsettled in France.
So I think we will continue to improve especially as Anscombe is now getting into his stride at ten.
Very good points 👍
I think AWJ though with his natural talent would shine in any era but I see what you mean.
A brilliant role model too, I always rated him even more so now after this campaign.
The game was only a spectacle due to the anticipated result .
Ireland were off badly song .
Wales had a very friendly referee.
Wales really know how to defend.
I would say as a casual whatcher of the game over the decades, Alan Wyn Jones, must be very close to the acolade , of being the greater Welsh player of it's time.
Its great to get our city's bars and restaurants back again.
The the alleged sporting fans (revellers ) can put ther sporting battle attire away for another,
six months , alongside thier Xmas booze outfits.
Talupae Faletau, Ellis Jenkins, Aaron Shingler, Tomos Williams, Scott Williams, Leigh Halfpenny
I’d add to that list Samson Lee, Cory Hill and Dan Lydiate with Rhys Webb deemed unavailable. Totally agree with you about how patient this team is going through phase after phase. Similar to how Ireland have succeeded in recent years.
For me, only Faletau would get into yesterday's side but even if all six of them did, I see no one there who is going to turn us into a more potent attacking side - Scott Williams might help things and Ellis Jenkins played superbly in the game where he got injured, but we'd still be, essentially, the same side when it came to creating and taking try scoring opportunities.
Who's this Alan Wyn Jones? Is he related to Alun Wyn Jones?
I can only imagine the state town was in last night/this morning
I think your putting too much emphasis on try scoring. England can score try’s for fun, but their defence stinks. I’m not sure if we’ve got enough to win the World Cup, but the gap is definitely closing between Northern and Southern Hemisphere. We have one of the meanest defences in the world, we finish games stronger than any other team at the moment, we’re on a 14 game winning streak, we have a solid, very experienced coaching staff and a tremendous squad spirit. All the ingredients are there for a massive assault on the biggest trophy later this yr in Japan.
You're going to the crux of what I am saying there. We have risen to second in the world on the back of Saturday's win and fourteen consecutive wins says that we have to be considered as possible winners in Japan - if we were looking at any side going into a World Cup competition in any other sport we'd be saying they have to be serious contenders. Both in terms of the statistics and what we see out on the pitch, our defensive play looks to be good enough for a World Cup winning team, but the statistics and the evidence of what our eyes have been showing us for a year and more tell us that our attacking game isn't up to those lofty standards.
I'll make one prediction about the World Cup, if we win it playing the same sort of rugby we've played during our winning run, there'll be law changes as a consequence in much the same way as football had to make the game more attractive after the dull 1990 World Cup.
I think you’re being extremely unfair Paul, when we’ve needed to go expansive we have as I’ve pointed out earlier we are probably the only team that can really play any type of rugby although our defence was awesome again we had the majority of possession against Ireland until we didn’t really need it
I think I'm only being realistic. I'll be as thrilled as anyone if we win the World Cup and, on a personal level, I wouldn't be too bothered about how we went about doing it. However, if you are in a position where you can influence the laws of a sport which is trying to increase a global profile that is pretty limited, rather than just a fan of the Welsh rugby team, you are not going to be too happy if your flagship tournament is won by a team playing a conservative game which places more of an emphasis on defending than the creative side of the game. Sporting winners create plenty of imposters of their methods and I don't think the IRB would be too happy if all of their members started playing the game in the manner we have done for our last fourteen games.
What can they change though they can’t say say the team with the most try’s win. I’m not sure how true it is but it’s plausible but apparently they was told to take it easy in the second half against Scotland ready for the Irish game
I haven't got the stats but England won the World Cup relying very heavily on Wlikinson's kicking.
Yes they did and I don't remember them as being an attractive team, but in the fourteen matches England played up to this stage of the World Cup cycle in 2003 (i.e. up to the end of the Six Nations that year), they scored a total of fifty four tries and one penalty try from a fixture list which included Six Nations games and internationals against New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. Wales have scored thirty six tries and one penalty try in their fourteen game winning run and nine of those (and the penalty try) came against Tonga, while another five came in the first match of the run at home to Italy - I think fourteen matches over a period of more than a year is enough to confirm a trend and Wales' try scoring record is very low compared to what most rugby followers would expect from a team on such a fine winning run - people seem to be taking what I'm saying as some sort of national insult when all I'm doing is looking at the situation logically.
This this and this again. We outscored England three tries to one in the World Cup quarter final in 2003. It didn’t matter because Wilkinson kicked us to death and we lost. I cannot remember much squealing back then about England winning the World Cup on the back of Wilkinson kicking so many penalties.
World Cups are usually won by pragmatic sides, South Africa in 95 and 2007, Australia in 99 and England in 2003. They won on the back of strong defences rather than free flowing rugby.
Gatland and Edwards have instilled a disciplined style of play backed up by brilliant defence and fantastic back rowers. I’m not sure if even the All Blacks have such strength in depth in their backrow.
If we win the World Cup using this style of play I wont give a damn. No one has criticised Ireland for all their recent success but they certainly haven’t been playing great rugby. Quite why some of our own on here are talking down Wales baffles me. If we win the Wotld Cup there will be no rule changes.
George Norths injury yesterday played a big part I think in our play yesterday. Liam Williams on the wing isn't able to make the same runs as he is from fullback, Biggar at at 10 doesnt release the backs as much as Anscombe and Tomos Williams makes more line breaks than Aled Davies.
But yes, I think we're still need another finisher in the back line.
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