The lugby…..

[goats]

Re: The lugby…..

11th in the world aren't they?

Desperately need a confidence building win and the WRU schedule Fiji, Australia & South Africa...

It’s easier to think of worse teams now I think, I guess Portugal, Canada, Romania….any others?

[llan bluebird]

Re: The lugby…..

Where is the CEO, Where is the head of performance?

Gatland will take the blame, but his winning teams hid the holes in the Welsh game.

The WRU are totally amateurs, guided by rivalries and self interest.

20K empty seats !!! Falling player numbers in the community game, barely anyone watches the regions or semi-pro clubs. The only redeeming factor was the national team, that's gone by the looks of it. The 6N home attendances are made up by the availability of tickets to away fans.

Gatland will go because its a mess, but nothing will change

[Pearcey3]

Re: The lugby…..

Be great if bellers can guide us to the next World Cup with this generation….

👍

[Pearcey3]

Re: The lugby…..

Where is the CEO, Where is the head of performance?

Gatland will take the blame, but his winning teams hid the holes in the Welsh game.

The WRU are totally amateurs, guided by rivalries and self interest.

20K empty seats !!! Falling player numbers in the community game, barely anyone watches the regions or semi-pro clubs. The only redeeming factor was the national team, that's gone by the looks of it. The 6N home attendances are made up by the availability of tickets to away fans.

Gatland will go because its a mess, but nothing will change

I agree with this but Gatland hasn't moved with the times. The difference between Aus fluid running and offloading and our predictable sideways passing was painful to watch.

We also seem to be a small side. During our best times under Gats was when we had big backs. Mike Phillips, Jamie Roberts, George North and Lee Byrne were big and physical players. They were streetwise. We just don't have that now.

[llan bluebird]

Re: The lugby…..

I agree with this but Gatland hasn't moved with the times. The difference between Aus fluid running and offloading and our predictable sideways passing was painful to watch.

We also seem to be a small side. During our best times under Gats was when we had big backs. Mike Phillips, Jamie Roberts, George North and Lee Byrne were big and physical players. They were streetwise. We just don't have that now.

I agree, thought he was a typical WRU looking through the haze of nostalgia when they appointed him.

The 25 cap rule is a typical act of self unawareness, we have a small pool of players but we make it even smaller.

There is bound to be a coach out there who'll do a better job with what we have, Gatland does like big direct runners and we'll see enough of that next week with the boks roll into town.

Gatland going will only help the people who really need to go first.

[Moodybluebird]

Re: The lugby…..

I think to quote a cliche 'the well has run dry'. To make matters worse, all our top quality players like Alan-Wyn, Biggar, North, Jonathan Davies, Ken Owens have all retired within a 12 month of each other leaving a gaping hole that with our resources is impossible to fill. Add Liam Williams, Halfpenny, Faletau, Josh Adams and Rees-Zammit to that list and it's not rocket science why our decline has been so dramatic.

[Armitage Shanks]

Re: The lugby…..

I recall listening to Sam Warburton a few years ago saying that Italy should be kicked out of the six nations as they offer nothing.

How the tide changes

[Grangenders]

Re: The lugby…..

Given that many have predicted that this type of collapse in the national side was coming, I’m surprised that Gatland came back as he was always going to be on a hiding to nothing. Granted he’s on a tidy salary but I’m sure he wasn’t a poor man when he left before.

[ToTaL ITK]

Re: The lugby…..

So if Wales don't make it to Football world cup,they should pack their bags and quit football..Ok makes sense :facepalm:

[Dave Blue]

Re: The lugby…..

I’ve only heard of Wainwright. Maybe there is some promise there but they can’t compete at the moment. Do I care? Not really.

[Father Dougal]

Re: The lugby…..

There’s some valid reasons which go some way towards explaining Wales’ decline in this thread. However, I still feel it’s amazing how quickly Wales have declined. It was only just over a year ago that Wales trounced Australia in a World Cup game and, although we’ve had some big players retire, I for one wasn’t thinking that we would be going on 11 game losing runs quite so quickly.

I watched about ten minutes of today’s game and when I changed channels, Wales had scored thirteen uninterrupted points to get within six and Australia had just had a player sent to the sin bin - it seems we just fell apart after that. The really worrying thing is that I can’t remember many games in this losing run where we can say we had bad luck or it was nip and tuck all the way- we’ve deserved to lose each time.

Exactly. 14 months ago wales smashed the auusies 40-6 in the world cup. What a turnaround for both teams.

Gatland is going and the new coach will turn it round and everything will be rosy again.

[Father Dougal]

Re: The lugby…..

I dare say the rise in Welsh football won't help the pool of young rugby players, either.

Rise in Welsh football? Is that true? I know about men's qualifications but at grass roots football has always been infinitely bigger than rugby all over Wales?

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Re: The lugby…..

Do I get a feeling that there some sort of sense of entitlement that Wales should always have a competitive rugby side, in a way that no other sport gets?

[insider]

Re: The lugby…..

How far do they have to fall before they have to actually qualify for the World Cup?

[goats]

Re: The lugby…..

Do I get a feeling that there some sort of sense of entitlement that Wales should always have a competitive rugby side, in a way that no other sport gets?

Of course, even in schools now I frequently hear the “teachers” are pushing the kids more into rugby than football, despite the fact that many more kids are playing on a Saturday anyway for proper clubs, the old guard are still there trying to surpress football.