Please No Excuses We Not Good Enough

I have never felt so dejected after a string of games and trust me I went to Twickenham a lot through the 90s.

We have been poor all series, our tactics have been shocking. our selections for first two games diabolical. Until we learn to close games out and stop this pointless aimless kicking the ball away when we are where we belong to be.

Why when our lineout was going so wrong did it take so long to swap the hooker. Whilst we had more of the ball today than the other 3 games bar the one effort we never really threatened their line and neither until the end did they threaten ours.

Our defence for the main looked strong so why FFS didn't we like Moore said have faith and keep the ball.

Shocking Shocking Shocking the players coaches and WRU really need to take long hard look at themselves or we will stay where we are for a long time.

I agree with a lot of it, but I think nearly all of us watching the game knew Wales were going to lose it in that last minute, I actually had flash backs to that Barbarians game last season where we lost it in the last minute and knew we'd find a way to screw it up.

It's so hard to take seeing that. We were the better team, deserved to win and our players wrecked all their hard work again.

I've always loved rugby, but at the moment watching Wales is heart breaking. If we were losing to much better teams then fine, but were not, we are either losing to weaker teams because we can;t be bothered to play, or when we do play and show commitment we simply self destruct.

How could we make any excuses. We absolutely deserved to lose every single game. Hopeless. So many problems it's difficult to know where to begin

Shifty,

Neither side creayed many clear cut chances the better team or more composed call it waht you like took their one chance and won.

Simple

Very honest appraisal by some Welsh fans.

But hope starts tomorrow....

I've always loved rugby, but at the moment watching Wales is heart breaking.

I find at the moment watching welsh rugby is becoming a bore. Ospreys v blues last night was shocking in terms of basics. No intelligence with attacking play at all and it seems to all be transfersing to the national team. Still we've got some big players so that makes it alright....

caught the last 2mins, thought they had it in the bag, then saw the Welsh No'4 jogging alongside the aussies looking on as they ran in a try

I wouldnt have minded losing to a good Aus side but that was probably THE worst Aus performance Ive seen in lord knows how long!!!

I just dont understand the tactics. The ball is so hard to get - when we do get it what do we do - every time - kick it away - I was always taught to respect the rugby ball! I have always been a great supporter of the WRU but after this autumn the decision to let let Gatland coach the Lions is a disastrous decision. The more I look at it the more frustrated I get. Why would a company let it's top employee go on a sabitacal like this? If you're the Welsh coach your the Welsh coach - if you want the Lions job resign and apply. We now have Howley to look forward to during the six nations. Question? are we paying Gatland at the moment? can we use the wage savings to bring in an interim head coach? Did I mention 'stop kicking the bloody ball away'

Its a strange thing, mate. Through the summer and continuing in the November Internationals, Wales have somehow managed to come up just short. Mostly by the thinnest of margins. Its too many times now to be coincidental. So something is missing. And whatever that is needs only be enough to move the needle just that razor thin margin.

Its probably the hardest thing in sport to identify that missing link between barely losing and winning. But if Wales find it, the rest of the world should watch out. Good luck to you all (but not against England).

rp kick to touch last minute, we win, simple.

he's not the only problem, but he has proved he's one player we cant rely on .

got to start moving biggar up and look for a.n. other for the bench.

oh yeah, someone on another thread said we havent played too badly these last 2 games, ...........

i can only wonder what they were watching, it wasnt wales for sure !!!!!!


well done england, good luck to you.

Up until the final 10 mins where we were kicking everything the tactics were pretty spot on. Wales got the shove on the scrum and decided to run it a couple times. When they did, Wales looked dangerous and made a lot of ground. Hopefully we can play like that in the 6 Nations, but obviously better. Who's first up, Ireland?

A full strengh on form Welsh team is still something to be very wary of, I still hope you wont end up in our pool...

freeman lowell wrote:A full strengh on form Welsh team is still something to be very wary of, I still hope you wont end up in our pool...

Funny how the 'Group of Death' was our making in the last WC!

gavstar wrote:oh yeah, someone on another thread said we havent played too badly these last 2 games, ...........

i can only wonder what they were watching, it wasnt wales for sure !!!!!!


well done england, good luck to you.

Agreed. France vs. Oz and now England vs. ABs put our performances into perspective.

Oz were poor and out on their feet. We treated the ABs like superhumans and tried a harum-scarum gameplan, but England thumped them with good solid rugby.

Strange how the team that was so formidable and cool-headed in the 6N has proved so fragile 6 months later.

Yes, we had 4 absences - 2 of them key - but you have to expect that these days, and Adam ain't going to be around forever.

The backs were pretty much our first choice (no North).

Something has gone wrong mentally.

I'm wondering if this coaching team has gone as far as it can.

Gatland's Lions position is looking even more troublesome now. If he takes only a few Welsh boys, what's that going to mean for player morale afterwards? Alternatively, if eg. he goes with Sam for captain. Priestland as one of the 10s etc., that could cause massive dissension in the Lions ranks.

Have just been watching the game on I player. Well the first half then the I player stopped working.

Priestland kicked alot of ball away never tried to counter attack.

What has happend to the Welsh team since they won the Grand Slam?

It looks to me like this trip that they seem to embark on (to Poland) before every tournament. Is not doing the Welsh team any justice at all, especialy in terms of fitness. The Welsh do not look very fit at the moment. Will that change before the 6ns?

so goes another series.

halfpenny was, for my money, our best player all series. it is a sorry end for that player to have been injured in the last minute.

together with injuries and poor form this is the worst wales team for a long time.

i fear for our 6N with howley at the helm, unless our best players start giving their best

gavstar wrote:rp kick to touch last minute, we win, simple.

he's not the only problem, but he has proved he's one player we cant rely on .

got to start moving biggar up and look for a.n. other for the bench.

Note that in the post-match press conference, Howley went out of his way to praise RP.

I find this very interesting. RP has been shaky since the first match of the 6N vs. Ireland. He played very well in that game, but had to have the place-kicking duties taken away from him after butchering a few penalties. So despite a strong overall perforamnce, he was already showing psychological fragility.

Fortunately Halfpenny - previously used only as a distance kicker - stepped up to the mark brilliantly.

Since then RPs performance has deteriorated (shocker against England) but he kept getting picked again & again.
To the extent that Biggar has been warming the bench and Hook has been watching from the stands in shirt and tie.

What is going through the coaching team's collective heads?

I can only think RP is untouchable because he faithfully follows the gameplan. A) distribute to Roberts to smash up the middle , B) kick away possession to the opposition back 3.

To be fair, we have been following this gameplan since well before Priestland came on the scene. Remember the other non-winning streak we had in 2010?

So I think we are repeating the Wales Grand Slam cycle.

New players, confidence & creativity = champions. Complacency, conservatism & favouritism = 4th place.

I'm writing this autumn off as an aberration.

Surely we can't be that bad again and I'm going to revert to type and say, "Don't worry boys, we'll be back for the 6Ns".

I just wish I could believe it, I've never been so depressed.

thebluesmancometh wrote:I wouldnt have minded losing to a good Aus side but that was probably THE worst Aus performance Ive seen in lord knows how long!!!

I thought they were worst against France, then Italy, then Wales and best against England.

The Wallabies could have easily come away from that tour 1-3 instead of 3-1.
Lucky but not happy is how I feel about those matches.

4 missing players??

Jones/Mitchell/Hibbard/James front rowers only!!!

AWJ/Evans/Davies

Lydiate

Biggar/Hook

North

Thats 11 players who wouldve played this game IMHO! Then there are the likes of Jarvis (3rd choice TH)

Not to mention the players who hadn't played club rugby but were rushed in...

Jenkins
Rees
Warburton
Jones
Roberts

None of which probably deserved to be in the squad, theyre replacements were playing far better!!

It's been a man sausage up of a series culminating in what has to be the most depressing game Ive ever watched, Aus were absolutely awfull, weren't at the races, and were basically already on the flight home, yet we still managed to look so nervous and terrified on the 70th minute!!

Linebreaker I disagree, they were definately worst against Wales, Ive never seen anything like it!!! Where that England performance came from though now looking back I do not know, I did say before the tour that there was a chance the Aus team went homne empty without a single win and in reality they nearly deserved to, except for the England game

blues,
Our defence was much better against Wales and England than either France of Italy.

Only because Wales offered nothing going forward for the 4th game in a row!!!

Infact the biggest cheers of the game were for RP hitting touch from a penalty.

We broke the line off first phase ball 3 times (which shocked me) but there was no try line threat from wales at all.

Wales were as bad as the other 3 games, and yesterday, like the previous games Fiji would've beaten us too!!! The fact Aus were so clueless in attack also made it a nightmare game to watch!!!

thebluesmancometh wrote:Only because Wales offered nothing going forward for the 4th game in a row!!!

Infact the biggest cheers of the game were for RP hitting touch from a penalty.

We broke the line off first phase ball 3 times (which shocked me) but there was no try line threat from wales at all.

Wales were as bad as the other 3 games, and yesterday, like the previous games Fiji would've beaten us too!!! The fact Aus were so clueless in attack also made it a nightmare game to watch!!!

Confession time for me. After the Eng vs NZ game I swapped straight over to my recording of the Wales vs Aus match. Now granted I had a rather big night out Friday (home around 4am via London night buses). But I do enjoy watching rugby as a neutral. And I fell asleep on the couch and missed the middle 40 minutes. The last time I fell asleep watching rugby there was a lazyboy chair and a 27hour journey to NZ worth of jet lag involved.

Has anyone heard any news about Leigh Halfpenny?

Edit:

Someone at the Beeb must have read this.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20570491

Good news!

thebluesmancometh wrote:

"...Infact the biggest cheers of the game were for RP hitting touch from a penalty..."

I, for one, think that there is no place for mass sarcasm in a rugby arena and hope those that participated in this are so very pleased with themselves.

Lowest form of wit, people.

Did anyone notice how quiet the crowd seemed when Beale scored that try? It was almost surreal watching, I thought the ref had blown his whistle and that they hadn't heard it.

Thanks, MrsP; it was very worrying at the time.

Otherwise, we don't want to overreact to that defeat. I thought there were a lot of good things from a depleted Wales.

We have had awful injury problems (and other unavailability) this autumn. Yesterday we played most of the game without our 4 first choice locks - AWJ, Ian Evans, Bradley D and Luke Charteris. Without at least of our 2 first choice tight-heads (Adam, Craig Mitchell) and the guy who had been to step into the position for the AIs (Jarvis). Without our first choice hooker, Hibbard, and the current first choice LH, Paul James. Without Dan Lydiate, and the first two choices to replace him, Turnbull and McCusker. Okay, behind we were only missing George North. Of course, we had some pretty good replacements and I for one would always have picked Shingler over Turnbull and McCusker, while Scott Andrews did way better yesterday than I'd have expected. But on any view that's a huge disruption and a big disadvantage. For such a makeshift team to compete so well with one of the big 3 can't be a cause for despondency.

It does suggest there is something not being done right, for so many players to be injured.

What the AIs did show was that the team can't be left in the charge of Howlers. The difference when Gats was back was very obvious.

Some of the new players did well: Liam Williams showed a lot of good things, as did Shingler, and I have to say Scott Andrews did way better than I thought he would.

As for excuses, we didn't have the rub of the green regarding referee decisions, despite playing games at home, where a team is normally favoured by reffing decisions. I don't suggest that explains away any of the losses - we were dire in the first two games and well beaten in the third - but it is part of an adverse scenario the team has had to contend with. I wonder whether it is a problem of having SW as captain.

On current form, we are clearly behind England, Ireland and (especially) France, but I wouldn't be particularly worried about our being competitive in the 6N if Gatland were going to be in charge, and I'm still optimistic we'll do well at the next WC.

thebluesmancometh wrote:Only because Wales offered nothing going forward for the 4th game in a row!!!

Infact the biggest cheers of the game were for RP hitting touch from a penalty.

We broke the line off first phase ball 3 times (which shocked me) but there was no try line threat from wales at all.

Wales were as bad as the other 3 games, and yesterday, like the previous games Fiji would've beaten us too!!! The fact Aus were so clueless in attack also made it a nightmare game to watch!!!

What game were you watching then? Wales attacked very well in the first half, only some absolutely outstanding, last ditch defence from Aus prevented any tries from being scored.

As for Australia's attack, your best 10 in injured, your second best 10 is playing full back ...

Both teams were poor in the second half. Aus despite not being that great gave 100% all game, while Wales gave 100% up until 75 mins. It's just ridiculous they haven't learnt from their mistakes by now. I do expect a better 6 Nations. Only France away causes me some concern. I would suggest wrapping up Adam Jones in cotton wool and have him only play against England and France.

Morg

What are you talking about, we made a number of linebreaks from first phase ball (unheard of of int rugby and highlights how poor Aus were) and never showed any support/nous to score from them, we genrally died with ball in hand running away from support, or got bundled into touch, if you think that shows attacking threat you need a lesson or 30!!!

We were not not trying from 70 mins, we were trying too hard not to lose, which gave Aus all the possession and impotace to win the game, similar to Ireland in the 6N they just kicked us the ball and said go on try and win it!!

PS wrapping Jones up in cotton wool will prove no use at all, look at Roberts and Warburton, wrapped up after their injuries and given a few start pre int season, both were barely half fit first game out and were useless, Jones needs to get back for the O's and get plenty of gametime!!

thebluesmancometh wrote:4 missing players??

Jones/Mitchell/Hibbard/James front rowers only!!!

AWJ/Evans/Davies

Lydiate

Biggar/Hook

North

Thats 11 players who wouldve played this game IMHO! Then there are the likes of Jarvis (3rd choice TH)

Not to mention the players who hadn't played club rugby but were rushed in...

Jenkins
Rees
Warburton
Jones
Roberts

None of which probably deserved to be in the squad, theyre replacements were playing far better!!

It's been a man sausage up of a series culminating in what has to be the most depressing game Ive ever watched, Aus were absolutely awfull, weren't at the races, and were basically already on the flight home, yet we still managed to look so nervous and terrified on the 70th minute!!

I meant that 11 of the Grand-slam winning team started, 4 didn't.

I think the Aussie team had only 3 starters from the summer series. They were worse affected by injuries than us.

Except Aus lost all of their players in the S15 so had a rugby champioship to deal with it. And even if we had 11 'grand slammers' starting then it doesn't mean they're the best in their position in Wales right now.

Ye prob with counting grand slammers is thta it doesn't take into account losing your first 3 choice TH's, and have to have a teenager on the bench!!!

thebluesmancometh wrote:Morg

What are you talking about, we made a number of linebreaks from first phase ball (unheard of of int rugby and highlights how poor Aus were) and never showed any support/nous to score from them, we genrally died with ball in hand running away from support, or got bundled into touch, if you think that shows attacking threat you need a lesson or 30!!!

We were not not trying from 70 mins, we were trying too hard not to lose, which gave Aus all the possession and impotace to win the game, similar to Ireland in the 6N they just kicked us the ball and said go on try and win it!!

PS wrapping Jones up in cotton wool will prove no use at all, look at Roberts and Warburton, wrapped up after their injuries and given a few start pre int season, both were barely half fit first game out and were useless, Jones needs to get back for the O's and get plenty of gametime!!

No, like I said we attacked well in the first half. It was outstanding Aus defence keeping us out. Two breaks were well supported actually. You can't pass it back if there's an Aus defender between you and your team mate...

Adam fit is the only way we'll make those same linebreaks from first phase ball and I think that's the only way we'll threaten our 6N opponents. Now obviously that doesn't mean prevent him playing for the Ospreys.