Wales vs Fiji

First topic message reminder :

Moving on from the disappointment of last weekend, here is the team to play Fiji



15. Liam Williams (Scarlets)
14. Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues)
13. Scott Williams (Scarlets)
12. Jamie Roberts (Racing Metro)
11. George North (Northampton Saints)
10. Rhys Priestland (Scarlets)
9. Mike Phillips (Racing Metro)
1. Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues, CAPT)
2. Scott Baldwin (Ospreys)
3. Samson Lee (Scarlets)
4. Bradley Davies (Wasps)
5. Luke Charteris (Racing Metro)
6. Dan Lydiate (Unattached)
7. Justin Tipuric (Ospreys)
8. Taulupe Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons).

Replacements: Emyr Phillips (Scarlets), Nicky Smith (Ospreys), Rhodri Jones (Scarlets), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), James King (Ospreys), Rhodri Williams (Scarlets), James Hook (Gloucester), Cory Allen (Cardiff Blues).

Phillips has been very poor.

The referee has slowed the game, taken the fun out of it, constant referrals to the TMO.

Well that was a poor decision. Thanks Italian coaching team.

No try but in no way can you say that was a completed tackle!!!

Brad Davies and Priestland not great

Holy Poopie the referee is killing this game

This ref must have gone to the same school as Clancey, Rolland and Barnes

Has ruined this match with his lack of heart for what is good in the game...

How long has the TMO reports held up the match...

Why the ref is on the field he should ask the tmo to ref

My love for Leone Nakarawa knows no bounds.

Fiji were holding there.

They might as well just replace this ref with a TMO. Talk about over use. Saying that we've had two incorrect TMO calls IMO so not sure it would be a good thing.

P.s. We're so rubbish right now.

And that's what Priestland brings to the game.

What happened?

I fell asleep last time the ref stopped the game.

Well done Priestland now can Gatland have the balls to finally drop him.

I don't agree with Priestland being booed in the past, but what a s*ite player.

A big loss to NZ and a close loss to SA based on our squad depth. Crap rugby made even worse by bonehead officials.

Liam Williams was the only good player on the pitch today

Not a bad result for Fiji given the players they are STILL missing but are lining up fir their top14 clubs.

I see what Wales doing , they pretending to be this rubbish to catch new Zealand off guard . That was painful to watch

Sometimes you get held into a tight game or beaten by a southseas team and you have to give them credit for the way they played...

Not today both teams were dire, officials were poor

The only positive on either side was Liam Williams performance

Mike Phillips is shot at international level, gareth edwards would have been quicker from the base of rucks,

Half backs lost it for Wales today,yes won the war but lost the battle,

The forwards did carry the backs did offer themselves but the half backs ruined it.

I expected a 10 point win personally when i saw the team sheets so the score line is not a shock it is the poor manner in which it happened.
Lydiate also should be dropped from the entire squad he offers nothing! chop tackle thou chop tackle!!! who cares players just offload whilst being chop tackled.

No mention about Scott Baldwin then? Adds to the already problematic lineout, how many times did he throw a non straight lineout? Must be more than Rory Best at this rate.

Already problematic lineout? Already?! When Hibbard is playing our lineout is good.

we didn't score a single point against 14 men for how long? the all blacks must be laughing their c*cks off

our lineout was perfect until that second half when the whole game and structure went to pot

Baldwin played well to be fair, his lineout throwing went to sh*te late in the 2nd half though.

So failure to close out big games and failure to put weaker opposition to bed, clearly not being managed throughout the week correctly.

Also what idiot changes eight players and expects to have a flowing smooth game?

The Saint wrote:Baldwin played well to be fair, his lineout throwing went to sh*te late in the 2nd half though.

To be fair the tail jumpers missed long throws on a number of those not necsasrily Baldwins fault.

The guys on here singling Priestland out for criticism are either blind or just so delusional over the gutter press that they can't actually see what is going on.
He was not the guy losing the ball in the tackle all the time, or missing 4 consecutive straight lineouts throws, or suffering from white line fever either by failing to pass or by trying to crawl over the line from 3 meters, etc etc etc.
What he did do is play a large part in both of Wales tries from open play by making the right decisions and completing accurate passes, controlling play in the centre of the field in an otherwise very untidy game.
The only error was the intercepted pass which by the very nature of the game was an accident waiting to happen. Similar to what happened last week incidentally for an Australian try with no criticism of the pass or more importantly the player.
All I can say to you guys is watch the whole game and stop sheep like following undeserved criticism.
If anyone deserved criticism today it was the 3 of the officials for seemingly deciding after 50 ins that they were going to slow the game to a standstill, the play may have been very unstructured but apart from all the time wasted by officials it was fast and fun to watch. Some of these guys need to remember their standing over an entertainment industry that is struggling to entertain.

2ndtimearound, he did lose the ball in contact though. And he even lost it when he wasn't in contact, the ball just dropped from his bloody hands. He missed 2 kicks at goal as well, he's been missing all season. The backs performance in general was poor which affected the overall performance. 9 and 10 were the main issue, changing them would have changed the course of the game. Substitutions were not utilised well enough today.

2ndtimeround wrote:The guys on here singling Priestland out for criticism are either blind or just so delusional over the gutter press that they can't actually see what is going on.
He was not the guy losing the ball in the tackle all the time, or missing 4 consecutive straight lineouts throws, or suffering from white line fever either by failing to pass or by trying to crawl over the line from 3 meters, etc etc etc.
What he did do is play a large part in both of Wales tries from open play by making the right decisions and completing accurate passes, controlling play in the centre of the field in an otherwise very untidy game.
The only error was the intercepted pass which by the very nature of the game was an accident waiting to happen. Similar to what happened last week incidentally for an Australian try with no criticism of the pass or more importantly the player.
All I can say to you guys is watch the whole game and stop sheep like following undeserved criticism.
If anyone deserved criticism today it was the 3 of the officials for seemingly deciding after 50 ins that they were going to slow the game to a standstill, the play may have been very unstructured but apart from all the time wasted by officials it was fast and fun to watch. Some of these guys need to remember their standing over an entertainment industry that is struggling to entertain.

Nice to see another rugby fan un-clouded by a sensationalist media campaign.


He had a poor game but he was not as bad as many many others.

The Saint wrote:2ndtimearound, he did lose the ball in contact though. And he even lost it when he wasn't in contact, the ball just dropped from his bloody hands. He missed 2 kicks at goal as well, he's been missing all season. The backs performance in general was poor which affected the overall performance. 9 and 10 were the main issue, changing them would have changed the course of the game. Substitutions were not utilised well enough today.

Agreed. And not to forget he threw an intercept pass for their last try. That led to heart in mouth moments at the end where Fiji could have won it. Not sure why he should get praise for a number of mistakes.

Priestland had an ok game, just needs to sort his goal kicking out. He did make some nice passes that set up a couple of the tries. And he even kicked to touch well at times.

The team let themselves down today, far too many forced passes and losing the ball in contact, we would be on the receiving end of a massacre against the All Blacks a better side than Fiji if we played like that against them.

Saint.
I agree on substitutions not been used correctly, Baldwin played really well for 65 mins but I believe the stray throws came purely from tiredness after a frenetic pace,(would be happy to see him start next week), as such Emyr Phillips should off come on, can't really recall a knock on from Rhys but also can't remember him taking it into contact often apart from sometime mid 2nd half when after several attempts by the forwards to break the gain line by running into contact and failing to make a inch Rhys finally did gain a metre and recycle by finding space.
The only player that really deserved praise today is Sanjay, but to single Priestland out for criticism when other players were far poorer is just not right, I know there has always been a tendency in Wales to slate the incumbent 10 but to single him out today is unfair.
As for the missed kicks, both were conversion attempts from the widest angle, hardly easy kicks, especially as he is only kicking due to a missing 1st choice kicker. It never will be his strong point and I personally wish he would step back from been the 1st choice kicker at the Scarlet's also.

Griff.
Not sure where I praised him tbh.

Hello? We couldn't score a point agfainst 14 men! Anyone of the opinion that thast performace was anything other than abject is deluded!

2ndtimeround wrote:Saint.
I agree on substitutions not been used correctly, Baldwin played really well for 65 mins but I believe the stray throws came purely from tiredness after a frenetic pace,(would be happy to see him start next week), as such Emyr Phillips should off come on, can't really recall a knock on from Rhys but also can't remember him taking it into contact often apart from sometime mid 2nd half when after several attempts by the forwards to break the gain line by running into contact and failing to make a inch Rhys finally did gain a metre and recycle by finding space.
The only player that really deserved praise today is Sanjay, but to single Priestland out for criticism when other players were far poorer is just not right, I know there has always been a tendency in Wales to slate the incumbent 10 but to single him out today is unfair.
As for the missed kicks, both were conversion attempts from the widest angle, hardly easy kicks, especially as he is only kicking due to a missing 1st choice kicker. It never will be his strong point and I personally wish he would step back from been the 1st choice kicker at the Scarlet's also.

I don't really think he's being singled out, you could argue Phillips and Baldwin have been too. The whole team has been labelled poor, but it was just the backs IMO, the forwards were okay. I think RP was a special kind of poor today though, so I'm going to be singling him out for a change. His play is too error strewn and the fly-half needs to be flawless. I know I'll probably get accused of believing the media now but not sure how, seeing as they've been trying to big him up all week and label the booing unacceptable, but he needs to retire from the international team. His selection and performances after he has had enough time to prove himself is unbelievable.

I never said that Priestland was the only one to blame. I was just voicing my opinion that, whilst the previous booing was atrocious, for me Priestland is not a very good outside half at this level. The mistakes he made did little to change my mind on his suitability for this team. Fly half is meant to control the game, pull the strings, etc. Yes he made some passes for the tries, but are you really saying that a 10 should be praised for passing the ball? Passing the ball well should be standard for any international half back. But the knock ons and fumbles and intercept try, plus not taking control of the game (his job as a 10 IMO) means I didn't rate his performance. When a game opens up and becomes like 7s then the halfbacks, as the ones who get to decide what happens usually at each passage of play once a tackle has been made, have to take responsibility for that.

Sorry if that is not in line with your thinking on the player.

IronMike wrote:Priestland had an ok game, just needs to sort his goal kicking out. He did make some nice passes that set up a couple of the tries. And he even kicked to touch well at times.

The team let themselves down today, far too many forced passes and losing the ball in contact, we would be on the receiving end of a massacre against the All Blacks a better side than Fiji if we played like that against them.

You've just been suckered in by Jiffy trying to over egg anything he did above poor. His passing for the tries weren't anything I wouldn't expect any fly half to do and the penalty kick to touch and some of his touch finders are again the same.

He did not have an ok game. He was certainly not alone.

Griff wrote:I never said that Priestland was the only one to blame. I was just voicing my opinion that, whilst the previous booing was atrocious, for me Priestland is not a very good outside half at this level. The mistakes he made did little to change my mind on his suitability for this team. Fly half is meant to control the game, pull the strings, etc. Yes he made some passes for the tries, but are you really saying that a 10 should be praised for passing the ball? Passing the ball well should be standard for any international half back. But the knock ons and fumbles and intercept try, plus not taking control of the game (his job as a 10 IMO) means I didn't rate his performance. When a game opens up and becomes like 7s then the halfbacks, as the ones who get to decide what happens usually at each passage of play once a tackle has been made, have to take responsibility for that.

Sorry if that is not in line with your thinking on the player.

It might not be in line with is thinking but it's pretty spot on. It's funny that RP seems to have a knight in shining armour brigade after all these wasted opportunities, who seem to try and hide his flaws by attempting to point out mythical, greater flaws of players around him.

The Saint wrote:

2ndtimeround wrote:Saint.
I agree on substitutions not been used correctly, Baldwin played really well for 65 mins but I believe the stray throws came purely from tiredness after a frenetic pace,(would be happy to see him start next week), as such Emyr Phillips should off come on, can't really recall a knock on from Rhys but also can't remember him taking it into contact often apart from sometime mid 2nd half when after several attempts by the forwards to break the gain line by running into contact and failing to make a inch Rhys finally did gain a metre and recycle by finding space.
The only player that really deserved praise today is Sanjay, but to single Priestland out for criticism when other players were far poorer is just not right, I know there has always been a tendency in Wales to slate the incumbent 10 but to single him out today is unfair.
As for the missed kicks, both were conversion attempts from the widest angle, hardly easy kicks, especially as he is only kicking due to a missing 1st choice kicker. It never will be his strong point and I personally wish he would step back from been the 1st choice kicker at the Scarlet's also.

I don't really think he's being singled out, you could argue Phillips and Baldwin have been too. The whole team has been labelled poor, but it was just the backs IMO, the forwards were okay. I think RP was a special kind of poor today though, so I'm going to be singling him out for a change. His play is too error strewn and the fly-half needs to be flawless. I know I'll probably get accused of believing the media now but not sure how, seeing as they've been trying to big him up all week and label the booing unacceptable, but he needs to retire from the international team. His selection and performances after he has had enough time to prove himself is unbelievable.

I think you are being ridiculous.

Your are trying to find a scape goat when the story is that they all need to work a lot harder.

BTW, I should add that I thought Scott Williams looked off the pace today. Unless he can get fitter and up his game I'd be tempted to pair Cory Allen with Roberts against the ABs.

maestegmafia wrote:

The Saint wrote:

2ndtimeround wrote:Saint.
I agree on substitutions not been used correctly, Baldwin played really well for 65 mins but I believe the stray throws came purely from tiredness after a frenetic pace,(would be happy to see him start next week), as such Emyr Phillips should off come on, can't really recall a knock on from Rhys but also can't remember him taking it into contact often apart from sometime mid 2nd half when after several attempts by the forwards to break the gain line by running into contact and failing to make a inch Rhys finally did gain a metre and recycle by finding space.
The only player that really deserved praise today is Sanjay, but to single Priestland out for criticism when other players were far poorer is just not right, I know there has always been a tendency in Wales to slate the incumbent 10 but to single him out today is unfair.
As for the missed kicks, both were conversion attempts from the widest angle, hardly easy kicks, especially as he is only kicking due to a missing 1st choice kicker. It never will be his strong point and I personally wish he would step back from been the 1st choice kicker at the Scarlet's also.

I don't really think he's being singled out, you could argue Phillips and Baldwin have been too. The whole team has been labelled poor, but it was just the backs IMO, the forwards were okay. I think RP was a special kind of poor today though, so I'm going to be singling him out for a change. His play is too error strewn and the fly-half needs to be flawless. I know I'll probably get accused of believing the media now but not sure how, seeing as they've been trying to big him up all week and label the booing unacceptable, but he needs to retire from the international team. His selection and performances after he has had enough time to prove himself is unbelievable.

I think you are being ridiculous.

Your are trying to find a scape goat when the story is that they all need to work a lot harder.

maes you're still talking rubbish like you did in your previous post and not only that you seem to be misinterpreting everything we say as "RP lost us the game" for some reason. You repeat the same rubbish every time we criticise a player, change the record please.

The Saint wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

The Saint wrote:

2ndtimeround wrote:Saint.
I agree on substitutions not been used correctly, Baldwin played really well for 65 mins but I believe the stray throws came purely from tiredness after a frenetic pace,(would be happy to see him start next week), as such Emyr Phillips should off come on, can't really recall a knock on from Rhys but also can't remember him taking it into contact often apart from sometime mid 2nd half when after several attempts by the forwards to break the gain line by running into contact and failing to make a inch Rhys finally did gain a metre and recycle by finding space.
The only player that really deserved praise today is Sanjay, but to single Priestland out for criticism when other players were far poorer is just not right, I know there has always been a tendency in Wales to slate the incumbent 10 but to single him out today is unfair.
As for the missed kicks, both were conversion attempts from the widest angle, hardly easy kicks, especially as he is only kicking due to a missing 1st choice kicker. It never will be his strong point and I personally wish he would step back from been the 1st choice kicker at the Scarlet's also.

I don't really think he's being singled out, you could argue Phillips and Baldwin have been too. The whole team has been labelled poor, but it was just the backs IMO, the forwards were okay. I think RP was a special kind of poor today though, so I'm going to be singling him out for a change. His play is too error strewn and the fly-half needs to be flawless. I know I'll probably get accused of believing the media now but not sure how, seeing as they've been trying to big him up all week and label the booing unacceptable, but he needs to retire from the international team. His selection and performances after he has had enough time to prove himself is unbelievable.

I think you are being ridiculous.

Your are trying to find a scape goat when the story is that they all need to work a lot harder.

maes you're still talking rubbish like you did in your previous post and not only that you seem to be misinterpreting everything we say as "RP lost us the game" for some reason. You repeat the same rubbish every time we criticise a player, change the record please.

Every poor performance by Wales you single out a player, make them the scape goat and launch a tirade at them.

Priestland put in a poor performance, so did pretty much everyone else on both teams and the ref ruined the game with his over use of technology to fill his flawed ability to be concise.


We get you thought it was priestlands fault, I completely disagree with you that it was all his fault.



Let's see if you can discuss anything else about the game, maybe even be mature enough to find a positive aspect, or something we can take from the match to aid a positive forward step...!

The Saint wrote:BTW, I should add that I thought Scott Williams looked off the pace today. Unless he can get fitter and up his game I'd be tempted to pair Cory Allen with Roberts against the ABs.

Roberts dropped more ball than anyone today, If Allen is to be paired with anyone it should be JD2 who is possibly fit in time.
Of the 2 though from today, Roberts failed to handle what he did try whilst S Williams didn't really seem to try anything other than hold position.

maestegmafia wrote:

The Saint wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

The Saint wrote:

2ndtimeround wrote:Saint.
I agree on substitutions not been used correctly, Baldwin played really well for 65 mins but I believe the stray throws came purely from tiredness after a frenetic pace,(would be happy to see him start next week), as such Emyr Phillips should off come on, can't really recall a knock on from Rhys but also can't remember him taking it into contact often apart from sometime mid 2nd half when after several attempts by the forwards to break the gain line by running into contact and failing to make a inch Rhys finally did gain a metre and recycle by finding space.
The only player that really deserved praise today is Sanjay, but to single Priestland out for criticism when other players were far poorer is just not right, I know there has always been a tendency in Wales to slate the incumbent 10 but to single him out today is unfair.
As for the missed kicks, both were conversion attempts from the widest angle, hardly easy kicks, especially as he is only kicking due to a missing 1st choice kicker. It never will be his strong point and I personally wish he would step back from been the 1st choice kicker at the Scarlet's also.

I don't really think he's being singled out, you could argue Phillips and Baldwin have been too. The whole team has been labelled poor, but it was just the backs IMO, the forwards were okay. I think RP was a special kind of poor today though, so I'm going to be singling him out for a change. His play is too error strewn and the fly-half needs to be flawless. I know I'll probably get accused of believing the media now but not sure how, seeing as they've been trying to big him up all week and label the booing unacceptable, but he needs to retire from the international team. His selection and performances after he has had enough time to prove himself is unbelievable.

I think you are being ridiculous.

Your are trying to find a scape goat when the story is that they all need to work a lot harder.

maes you're still talking rubbish like you did in your previous post and not only that you seem to be misinterpreting everything we say as "RP lost us the game" for some reason. You repeat the same rubbish every time we criticise a player, change the record please.

Every poor performance by Wales you single out a player, make them the scape goat and launch a tirade at them.

Priestland put in a poor performance, so did pretty much everyone else on both teams and the ref ruined the game with his over use of technology to fill his flawed ability to be concise.


We get you thought it was priestlands fault, I completely disagree with you that it was all his fault.



Let's see if you can discuss anything else about the game, maybe even be mature enough to find a positive aspect, or something we can take from the match to aid a positive forward step...!

I don't think you're following my posting this evening. I've already alluded to what I thought the reasons for a poor game were today, in fact those reasons were in reply to you on another thread. You seem to have not bothered to read it, or just ignored it (probably the latter). We know you disagree with criticism but there's really no need to reply with BS accusations against me. Anyway, I now have to slip out for the night. I don't want to come back on tomorrow with a bad head and read more BS from you, so have a word with yourself .

2ndtimeround wrote:

The Saint wrote:BTW, I should add that I thought Scott Williams looked off the pace today. Unless he can get fitter and up his game I'd be tempted to pair Cory Allen with Roberts against the ABs.

Roberts dropped more ball than anyone today, If Allen is to be paired with anyone it should be JD2 who is possibly fit in time.
Of the 2 though from today, Roberts failed to handle what he did try whilst S Williams didn't really seem to try anything other than hold position.

Fair point about the dropped balls by Roberts, he was pretty average today as was Williams. Throwing JD2 back in after a lay-off, I'm not sure that's the answer. Roberts and Allen looked alright against Aus.

tatterd wrote:Hello? We couldn't score a point agfainst 14 men! Anyone of the opinion that thast performace was anything other than abject is deluded!

Not seen anyone praise any performance, the only point I have raised is that there were far weaker performances today than Priestlands and most of those came from players that are probable starters next week.

You guys who thought Priestland had a shocker, Dan Carter has already eclipsed him in Murrayfield in just forty minutes..

The team needed the supposed controller at 10 to control. He didnt. And it was a pathetic attempt by jiffy to praise passing he would not have praised another 10 for
Also jiffy would have said " you have to nail those kicks " or " thats 2 hes missed now " if biggar was there. Studio guests let him off too. Orders from the management like the last time rp was pn the way down ? Not like our little jiffy.be interesting on scrum 5 .