Same Tim Cymru v J'ai une tour Eiffel dans mon pantalon

First topic message reminder :

Welsh squad remains the same for the showdown in Paris.

Would have swapped over Halfpenny and Williams personally

Halfpenny, North, Davies, S William, L Williams; Biggar, Webb; Evans, Owens, Francis, Ball, AW Jones (capt), Warburton, Tipuric, Moriarty.

Replacements: Baldwin, Smith, Lee, Charteris, Faletau, G Davies, S Davies, Roberts.


French team announced

Dulin - Nakaitaci, Fickou, Lamerat, Vakatawa - Lopez, Serin - Gourdon, Picamoles, Sanconnie - Maestri, Vahaamahina - Slimani, Guirado, Baille.

Les remplaçants : Chat, Atonio, Ben Arous, Le Devedec, Chouly, Trinh-Duc, Dupont, Huget

JD was very strong defensively, not sure we can take that away from him. His problem these days is he's becoming the "Brad Barritt" of the Welsh side, he offers very little else apart from defence and a nice grubber kick.

4 minutes. That was quick!

However, I'm not sure you understood my post. You're laughing at the wrong bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkXc3OkHc9M

There's a thread now for team on stats which is probably a better place to talk on it rather than this. Just had to laugh at the davies thing as I thought you were joking.

No, 7.5. I support my claims with evidence. You know, like how I explained how Wales could target Joseph in defence, and lo and behold, they score a try in the exact manner I described? Or like now, how it shows that Jon Davies was deemed the best 13 in the tournament, and I'd hazard a guess and say that's primarily down to his effectiveness as a defender, where he was comfortably better than all the others in the tournament?

That laughter sounds a little bit uncomfortable to me. Like someone trying to laugh along with the ridicule, not realising they're the butt of the joke.

Just thought I'd try and help you out, and back up my positive opinion on something with some evidence. It must be very boring constantly trying to run down other peoples' ideas on this board whilst providing literally none of your own.

But there we go. I tried. You laughed.

Wales scored through a great piece of play targeted Farrell. Nice try. I must be honest though I don't remember you describing that move before hand. Like you said you hadn't watched much of Joseph and you were going to keep an eye on him so I take your comparison of defensive skills with a pinch of salt. Happy to discuss the merits of a team based on stats on team of the tournament rather than clog this thread.

JD was not the best 13 in the 6N, he was arguably the worst if anything.

No 7&1/2 wrote:[...]I must be honest though I don't remember [...]

I knew you didn't actually read this forum properly. No-one could be consistently that confident, and yet consisntely so wrong.

Do us a favour and bump up that comment then. Because I honestly don't think it exists. I would like to read your thoughts on how picking a team on stats is the way to go. And also your take on how they have done it.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:JD was not the best 13 in the 6N, he was arguably the worst if anything.

I wouldn't say he was the best, no. I'd probably give that to Lamerat, with Joseph obviously getting great credit for his performance against Scotland, whilst not being consistent enough- nor defensively good enough- to be deemed the best overall.

In no way do I think Jon Davies was the worst. There wasn't one game where you could say he performed poorly, whereas I think Ringrose played similarly in that he solidly got about his work, but in the Wales game came unstuck and repeatedly looked a little bit lost.

Jon Davies was the best defensive 13 in the tournament, comfortably in my mind, and it's why I think he stands a very good chance of being the Lions 13, too, ahead of Joseph, despite the latter's obvious attacking talents. I'd hazard a guess and say that Gatland sees likewise.

I think the problem for a lot of fans who don't really pay attention to him is that he's not a particularly 'nice' player to watch. However, he does the little things mostly very well, and is one of these players who you notice perhaps more in their absence than where they are playing.

He is potentially a very good attacker, but we don't really see that with Wales. He's not helped by the fact that neither of the two players inside him are excellent footballers. If he had a Ford or Sexton to play off, you'd see him making a lot more linebreaks, and scoring a lot more tries, arriving late onto a playmaker's shoulder. That's what Wales need to develop.

As it is, he uses his footwork and strength to consistently get over the gainline when Wales need it. He was solid in attack without really cutting loose, and his partnership with Scott Williams definitely improved as the tournament went on, albeit Scott didn't have a great final game.

I'd say that the fact he's in the team- like Earls and Zebo- reflects the fact that he was solid and effective without really being that devastating but inconsistent threat like Joseph or Watson was, for instance.

Scottrf wrote:https://rugbyballs.org/2017/03/20/wayne-through-the-looking-glass/

Thanks, Scott, that was a good read. I see Martyn Williams apologized to Barnes on Twitter after watching a replay of the match. It does seem that he's getting a lot more credit for his performance now.

David Flatman had a couple of comments on his podcast. Firstly, he says he knew as soon as he saw Chouly and Maestri pumping up Atonio, that France wanted him off. To Flatman, it showed his team-mates didn't trust him. He also thought Wales played it coy over whether Francis could come back. He also noted that most of the issues about prop replacements, and fake uncontested scrums, were a result of persistent abuse of the laws by Wasps at a time when Shaun Edwards was part of the coaching set-up. He didn't accuse Wales of cheating but it sounds like he didn't have much sympathy for them either.

There was nothing wrong with JJ's defence this 6N, but agree he was a little inconsistent. He can obviously reach higher levels than JD in attack though, in fact he's on another planet in an attacking sense.

Lamerat, JJ and Campagnaro were all superior to JD, Ringrose perhaps at a similar level.

Unless jd can learn to pass he will always be second best