Biggar v Tovey

I do tend to take what Walesonline has to say with a pinch of salt but this article about Dan Biggar is not far off the mark Click Here to view article
I rate Jason Tovey highly he is a gifted 10 and has probably more potential than Biggar and I'm backing him to be Wales No1 in the not too distant future if he can sort out his brittle confidence his head drops if he misses kicks at goal no problem with his kicking out of hand though.
So in short I think this is a world cup too soon for Tovey personally I would take Jones/ Hook /Robinson but assuming Robinson isn't an option I would take Priestland.
Biggar will bounce back if can learn to be less one dimensional by that I mean not kick the ball away when there is no need to.

Tovey every time for me. He's a player full of ability and oozes class. I also think he's full of confidence and was a real swagger. Not like biggar who's over confident.

i havent seen much of tovey but what i have seen he does look good, but from what i have seen i think Priestland is pretty good, he seems a good attacking threat and seems consistant

If you want another steady eddie Stephen jones type then priestlands your man. If you want a bit of unpredictability and excitement then it's Tovey.
Tovey's kicking this season hasn't been great though. Apparently he's changed his technique. It did improve towards the end of the season. Not sure why he changed his technique, when the season before he was in the 90% plus strike range. He also kicked 23 goal consecutively and has an eye for a monster drop goal.

Tovey did change his kicking style, I believe to improve his range. The trouble was he had no real pre season last year so had to do it in season. As it wasn't really working he went back to his original style and as a result his kicking got back to its usual standard at the end of the season.

One way to stop aerial ping-pong LINK

manofgwent wrote:If you want another steady eddie Stephen jones type then priestlands your man. If you want a bit of unpredictability and excitement then it's Tovey.
Tovey's kicking this season hasn't been great though. Apparently he's changed his technique. It did improve towards the end of the season. Not sure why he changed his technique, when the season before he was in the 90% plus strike range. He also kicked 23 goal consecutively and has an eye for a monster drop goal.

Disagree witht that MOG sorry. Priestland is a different player to Stephen Jones completely. The Scarlets have a whole other range of attacking options when he starts, that Jones just can't give us. He is however learning consistency and confidence from Jones which I think will make him a more complete player. He's learning from one of the best so combine Jones' best attributed with Preistlands attacking abilities...you have a hugely promising player right there. I really wouldn't label him a steady eddie at all.

I also think those having a go at Biggar for just kicking need to look back at the O's matches during the 6N's again. That is when they were playing superb and creative running rugby, and guess who was playing 10? yep Biggar. GOt no idea why he resorted to kicking all the time again when the international players returned to the squad. He does have more to his game then kicking, he just needs to be given the chance and gain the confidence again to do it.

Biggar/Tovey/Preistland???

Come on guys get over the halfback debate and move on.

Matthew morgan may well be the best thing since sliced bread, but he wont taste good.

Biggar is a top scorer in games, had his confidence badly dented by Gatland and howley, (he's not the first and he wont be the last|) and if he's anything like the player the O's think he is, he will bounce back.
Tovey has yet to show that he can do it on the biggest stage, and that's down to Gatland again, but he hasn;t shown it on the next biggest, the Heineken and now he wont get a chance for another season.
Priestland only lacks real experience of international rugby and has proved himself at all other levels, so in my book is the man in pole.

So, rugbydreamer, in a cack handed sort of way, I guess I'm agreeing with you.
On an aside, would the Scarlets be interested enough to sign Nonu?

Agree ospreylian. Gatland hasn't given any the young 10's enough of a chance.

Ospreylian - interested, most probably, could we afford it? hell no! So no point in even contemplating it really. We need to stick with our developing from within policiy until we become financially more stable and viable. Willt ake a fair few seasons before/if we can splash the cash at all.

I would much rather we keep developing the likes of Rheon James and Scott Williams.

Nonu is one of those players who will put bums on seats, certainly for the first 10 games or so, so could easily repay some of his money back, but you're right he will cost all the regions too much, both in monetary terms and in development terms.

Besides I really want to see the Ospreys turn Matthew morgan into something else.

anyone heard that it's £15 to go and talk to the O's management!!!

I agree with Cymroglan, I don't think either Biggar or Tovey will go the World Cup which will inevitably be Jones swan song.

Next season depending on whether Hook develops some consistency at 10 in France, I suspect the race for the Wales 10 jersey will be a three horse race between Priestland, Tovey and Biggar with no front runner and all to play for.

ospreylian wrote:.....................Besides I really want to see the Ospreys turn Matthew morgan into something else..............................

Given the O's coaches ability to turn ANY decent player into a shadow of his former self, what are you hoping they will turn Morgan into? A reasonable club player? An umbrella stand? a pot of petunias?

I'm just happy that we have Priestland, Tovey, Matthew Morgan, Biggar and Hook all competing with each other for the Wales shirt, with Ceri Sweeney and nicky robinson backing them up. I'll pick which ever is playing the best at the time of the international!

The Best thing for Wales will be the competition for places. Its is a fine situation to see several players in contention, more players than we have regions...!

Tovey is the slickest operator in my opinion. Though I dont see him making the RWC squad I do see their being great competition between him, Biggar, Steve Jones, James Hook, Nicky Robinson, Steven Shingler (off to London Irish next year) Priestland and hopefully a developing Matthew Morgan too.

we are very lucky to have so much talent, they all need to be given opportunities to prove themselves at International level. Tovey will lack the Heineken Cup exposure that others will be getting though.

Unfortunately I think Shingler has sunk his own International aspirations by moving outside of Wales if Gatland remains in charge. The coach seems pretty adamant that whilst senior players who have been in and around the squad for sometime can be trusted to go of to foreign fields, he will pick only juniors from the 4 Regions where their development and particularly training regimes can be monitored by the Welsh coaching team.

ML

I dont think Gatland will ignore Shingler if he is playing well. He cant implement his rules restricting movement under the European Law so he has never been able to make it official.

I think it is a great move for Shingler who will get limited game time behind Jones and Priestland at the Scarlets. Where as he has only the very average Daniel Bowden ahead of him at LI so should get plenty of gametime possibly even some decent HEC appearances.

If Shingler excels at irish he wont be ignored

i've not been a big biggar fan but the kid can tackle. it is a big plus. maybe he will force his way in one day, and as others have said, we should be happy to support who ever is playing the best rugby.

at the moment i think it is tovey but wellies brings so much more to the team he should be our first choice at RWC.

dogtooth wrote:i've not been a big biggar fan but the kid can tackle.

What?


Biggar couldn't tackle scrambled eggs for breakfast, his defensive frailties are one of the biggest downsides to his game. That and his game management and relentless kicking away valuable ball.

last match i saw biggar play in he tackled like a demon. i thought his defence was excellent. maybe it was a one off.

Must have been, I missed that match, was away...! Positive for the future if he can improve his defence.

He did seem a more natural player in his early days at the ospreys, he was on fire the end of last season too.

But he has been far less encouraging this year in his all round game. His tackling was heavily exposed early in the season, particularly against Leinster where they ran in three tries from targeting Biggar with centers and back rowers.