Just how good are Wales? (reprise)

by Portnoy Fri 15 Jul - 18:11

Last evening I was poking through some of my old articles on v1 and I unearthed this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A33708080

It was dated 21 March 2008 not long after the second Welsh GS.

The article read:

Nope. It's not a WUM. And I am treading on eggshells.

Wales were well worth their GS, but how good are they?

The Gatland / Edwards coaching brought out the best of established players.

Please
don't go off on one, they played by far the best rugby of the
tournament - no doubt about it. I'm just trying to be objective and
rational.

And here it comes...

But:

England played
two appalling second halves. Against Wales and Italy where senior
players failed to front up and there were poor selections. There were
also significant injuries to key players at key times.

Against Scotland they were just atrocious for the full eighty.

France
were a complete mess. Lievrement tried to make all the changes in a
spate of madness that denied them any chance of the title. Even then,
they were the second best team in the competition.

Ireland were
just dismal. No fight or Paddy power and therefore performed no better
than in the RWC. They also lost two top players - BOD and Murphy
(mostly) for the England match.

Probably their failure in the main was due to re-contracting EOS before the RWC had begun.

Scotland
just went backwards. Even the England victory was a bit hollow because
no opposition turned up. A really dire game requires two really dire
teams.

Italy were disappointing in virtually all areas and need a number ten.

So. There it is. I just don't know how good Wales are. Or England. Or France. Or Ireland.

I'm pretty sure I know how good the other two are.

We'll just have to wait until after the Summer Tours and the AIs to find out.

I would predict, however that some current thinking about the State of The Nations will have to be re-drafted.

If an appalling England can come second in the 6Ns, then something is not right.

Wales are lovely to watch, but just how good are they?

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[Another left field article]

by nakedwarrior Fri 15 Jul - 18:16

Currently not very good in my opinion.

by Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler Fri 15 Jul - 18:19

LInk fail

The application called an interface that was marshalled for a different thread.

Someone get the 606 techies on it.... Doh

by Turkster Fri 15 Jul - 18:22

why do you need to know?

by Portnoy Fri 15 Jul - 18:23

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:LInk fail

The application called an interface that was marshalled for a different thread.

Someone get the 606 techies on it....

Doesn't really matter Seabiscuit.

The original article is replicated verbatim and complete.

by english warrior Fri 15 Jul - 18:40

How good are Wales ? well obviously not very good at all, there, sorted. Crying or Very sad

by Portnoy Fri 15 Jul - 18:49

Portnoy wrote:
Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:LInk fail

The application called an interface that was marshalled for a different thread.

Someone get the 606 techies on it....

Doesn't really matter Seabiscuit.

The original article is replicated verbatim and complete.

If you copy the url to the address bar it comes up (for me). But using the link directly fails.

by Pete C (Kiwireddevil) Sat 16 Jul - 8:47

Clicking the link works for me

by mckay1402 Sat 16 Jul - 19:52

At the moment average. we'll see what the world cup holds...

by manofgwent Sat 16 Jul - 19:57

At best quarter finalists. Wales are exactly where their 6nations table has had them in the last 3 years. Better than Italy and Scotland, but can beat the other 3 on their day.
I do however think that given the right coaching team, picking the right players and when some of excellent talent comes through, we'll again be challenging for the 6 n's. Nowhere near the southern hemisphere though. The gap seems to have widened again.

by Portnoy Sat 16 Jul - 20:19

All the Home nations are claiming to have a burgeoning pool of young talent just around the corner.

The trick is to convert talent into real performance. Leigh Halfpenny And George North are sparks which hardly seem to ignited yet (despite injury).

Mind you Ashton and Youngs may yet prove to be damp squibs as well.

by manofgwent Sat 16 Jul - 20:35

Halfpenny's had an injury hit season.
George north only came on the scene this season. He started the season on fire and continued his form innthe AI's. But again injury blighted his season.

Wales have a lot of untried talent, but a lot are proving how good they are for their regions. But we all know that playing for your country i's a step up.

by NewTraditionalHaka Sun 17 Jul - 14:33

The bigger question right now is how good are Samoa and Fiji, dontcha think?

by welshy824 Sun 17 Jul - 16:10

lol that is a worry, saying that with samoa playing like that it means S.A might not get out the pool Wink

by manofgwent Sun 17 Jul - 21:02

Fiji lose to tonga. Fiji beat Samoa. Samoa beat Australia. How good are tonga???

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