Dan Biggar

Seeing as he didn't manage to finish the first half due to injury it might be a bit premature to draw too many conclusions but personally thought Biggar had a very decent game.
I have criticised Biggar on so many occasions but players change.
At 10, you have to be a decision maker, and Biggar excelled at that, mixing up all the options, kick, chip, pass. This is something Priestland is not currently doing.

Priestland looks like he dreads having to make those decisions, he seems scared into taking the decisions, rather than actually thinking them out properly. Now, Biggar is a cocky guy, and when he makes a mistake, it is usually because he overestimates how good he actually is. But Priestland just makes the wrong decisions. Biggar can also kick at goal very accurately if required to.

Maybe i'm being a bit harsh on Priestland, but I honestly don't think he is currently a good player at all. Hopefully Biggar's injury isn't too bad and if he is available to play and Gatland doesn't pick him...

What do you all think about this?

Ive been impressed with Biggars form over the last 2ish years in the league. He deserves a run i think especially since Priestland isnt setting the world alight

Biggar is severely lacking in good luck. He played well and put the team in the right areas of the field. If he stayed on then Samoa may have scored less points. I think he'll be out for a while. That charge was a pretty hard one along with all the other Samoan high tackles that went unpunished. The Priest came on and just didn't have a clue what he was doing. His up and unders are the worst. Now we have no choice but to start with showboater Hook at fly-half for the remaining games! Which means RP is still on the bench.

I think 10's are like TH's, they tend to mature far later than a lot of other positions, RP and Biggar are still young and both need to improve their games.

Biggar looked ok but like you said didn't get enough time to show much at all.

We miss Stephen Jones.

Its crazy to think how young Biggar is. What is he 23? and hes been a starting 10 for the guts of 4(?) years.

Need to see more of him at test level,

also need to see Tovey, Patchell, Steffan Jones and Morgan putting preassure on them at regional level

It's a damning example of our awful performance yesterday that one of our best and only chances of creating something came from Biggar's decision to clear the lines when under pressure and did an up'n'under/touch finder from just inside his own half, off the cuff. It took a cheeky bounce infield and Cuthbert was very close to gathering and cantering home. But we need this approach to try different things when things are going wrong. That has to be allowed by the coaches too. Hearing Prisetland say that some of the instinctual play has been restricted by the coaches is such a shame: "we could see it was on from our 22 but we were told not to play in our own half; to kick down field" or words to that effect.

IMO little chips over, random touch finders, grubbers, switch balls, all keep the opposition guessing. And the more you do that the less likely they are to defend well against you.

So, Biggar did OK in a beat up team for 1 half. He tried something different that nearly came off. We want more of that, more tricks, more variation to keep the defence 'honest', as Jiffy would say.

I thought Biggar did very well before his injury - clearly trying to show the management what he can do and bar a missed touchfinder, it all came off (some good breaks, support play and excellent passing)

Biggar HAS to be given a run - if he was fit I would start him against the All Blacks, no questions.

I thought Biggar looked the business for the 28 minutes he was on. He had a sense of urgency and purpose about him and I was greatly impressed. Conversley poor Rhys has lost form and confidence and again was dreadful - Hook would have been a better option IMO and at the moment its those 2 who for me should be vying for the 10 jersey with Biggar 1st choice, I saw enough last night to convince me along with how he has been playing in general over the past 18 months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-NNn5qfL7U

Rhys Patchells performances in the early games of this season gave me hope as a blues fan that we actually produced a decent flyhalf after a few seasons of the norton-knightmare and parks.

At 18 this kid is only going to get better, just needs to nail his place down at the Blues

Liked what I saw of Biggar. He played quickly and made he right decisions. Preistland needs to go back to his club and concentrate of regaining his form. Clearly out of sorts. I think he is the player with the higher potential but not right now.

biggars decision making was spot on. he was thinking, constantly looking and you could see he was buzzing to get things going. his speed of pass was great......but no one straighted up and earned the right to go forward.

jiffy said ,when asked about selection before the argy game ,that biggar was the in form 10 but could he play the way wales want their 10 to play.

NO thank god , he plays what he sees and i am repeating my self from a million other times on a million other threads...its the coaching and tactics that are totally wrong

rhys priestland should have had the ba*** to make his own decision and back it up in the post match team analysis. he's copped out. if you do as the coach says and its wrong you cant be blamed by the coach , and thats what the players are now doing , to the letter.

cleverly priestland let it slip about what hes been told to do because he's fed up , along with the rest of the team , of taking the flack for useless tactics. thats not to say the players dont deserve a rocket, but i think they have resigned themselves to doing as they are told.

when the plan doesnt work of course the coach comes back and says we have a game plan, the players are responsible for executing it. so, in effect, even if the plan is rubbish, its the players fault for their execution of the rubbish plan

thats when you get players who look as if they are beaten before they start the game, because they are. by tactics THEY KNOW are useless.

Do you have a link to the Priestland interview you mentioned?

[quoteHearing Prisetland say that some of the instinctual play has been restricted by the coaches is such a shame: "we could see it was on from our 22 but we were told not to play in our own half; to kick down field" or words to that effect.

So, Biggar did OK in a beat up team for 1 half. He tried something different that nearly came off. We want more of that, more tricks, more variation to keep the defence 'honest', as Jiffy would say. [/quote]

no, dont have a link , just heard the same as others have. the guy was told to kick everything in his own half, so he did , as he ALWAYS has, and as we know....back at you it comes.!!

I wonder who was telling him to do that?

Ryan Jones? Jones has been heavily criticised by fellow players for his tactical naivety.

maestegmafia wrote:I wonder who was telling him to do that?

Ryan Jones? Jones has been heavily criticised by fellow players for his tactical naivety.

Any links?

I'm intrigued as to which "fellow players" have the credentials, tactics wise, to criticise Ryan Jones, or indeed anyone else.

after that early try you would have thought there would have been SOME sort of communication between captain, players, but no reaction from anyone in that department, just acceptance really, paul james was out of position, because phillips was out of position?

why? nothing seems to be right , not even the basics, and looking around you AND THINKING !!!!

We don't have an outstanding Welsh 10. Hook didn't live up to his promise, Priestland has not played well since the opening games of the World Cup and Biggar doesn't look like he's be en the starting 10 for his region for 3 or 4 seasons.

So we have three choices that can drift in and out on form - hardly satisfactory. Perhaps the next generation will produce better talent and a stand out candidate.

To be frank, we haven't had a great 10 since JD1. Jenkins was a superb kicker but an average fly-half. He was followed by the long reign of Stephen Jones who was solid at best, frequently mediocre and never outstanding. He also had a dire World Cup, but got forgiven for it, unlike Hook. Now we are trying to find the next in the Jenkins-Jones "English"style line of 10s, and the obvious choice is RP, who obeys orders to kick even with a 3-man overlap.