Watching the 05 Slam and................

........WOW how boring are we now?
Dwayne Peel getting the ball out at light speed compared to Phillips even thou our current pack presents a far cleaner quicker ball for Phillips.

Forwards offloading! im pretty sure the current coaching set up doesn't know the meaning.

Rarely kicked possession away and if we did it was for touch, now we might as well walk up to the oppose fullback and just give him the ball it would save time.

Backs all running angles at pace, right now the League style of bash bosh grubber we play is god awful boring to watch.

We used to pass and CATCH!! right now we have international players with a few seasons under their belt who still can only pass left and good luck watching a set piece move go further than first receiver because catching is something we can't do anymore.

Also no Shane or Martyn Williams to wins us big games.

I hope Gatland doesn't come back after the Lions he has made us average, consistently average.

No offloads
No quick passing
No scissors (unless it's Roberts or North on the bulldozer)

This all beggars belief.

Shane Williams was a revelation. He did everything and anything. His influence and the distribution of Henson got things going. The points you have raised is why I would love to see halfpenny at 10. Williams always popped up at 9 or 10 and just ran.

viewtothegym wrote:........WOW how boring are we now?
Dwayne Peel getting the ball out at light speed compared to Phillips even thou our current pack presents a far cleaner quicker ball for Phillips.

Forwards offloading! im pretty sure the current coaching set up doesn't know the meaning.

Rarely kicked possession away and if we did it was for touch, now we might as well walk up to the oppose fullback and just give him the ball it would save time.

Backs all running angles at pace, right now the League style of bash bosh grubber we play is god awful boring to watch.

We used to pass and CATCH!! right now we have international players with a few seasons under their belt who still can only pass left and good luck watching a set piece move go further than first receiver because catching is something we can't do anymore.

Also no Shane or Martyn Williams to wins us big games.

I hope Gatland doesn't come back after the Lions he has made us average, consistently average.

I think the problem was Gatland, rightly, noticed you were probably not physically matching a lot of teams and has now overcompensated in that area. In my mind, you played far better, more exciting rugby under Ruddock, although I have no idea how good a coach he is, I liked his approach. If you could combine the grunt with the magic you'd be some team.

sums up the so called Welsh way.

A pundit once questioned Shane Williams for not taking contact. But as he said why run into a big guy when you can run round him.

We need big guys up front to do the grunt and secure ball, but Wales do best when we have fast agile, 3/4s who can think at a split second, pass, step and swerve, so that opposition can't grab them. Doesn't matter how big the opposition are if they cant get their hands on you, Shane showed this over and over again.

our current pack presents a far cleaner quicker ball for Phillips.

Stopped reading after this

Get Matthew Morgan in there!

I watched the 05 slam and didn't see Wales get any ball at all really.

Oh wait that was in the autumn...

I was thinking this the other day. They used to say wales liked it when playing from broken play, passing out of the tackle etc. Now its all about the gameplan. Didn't fotu'alli(?) Say that they beat us because they knew exactly how we'd play. Crash straight for first tackler, recycle,crash again, recycle, continue until turned over or conceded penalty.

As they said in 2015, the English didn't have any proper competition back in 2013.

That 2005 Welsh side was a joy to watch - the best by far for me of any of the three in recent years. And to see people nit-picking on the basis of current playing styles/tactics/strategies is a bit galling to me.

Here's how it works...

In 2004 Ruddock inherited a squad of players taken from medieval times and turned into something decent by Graham Henry and Steve Hansen.

Ruddock played to our strengths. The pack wasn't beefy but it did have mobility and we made the most of mobile back row players excellent in skill, handling and offloads (Martyn Williams, Owen and Jones).

Ruddock also made the most of two amazing players that Hansen didn't like (Shane Williams and Gavin Henson). His masterstroke of genius was picking Henson at 12.

In 2005 Wales just decided to throw the ball about. Many people saw Wales as favourites to beat England after an impressive autumn. That win gave them confidence.

We had really skillful runners that we don't seem to have now. Peel, Henson, Kevin Morgan, Shane Williams, Alfie and Rhys Williams. Great angles and acceleration.

Gareth Jenkins should have been given the job years before. He inherited a mess of a squad and put too much emphasis on the gym and his "favourites".

Warren Gatland inherited a squad of physical players but with no direction or game plan. He added even more physicality and showed Wales how to defend.

Two things won 2008 slam.
a) defence
b Shane Williams

Shane Williams almost single handedly won the tournament by himself. He was freakish. Lee Byrne at 15 was also a revelation.

Now we have too much bulk, not enough focus on offloads, angles and running.

Lee Byrne at 15 was only ever effective if support running Shane Williams other wise he would tend to stay back.

My problem with the current style is as mentioned on scrumV last week, we play off set piece.

How can the team with the worst line out in World rugby play off set piece?

Surely they don't play off a scrum because 90% of them don't get completed?

viewtothegym wrote:Lee Byrne at 15 was only ever effective if support running Shane Williams other wise he would tend to stay back.

My problem with the current style is as mentioned on scrumV last week, we play off set piece.

How can the team with the worst line out in World rugby play off set piece?

Surely they don't play off a scrum because 90% of them don't get completed?

Yes that game plan is bonkers. Wales focus on set piece but lineouts are consistently poor.
I really want to see these backs.
15. Byrne
14. Halfpenny
13. Roberts
12. Henson / Hook
11. North
10. Biggar
9. Lloyd Williams

That side might actually look to avoid being tackled rather than run straight for contact. Hensons long gone tho, need to get over it.

t1000advancedprototype wrote:Here's how it works...

In 2004 Ruddock inherited a squad of players taken from medieval times and turned into something decent by Graham Henry and Steve Hansen.

Ruddock played to our strengths. The pack wasn't beefy but it did have mobility and we made the most of mobile back row players excellent in skill, handling and offloads (Martyn Williams, Owen and Jones).

Ruddock also made the most of two amazing players that Hansen didn't like (Shane Williams and Gavin Henson). His masterstroke of genius was picking Henson at 12.

In 2005 Wales just decided to throw the ball about. Many people saw Wales as favourites to beat England after an impressive autumn. That win gave them confidence.


We had really skillful runners that we don't seem to have now. Peel, Henson, Kevin Morgan, Shane Williams, Alfie and Rhys Williams. Great angles and acceleration.

Gareth Jenkins should have been given the job years before. He inherited a mess of a squad and put too much emphasis on the gym and his "favourites".

Warren Gatland inherited a squad of physical players but with no direction or game plan. He added even more physicality and showed Wales how to defend.

Two things won 2008 slam.
a) defence
b Shane Williams

Shane Williams almost single handedly won the tournament by himself. He was freakish. Lee Byrne at 15 was also a revelation.

Now we have too much bulk, not enough focus on offloads, angles and running.

[b]+1