Wales vs Uruguay

First topic message reminder :


WALES vs URUGUAY
Millennium Stadium
Sunday September 20th @ 14:30

Live coverage on ITV and S4C


Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant referees: Pascal Gauzère (France), Mathieu Raynal (France)

Television match official: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)



And so it starts.

RWC 2015, first up for Wales are Uruguay. A team of amateur players that are the lowest ranked team in the competition. They qualified by beating Russia, this is their third RWC. They have won two games previously against Spain and Georgia.

Wales are huge favourites for the game but as the Uruguayans are the weakest team in the group Wales actually have a massive pressure on them to perform at the top of their game and set a bench mark score, that should this pool go down to points, will beat the others in contention.

On the back of a disastrous game in Cardiff against Italy, Wales will have had to re-focus themselves for this game.

Wales have never played Uruguay before. Our A team played them once back in 2001 where a young Shane Williams scored two tries and Gavin Henson excelled at fullback for Wales to win 66 points to 22.

We have no idea what damage teams like England and Australia could do to a tired Uruguay team towards the end of the pool stages. Wales will need to put a cricket score on Uruguay to prove a point before going into our first major game at Twickenham.

Wales Team

Liam Williams (Scarlets); Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), Cory Allen (Cardiff Blues), Scott Williams (Scarlets), Hallam Amos (Newport Gwent Dragons); Rhys Priestland (Bath Rugby), Gareth Davies (Scarlets); Paul James (Ospreys), Scott Baldwin (Ospreys), Samson Lee (Scarlets), Jake Ball (Scarlets), Luke Charteris (Racing 92), Sam Warburton (Captain, Cardiff Blues), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), James King (Ospreys).

Replacements: Ken Owens (Scarlets), Aaron Jarvis (Ospreys), Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs), Dominic Day (Bath Rugby), Dan Lydiate (Ospreys), Ross Moriarty (Gloucester Rugby), Lloyd Williams (Cardiff Blues), Matthew Morgan (Bristol Rugby)


Uruguay Team

15 Gaston Mieres, 14 Santiago Gibernau, 13 Joaquin Prada, 12 Andres Vilaseca, 11 Rodrigo Silva, 10 Felipe Berchesi, 9 Agustin Ormaechea, 8 Alejandro Nieto, 7 Matias Beer, 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara, 5 Jorge Zerbino, 4 Santiago Vilaseca, 3 Mario Sagario, 2 Carlos Arboleya, 1 Alejo Corral.
Replacements: 16 German Kessler, 17 Oscar Duran, 18 Mateo Sanguinetti, 19 Franco Lamanna, 20 Agustin Alonso, 21 Juan De Freitas, 22 Alejo Duran, 23 Francisco Bulanti.

Funnily enough the only ones talking sh*t on this thread are both Scots. Some of you should stop coming on here because opinions from other people clearly make you really angry.

mikey_dragon wrote:Funnily enough the only ones talking sh*t on this thread are both Scots. Some of you should stop coming on here because opinions from other people clearly make you really angry.

Embarrassing yourself more and more

Point the posts out? I thought the Preistland debate was between welsh men - or is your post just a variation on "everyone hates us" ? BTW - I am a Brit of english descent living in scotloand nd a scots fan. I ain't a scot. Have you heard my accent?

Poorfour wrote:Well, actually ... Most of the professional pundits seem out of date to me. It's only the recently retired ones like Shane, BOD, Kay and Greenwood that really seem to understand what the modern game actually requires. The only exceptions from the older generation are Geech and Moore (love him or hate him, his technical analysis is usually spot on).

Speaking of 'pundits' flyhalffactory is V2's very own Sean Holley. Since he's openly admitted he doesn't watch Welsh rugby I doubt he'll be insulted by that, but it amused me at least .

Brian Moore once commented when a team was getting outmuscled that they should put an extra man into the scrum. That's spot on technical analysis?

TJ wrote:Point the posts out?  I thought the Preistland debate was between welsh men - or is your post just a variation on "everyone hates us" ?  BTW - I am a Brit of english descent living in scotloand nd a scots fan.  I ain't a scot.  Have you heard my accent?

That's the problem with Mikey_Dragon..... he hasn't really got his finger on the button.

I am a scot and you are not and yet he insults both of us whilst attempting to say we throw the insults (which we have never done).

The Priestland debate is for everyone who wishes to express an individual opinion, unfortunately Mikey speaks on behalf of the whole of Wales or piggybacks others comments in a feeble attempts to disguise his tribal bias.....

mikey_dragon wrote:

Poorfour wrote:Well, actually ... Most of the professional pundits seem out of date to me. It's only the recently retired ones like Shane, BOD, Kay and Greenwood that really seem to understand what the modern game actually requires. The only exceptions from the older generation are Geech and Moore (love him or hate him, his technical analysis is usually spot on).

Speaking of 'pundits' flyhalffactory is V2's very own Sean Holley. Since he's openly admitted he doesn't watch Welsh rugby I doubt he'll be insulted by that, but it amused me at least .

Its clear I watch more live Welsh matches than you my TV keyboard warrior

TJ wrote:Point the posts out?  I thought the Preistland debate was between welsh men - or is your post just a variation on "everyone hates us" ?  BTW - I am a Brit of english descent living in scotloand nd a scots fan.  I ain't a scot.  Have you heard my accent?

TJ it was this post:

"Ihave to say welsh threads tend to be amusing for the way the welsh fans attack each other and the team. I rarely comment on them tho because someone will accuse you of hating the welsh for stating North is not God and Phillips is both stupid and slow"

Apart from some sour individuals Welsh fans rarely attack each other and can have a sensible discussion. I'm sure there are some sours ones on Scottish threads whilst the majority can have a sensible discussion. With that ridiculous comment there it seems you're just trying to bait people in the manner the 'trolls' you often slate would do. No, I haven't heard your accent. But I thought you were an Edinburgh fan so I made an assumption... I tend to refer to Scotland supporters as Scots anyway, it's easier.

fhf is the stats man and whilst I'm willing to respect the views of other people I will not back down from my own. fhf doesn't seem to get that and tirelessly bores me with presumptuous comments on my personal life and tries to feed me more stats. Stats are often the result of a loser. It's why I come to ignore him.

Me personally, I don't think I'm a sour fan. I'm perhaps an impatient one and it's mostly the turks I don't get on that well with because they're so biased. SS is a great poster though, I can discuss rugby with him. Chunky I can discuss rugby with too, as long as its about Scarlets and Wales...

mikey wrote:fhf doesn't seem to get that and tirelessly bores me with presumptuous comments on my personal life and tries to feed me more stats

Personal life?

Sorry I asked you once how many live regional or international games do you actually watch.... which was a fair question as you seemed to think that as I admitted I hadn't seen RP play more than once or twice I couldn't give a qualified assessment of his "rubbish 2014/15 season". You however decided to throw a couple of insults.

Not so much stats as qualifying my response to you when you made your sweeping statements about RPs performances.

You don't like it because I have qualified his past performances with extracts from the like of Ryan Jones, Warburton, Gatland, Howley, and your very own respected defence coach etc etc etc, whilst you cannot back up your "everybody thinks that The Priest is rubbish" campaign.

So resort to calling my comments "idiotic"

Juvenile, pathetic, and utterly boring

Just as I expected more yawn comments, like I suggested the other day on that thread go back and read previous comments - you seem to keep ignoring them whilst trying to force your views on others. You can't accept what some Wales fans have been constantly seeing since end of 2013 - I don't know why you keep feeding us stats? They perhaps tell half the story at best, and are usually the resort of an argument loser. For example the other day you tried to tell us Priestland had a good game against Australia in 2013 because the STATS said he made 9/9 tackles. It was a desperate yet somewhat amusing comment. I know Hibbard had some stick for his performances back then, yet nobody runs to his defence. It breaks me how SOME people such as yourself get so obsessed over views on Priestland which are opposite to their own.

You've made several personal comments aimed at me in this thread alone and it's pathetic. If you think I'm juvenile, pathetic and utterly boring I'm sure you wouldn't feel the need to sit there and write boring paragraphs in response to a single statement of mine - just like I'm sure you wouldn't feel the need to put in snide insults and keep replying to my comments - so in fact it seems you find me the complete opposite to boring. But anyway I don't really care much for your comments after the 'discussion' from a few days ago. To cut a long story short, I'm sure I'll be utilising the ignore button soon, I just can't stand to be bored any more .

Mikey - do you have any sense of irony?  yes my post was a pisstake
Really have you any idea how ridiculous it is.  You even refer to one bunch of fans by a (I assume) derogatory name and call them all biased and your immediate attack on me proves my point.  Your constant hyperbolic attacks on Preistland and anyone who defends him.   Laughable.  I'll just continue with my policy of ignoring Welsh threads because they are populated with one eyed clowns who could have anarguement in an empty room.- apologies to the decent folk out there but the one eyed clowns make any sort of discussuion impossible without

" I'm sure there are some sours ones on Scottish threads whilst the majority can have a sensible discussion.

Actually not- certainly nothing like the bickering every welsh thread I read descends into.

Eh, I think that's really blown out of proportion there TJ? Immediate attack? But yes stay away from Welsh threads as based on this ones contribution you've nothing to add apart from bullsh*t posts that's intended to urine off Welsh posters. I also doubt you'd speak to people this way in public, particularly on a weekend in Cardiff . Ta-ra.

I'm amazed to see Priestland getting slated he played well. Nothing spectacular and not his greatest performances but certainly doesn't deserve many of the comments above.

I would safely say he played much better than George Ford did Boff England in the last few games and I rarely read England fans giving Ford anything but appreciation.

Did`nt see the match so can only comment in General terms against on paper the weakest
team.
A lot of points scored.bonus point,high try count excellent if it comes down to a tie to
progress to QF.
BUT all these injuries it`s frightening reduction in squad depth for Wales.

emack2 wrote:Did`nt see the match so can only comment in General terms against on paper the weakest
team.
A lot of points scored.bonus point,high try count excellent if it comes down to a tie to
progress to QF.
BUT all these injuries it`s frightening reduction in squad depth for Wales.

It could happen to anyone mate.

It looked more overly precautious than a concern. We will know more this week.

Gatland said in advance that most of Wales training was being geared towards the second match at Twichenham rather than the Uruguay game so not overly surprised at our style and performance.

Fair play to Uruguay though they had some heart and played some good rugby.

Not sure why your shocked at people criticising Rhys Preistland Maes, he missed touch 2/3 times, his kicking out of hand and at goal was sloppy from the off, he also has developed this really cute revolving door defence policy.

You always knew what you got from Rhys, a decent running and distribution game, with halfpenny there to take kicking responsibilities, without Leigh there Rhys's weaknesses coe to the fore...

If Priestland has to play against England or Australia then we are out, simple as that IMO

Well, what a schit performance that was. Make no mistake about it, England and Australia will put 70-80 points on that lot, even Fiji will put a cricket score on them.

I said from the start, we should have played our strongest 15. There was NO leadership on the field. Uruguay should have had at least 3 yellows, but without a captain who will question a referee, that is never going to happen, I have said it before, Warburton is not captain material.

Cory Allen, yes he finished 3 moves, but what else ? He butchered numerous breaks with his crap passing, the only decent back performance yesterday was Gareth Davies, at least he wanted to make it a quick game, and Scott Williams had a decent game, he was looking for the gaps and exploiting the outside shoulder. But he needs to keep hold of the ball !!!!!!

When are people going to realise that Hallam Amos is not ready for this level ? We now find ourselves in a position where one of him or Cuthbert have to start against England, GOD help us.

Well, I hope the people on here who were calling for a weaker side on here do not have what they asked for, because if this group now comes down to points difference, then we are out, lets make no bones about it. The decision to no play Biggar, Faletua, AWJ, Jaime Roberts, Gethin Jenkings, North has just made our monumental task to get out of this group even harder.

I knew this would happen, I just do not want to see anymore whinging from the Welsh posters on here, as Gatland has done exactly what you wanted, and now we are further up schit creek.

Fanster wrote:Not sure why your shocked at people criticising Rhys Preistland Maes, he missed touch 2/3 times, his kicking out of hand and at goal was sloppy from the off, he also has developed this really cute revolving door defence policy.

You always knew what you got from Rhys, a decent running and distribution game, with halfpenny there to take kicking responsibilities, without Leigh there Rhys's weaknesses coe to the fore...

If Priestland has to play against England or Australia then we are out, simple as that IMO

That sloppy goal kicking was 7/8 kicks at goal converted, 87.5% which is around the usual Halfpenny/Biggar range.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:That sloppy goal kicking was 7/8 kicks at goal converted, 87.5% which is around the usual Halfpenny/Biggar range.

To be fair SS, most of Priestlands kicks were from inside the 22 and in front of the posts, he was not very spectacular yesterday. When playing against semi pros you would at least expect a bit of pzazz, but he was mediocre at best. I can bet my bottom dollar that if Biggar were playing, the score would have been a lot higher.

LordDowlais wrote:Well, what a schit performance that was. Make no mistake about it, England and Australia will put 70-80 points on that lot, even Fiji will put a cricket score on them.

I said from the start, we should have played our strongest 15. There was NO leadership on the field. Uruguay should have had at least 3 yellows, but without a captain who will question a referee, that is never going to happen, I have said it before, Warburton is not captain material.

Cory Allen, yes he finished 3 moves, but what else ? He butchered numerous breaks with his crap passing, the only decent back performance yesterday was Gareth Davies, at least he wanted to make it a quick game, and Scott Williams had a decent game, he was looking for the gaps and exploiting the outside shoulder. But he needs to keep hold of the ball !!!!!!

When are people going to realise that Hallam Amos is not ready for this level ? We now find ourselves in a position where one of him or Cuthbert have to start against England, GOD help us.

Well, I hope the people on here who were calling for a weaker side on here do not have what they asked for, because if this group now comes down to points difference, then we are out, lets make no bones about it. The decision to no play Biggar, Faletua, AWJ, Jaime Roberts, Gethin Jenkings, North has just made our monumental task to get out of this group even harder.

I knew this would happen, I just do not want to see anymore whinging from the Welsh posters on here, as Gatland has done exactly what you wanted, and now we are further up schit creek.

The only part of this I disagree with is that I think England and Australia will both crack 100 points against Uruguay and Fiji won't be far behind. We are now in a position where we probably have to win all out games to qualify.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

Fanster wrote:Not sure why your shocked at people criticising Rhys Preistland Maes, he missed touch 2/3 times, his kicking out of hand and at goal was sloppy from the off, he also has developed this really cute revolving door defence policy.

You always knew what you got from Rhys, a decent running and distribution game, with halfpenny there to take kicking responsibilities, without Leigh there Rhys's weaknesses coe to the fore...

If Priestland has to play against England or Australia then we are out, simple as that IMO

That sloppy goal kicking was 7/8 kicks at goal converted, 87.5% which is around the usual Halfpenny/Biggar range.

There was one difficult kick in that bundle, the one he skewed! In international rugby you cannot miss touch, it's the biggest no no in the game!

I don't dislike Rhys, but he just isn't producing at this level!

Talk about not producing at this level how long can we carry a guy Cuthberts size and inability for? It's like watching a Mr Bean show at times!

I get Gatland is loyal to his players, but sometimes a swift kick up the jacksy is needed!

LordDowlais wrote:When are people going to realise that Hallam Amos is not ready for this level ?

What exactly did he do wrong? I remember one knock on.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:When are people going to realise that Hallam Amos is not ready for this level ?

What exactly did he do wrong? I remember one knock on.

I was actually a little bit impressed, and am very much an advocate for Amos over Cuthbert right now.

Sorry George.

Lord Dowlais the point SS made is the astounding statements make that a blatently untrue. 88% acuracy is right up with your best, its also fair to say the kick he missed was fairly easy and he shouldnt have missed it. He missed two touch kicks all match and the ones he nailed made good yardage most of the time.

So how can a welsh poster looking at a match only hours finished make a statement like his kicking game was sloppy.

You had major problems yesterday, your front five and your pack who are the heaviest. and biggest of all teams on weekend 1 didnt perform well against the lightest, smallest and most inexperienced in the tournament. You had 24 turnovers (just in case the usual suspects get excited RP didnt get turned over 24 times).

Dan Lydiate was dire in the short period, Warburton looked rusty and ineffective at times. Liam Williams, Lee looked like they both were still carrying injuries from unless it was inexperience and nervousness.

I agree and so would 99% of other rugby fans (not just Welsh ones) that Biggar would have contributed to a larger winning scoreline, but the question could be asked.... Would he have been better defensively?, would he have created any more try scoring opportunities?, would he have found touch with more accuracy?, would he have been turned over more?.

I think in played the full match in a composed well, under orders and nothing too extreme. The aim primarily was to get the BP aind he diectly set up three of the first four tries, he was your best back yesterday, but thats not saying much as it was a disjointed, stuttering performance from your largely second team.

Fanster wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:When are people going to realise that Hallam Amos is not ready for this level ?

What exactly did he do wrong? I remember one knock on.

I was actually a little bit impressed, and am very much an advocate for Amos over Cuthbert right now.

I thought Amos looked good.

To me the issue is once again Gatlands preferred playing style.

flyhalffactory wrote:Would he have been better defensively?, would he have created any more try scoring opportunities?, would he have found touch with more accuracy?, would he have been turned over more?.

Yes, to everything.Except the turned over more question, that is a NO. Biggar is the model pro. He would have pin pointed miss matches in the mid field, he would have known when to kick and when to run. Also, I am not saying Preistland was the worst back on the pitch, that accolade would have to go to either Cuthbert, or the 3 try scoring hero that is Cory Allen. Yes Allen scored three tries, but I could have finished them off. Cory Allen made no breaks against a semi pro opponent, his passing was amateur, and it was his crap pass that caused Liam Williams to get his knock.

flyhalffactory wrote:Lord Dowlais the point SS made is the astounding statements make that a blatently untrue. 88% acuracy is right up with your best, its also fair to say the kick he missed was fairly easy and he shouldnt have missed it. He missed two touch kicks all match and the ones he nailed made good yardage most of the time.

So how can a welsh poster looking at a match only hours finished make a statement like his kicking game was sloppy.

You had major problems yesterday, your front five and your pack who are the heaviest. and biggest of all teams on weekend 1 didnt perform well against the lightest, smallest and most inexperienced in the tournament. You had 24 turnovers (just in case the usual suspects get excited RP didnt get turned over 24 times).

Dan Lydiate was dire in the short period, Warburton looked rusty and ineffective at times. Liam Williams, Lee looked like they both were still carrying injuries from unless it was inexperience and nervousness.

I agree and so would 99% of other rugby fans (not just Welsh ones) that Biggar would have contributed to a larger winning scoreline, but the question could be asked.... Would he have been better defensively?, would he have created any more try scoring opportunities?, would he have found touch with more accuracy?, would he have been turned over more?.

I think in played the full match in a composed well, under orders and nothing too extreme. The aim primarily was to get the BP aind he diectly set up three of the first four tries, he was your best back yesterday, but thats not saying much as it was a disjointed, stuttering performance from your largely second team.

So you want to talk stats...

Please go re check the size of our pack, it was very much middling in terms of weight, under 900 kilos whereas a number of teams were closer to 950. Where you beleive Wales had 'major problems' in a 50 point win, the rest of the world understands a 2nd choice Welsh team were pretty systematic about what they needed to do.

Infact I think the Welsh pack may just be the smallest of the home nations...

I have lost a lot of respect for anyone claiming Biggar cannot defend like Rhys, of the 2 Biggar is by far the more comitted and effective in contact.

LordDowlais wrote:

flyhalffactory wrote:Would he have been better defensively?, would he have created any more try scoring opportunities?, would he have found touch with more accuracy?, would he have been turned over more?.

Yes, to everything.Except the turned over more question, that is a NO. Biggar is the model pro. He would have pin pointed miss matches in the mid field, he would have known when to kick and when to run. Also, I am not saying Preistland was the worst back on the pitch, that accolade would have to go to either Cuthbert, or the 3 try scoring hero that is Cory Allen. Yes Allen scored three tries, but I could have finished them off. Cory Allen made no breaks against a semi pro opponent, his passing was amateur, and it was his crap pass that caused Liam Williams to get his knock.

Can't argue with much of that, Cuthbert and Allen looked poor while enjoying an armchair ride!

Fanster wrote:I have lost a lot of respect for anyone claiming Biggar cannot defend like Rhys, of the 2 Biggar is by far the more comitted and effective in contact.

If anything, that is my one gripe about Biggar, he tackles too hard and potentially could injure himself. Doesn't anybody remember his monumental effort in defence against the the Boks last Autumn ?

Fanster wrote:Can't argue with much of that, Cuthbert and Allen looked poor while enjoying an armchair ride!

Also, why did none of our wingers come looking for work ? It was not as though they were under the cosh or had to be mindful of their opponents or anything. They were both happy to just stand out on the wings and wait for the ball to come to them.

LordDowlais wrote:

Fanster wrote:Can't argue with much of that, Cuthbert and Allen looked poor while enjoying an armchair ride!

Also, why did none of our wingers come looking for work ? It was not as though they were under the cosh or had to be mindful of their opponents or anything. They were both happy to just stand out on the wings and wait for the ball to come to them.

No offence, but you're making things up now. They both came infield looking for work. You did see Amos's try, right? Look where that was scored!

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:

Fanster wrote:Can't argue with much of that, Cuthbert and Allen looked poor while enjoying an armchair ride!

Also, why did none of our wingers come looking for work ? It was not as though they were under the cosh or had to be mindful of their opponents or anything. They were both happy to just stand out on the wings and wait for the ball to come to them.

No offence, but you're making things up now. They both came infield looking for work. You did see Amos's try, right? Look where that was scored!

Do you know what, I am sick to death with one eyed Dragons fans on here always going on the attack when somebody says anything about their players. You do realise that Hallam was playing in the center at the time because we had Lloyd Williams out on the wing after Cory Allen went off injured don't you ?

Maybe they thought the ball should be coming out to them? Maybe they felt that, being mindful of the opponents, they shouldn't have had to come in looking for it? Maybe they were under instructions to stay out there and reap the profits of the work done in the centre and with the pack?

LordDowlais wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:

Fanster wrote:Can't argue with much of that, Cuthbert and Allen looked poor while enjoying an armchair ride!

Also, why did none of our wingers come looking for work ? It was not as though they were under the cosh or had to be mindful of their opponents or anything. They were both happy to just stand out on the wings and wait for the ball to come to them.

No offence, but you're making things up now. They both came infield looking for work. You did see Amos's try, right? Look where that was scored!

Do you know what, I am sick to death with one eyed Dragons fans on here always going on the attack when somebody says anything about their players. You do realise that Hallam was playing in the center at the time because we had Lloyd Williams out on the wing after Cory Allen went off injured don't you ?

The fact I'm a Dragons fan is neither here nor there.

SecretFly wrote:Maybe they were under instructions to stay out there and reap the profits of the work done in the centre and with the pack?

Yeah, because that was always going to happen with Cory Allen passing to fresh air every time he had the ball.

Well Gatland must have believed he'd have it in him to pass?

It doesn't change the fact that if wings pointedly stay out on the wing at this level then it's pretty damn near conclusive they've been told to, as it being part of a directed gameplan. No wing would risk a bollocking from Gats if they were told to read the game and come in if required.

SecretFly wrote:Well Gatland must have believed he'd have it in him to pass?  

It doesn't change the fact that if wings pointedly stay out on the wing at this level then it's pretty damn near conclusive they've been told to, as it being part of a directed gameplan.  No wing would risk a bollocking from Gats if they were told to read the game and come in if required.

Any wing with half a brain and a can do attitude would come looking for work. Also I fail to believe that Gatland would instruct his wingers to not come looking for work. All the good wingers look for work.

SecretFly wrote:Well Gatland must have believed he'd have it in him to pass?

I glad you used the word "believed". Because after yesterdays game, I bet he does not believe it anymore.

Is Gatland and Co pushing these players too hard in training for them to pick up all these injuries?

TightHEAD wrote:Is Gatland and Co pushing these players too hard in training for them to pick up all these injuries?

Might be, but Cory Allen has hardly played before this WC because of injuries. Liam Williams was injured trying to get on the end of a hospital pass from Cory Allen, so I guess that has nothing to do with the training. Lydiate was also injured in contact so I guess that one is down to bad luck as well.

Well he does look absolutely steamed (Gatland that is). Those eyes are red and small in his head now - a sign that he's on the edge and things must be hot and pressured in camp.

I have to agree on one thing tho - I think Biggar is a better 10 for the style Gatland wants. Was he rested for the big games to come? Preistland is not a bad player but is more high risk / high reward type player

TJ wrote:high reward type player

......wait a minute...... no sorry...

When was the last time we had high reward from him ?

Biggar was rested. Gatland is concentrating on two games. He's obsessing on two games - understandably. If I'm reading his expressions right, England will be hit by a mountain of physicality, accuracy and ruthlessness in the first quarter of the game. And if they are not ready for it, they might not be able to crawl back.
If they are ready for it and ready to unleash their own brand of intensity right through that same period, then we could be in for an earthquake in the Northern European region. Bring the TVs outside to be safe.

TJ wrote:I have to agree on one thing tho - I think Biggar is a better 10 for the style Gatland wants.  Was he rested for the big games to come?  Preistland is not a bad player but is more high risk / high reward type player

If you go back to 2011 when Priestland was at his best then his style of play suited us more. he plays the game a lot flatter and on the gainline more than what Biggar does which brings Roberts and the big boys onto the ball at pace more.

We have had to change slightly with Biggar but he is def our No1 by a long way at the moment.

Just a bit of an aside but who took over the captaincy when Warburton left the field any ideas? At first it looked like it was Lydiate but when he went off as well any ideas?

Where are all the "We always start a competition slowly" comments? Or do they only apply after a loss?
Seriously, I don't think too many English or Aussies will be reading too much into this, especially after the Fiji game. The Welsh will be more than up for England this weekend, should be a cracking game.
But in case that's not enough to cheer you all up...

bedfordwelsh wrote:Just a bit of an aside but who took over the captaincy when Warburton left the field any ideas?  At first it looked like it was Lydiate but when he went off as well any ideas?

Must have been Scott Williams?