Wales v Fiji

First topic message reminder :

Match thread.....

Old Man wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Garces and Tuisova Fiji's best players. AWJ Wales' best player.

I think you are wrong there.

Old Man wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Garces and Tuisova Fiji's best players. AWJ Wales' best player.

I think you are wrong there.

Agreed AWJ missed a few tackles

Had the conditions played ball and created a sweatbox Wales could have lost this game, nice and cool in the stadium apparently.

Ifs and buts

RiscaGame wrote:Ifs and buts

Thats modern rugby, had the Fiji No8 landed on his head and not his back this game would have been very different.

Might still be cited?

RiscaGame wrote:Ifs and buts

A lot of hurt feelings here if Wales go on to get the 5 points

These lineout throws!!!!

TightHEAD wrote:Had the conditions played ball and created a sweatbox Wales could have lost this game, nice and cool in the stadium apparently.

Not convinced a sweatbox would have helped Fiji's game either, just makes it a bit of a lottery which pass sticks

Great match this, Fiji pushed Wales well, hopefully Biggar will be OK.

Wish Gats would drop certain players. Parkes, Moriarty and North have been inconsistent all season (and last).

I agree Old Man, nice to see a proper game at last.

BigGee wrote:

TightHEAD wrote:Had the conditions played ball and created a sweatbox Wales could have lost this game, nice and cool in the stadium apparently.

Not convinced a sweatbox would have helped Fiji's game either, just makes it a bit of a lottery which pass sticks

I'm not sure a less fitter side would cope better in more difficult conditions either. Like I said, ifs and butts.

Disagree with that PoM - Navidi for me

Well impressed with Fiji’s set piece, a shame their discipline is still a problem. They need to learn to be more clinical at the breakdown.

From Wales’ perspective their scrum needs improvement, other than that they looking good.

I'd go with Navidi.

Good game to watch for the neutral.
Fiji gave it a crack and rattled Wales who lacked control for half the game.
Score board could have been a bit closer with the chances created for both sides.
Well done Wales but teams with bigger players & better set pieces like SA, NZ & England will fancy their chances in the games ahead.

What a great game, well done to Fiji for coming along with such intent but a very good win for Wales at the end of the day and they rightly top their group

Great game well played both teams.

Well done Wales - very hard workout

Pal Joey wrote:Disagree with that PoM - Navidi for me

Good call.



Carre could be on his way to getting Smith's position. I didn't really enjoy this game, too many basic errors and silly play at times. Well played Fiji, really threw the kitchen sink as expected. Wales work hard to get 5 points, also as expected.

TightHEAD wrote:I'd go with Navidi.

He had a very good game

This match really proves the RWC should have only 12 teams is you want competitive matches throughout the pool stage.

We often say there aren't enough significant rugby rivalries outside the Six Nations and Rugby Championship sides.

In two World Cup games, Wales and Fiji have delivered up more skill and drama than I can remember in years of England v Italy fixtures.

I'd buy a ticket to watch these two sides play, and I hope they are on the calendar to meet again soon.

Josh Adams 3rd try was never a try with the clip I just saw. TMO had a shocker.

Rugby Fan wrote:We often say there aren't enough significant rugby rivalries outside the Six Nations and Rugby Championship sides.

In two World Cup games, Wales and Fiji have delivered up more skill and drama than I can remember in years of England v Italy fixtures.

I'd buy a ticket to watch these two sides play, and I hope they are on the calendar to meet again soon.

A totally different topic worthy of it's own thread, but something must be done to better support tier 2 countries and specifically the Pacific islanders.

Well done Wales in the end. That was an absolute battle, so they have got to be relieved to get through with the win and the bonus point. I think they deserved it in the end, and lets hope that the injuries are not too bad.

Got to say though that I held back from commenting on here during it. There was plenty of good and bad for Wales, and decisions that could have been interpreted differently, resulting in a different result. But it felt that the Welsh supporters were very sensitive to any comment that was a negative to Wales, so I held back from posting full stop.

And that's as someone who supports Wales in every game apart from when they play England, and has been to the Principality about 10 times more often than I've been to Twickenham.

hugehandoff wrote:

Rugby Fan wrote:We often say there aren't enough significant rugby rivalries outside the Six Nations and Rugby Championship sides.

In two World Cup games, Wales and Fiji have delivered up more skill and drama than I can remember in years of England v Italy fixtures.

I'd buy a ticket to watch these two sides play, and I hope they are on the calendar to meet again soon.

A totally different topic worthy of it's own thread, but something must be done to better support tier 2 countries and specifically the Pacific islanders.

Easy to fix. PI (and Japan) have a championship themselves which would give them competative rugby matches. The winner of that championship then gets entry into the "rugby championship" later on that year. Whoever then finishes bottom of the "Big" Rugby Championship then drops into the "little" championship the following year. If thats whoever came up, then thats the way the cookie crumbles but they'd get the try to get back into the "big" comp without missing a year by winning the "little" one again!

Will the French clubs release them?

Afro wrote:Got to say though that I held back from commenting on here during it. There was plenty of good and bad for Wales, and decisions that could have been interpreted differently, resulting in a different result. But it felt that the Welsh supporters were very sensitive to any comment that was a negative to Wales, so I held back from posting full stop.

Probably my fault then, but if you knew the history regarding our match threads (it goes back a while) then you might understand. It is policed a lot better now, but it lead to lots of crying from them on the feedback thread (eventually locked). We still have the usual English posters doing it just to WUM during and after the match right now.

Interested to know which decisions were critical and in favour of Wales though? I take it you didn't see Garces' performance in Wales vs Ireland and then Aus. It was more of the same today; not allowing us to compete in the breakdown or maul - areas where we have an advantage. His penalty try call seemed odd given the let-offs for Fiji at the end of the first half.

TightHEAD wrote:Will the French clubs release them?

The PI cup could be played when the 6Ns is on which would be an international window so they would need to release the players.

The same should happen with the 6Ns, Georgia/Romania, ect should play a comp during the AIs with whoever wins that getting into the following years 6Ns. Whoever finishes last in the 6Ns then goes through the "little" comp in the AI window. Whoever wins that gets back into the next 6Ns

Old Man wrote:This match really proves the RWC should have only 12 teams is you want competitive matches throughout the pool stage.

Then Uruguay would never have had the chance to beat Fiji!

BigGee wrote:

Old Man wrote:This match really proves the RWC should have only 12 teams is you want competitive matches throughout the pool stage.

Then Uruguay would never have had the chance to beat Fiji!

True, the question remains whether World Rugby is happy with the current situation or not. There has been a lot of comments regarding the nature of some hidings dished out.

tigertattie wrote:..Easy to fix. PI (and Japan) have a championship themselves which would give them competative rugby matches. The winner of that championship then gets entry into the "rugby championship" later on that year. Whoever then finishes bottom of the "Big" Rugby Championship then drops into the "little" championship the following year. If thats whoever came up, then thats the way the cookie crumbles but they'd get the try to get back into the "big" comp without missing a year by winning the "little" one again!

To be honest, I'm just being selfish. All I want, is to see Wales play Fiji more often, to see if that can develop into a rivalry which gets a wide enough foothold, it can survive the occasional blow-out. France have nearly got one going with Tonga.

(I appreciate a broader solution is a better approach)

Afro wrote:
Got to say though that I held back from commenting on here during it. There was plenty of good and bad for Wales, and decisions that could have been interpreted differently, resulting in a different result. But it felt that the Welsh supporters were very sensitive to any comment that was a negative to Wales, so I held back from posting full stop.

It obviously isn't all the Welsh fans but very well said. "Ref blaming" is very boring

BamBam wrote:

Afro wrote:
Got to say though that I held back from commenting on here during it. There was plenty of good and bad for Wales, and decisions that could have been interpreted differently, resulting in a different result. But it felt that the Welsh supporters were very sensitive to any comment that was a negative to Wales, so I held back from posting full stop.

It obviously isn't all the Welsh fans but very well said. "Ref blaming" is very boring

It was only Mikey commenting during the game wasn’t it? A couple by LD. Is that the sum of ‘Welsh Supporters’ that Afro is talking about?

It’ll take me a while to get over that game, never mind the players. I feel exhausted from the range of emotions I went through.

LondonTiger wrote:Gents,

We have just had a great game of rugby. How about rather than discussing she said/he said, criticising posters for perceived slights, continuing any past vendettas be it against posters or officials, we just bask in the memory of a great game?

You might want to re-open the feedback thread then. I've been complained about on here again for posting facts, said facts probably could have went onto the feedback thread had it been opened. It's funny how mentioning a simple fact, when there's an abundance of evidence to prove so, gets complained about. And to think we had someone insulting groups of people yesterday and going on to refer to them as snowflakes because they don't agree with a certain POV, then they're back here complaining about people posting facts!

Facts aren't something that you've made up in your head to satisfy your need to be a victim petal xx

BamBam wrote:Facts aren't something that you've made up in your head to satisfy your need to be a victim petal xx

Well, what I and others were complaining about for a long time took a lot of moderation intervention. It spilled over to the feedback thread too, where there were numerous complaints about moderating. Were you around when this happened, or did your wifi go down again?

On a match related note, BamBam, how did you rate AWJ game today? 8/10 for me. Usually the first guy to lead the defence charge, first at every breakdown, shrugged off more high hits again. Aside from him and Navidi, most our guys were powderpuff in defence. Fiji were very good in attack even if I do believe they had help from Garces, but my knives were already out for him anyway.

I'm always around, same can't be said for many others

I didn't watch the game as I'm at work, was following based only on the commentary I could get off 5 live on my phone and the BBC / Guardian live text services

The only times I can recall AWJ getting a mention in the 2nd half were when he got hit by a high tackle and when he gave a penalty away for a seat belt tackle. I'll take your word for it on the rest

Do you not like Garces? You should have mentioned it

So there were more pre high hits ignored by medics today?

LondonTiger wrote:If Adams does go off, would they put Patchell at full back and move Williams to the wing?

Flicking through this thread and really weird reading the criticism of Adams. It's Fiji. You have to eat your greens early on. Bit of perspective needed in future I think, boys.

Wasn't LT's comment re Adams looking like he'd picked up an injury after his 3rd try? Again I didn't watch, but he was apparently struggling. There were other comments earlier about taking him off though

Did he go off in the end?

He went off injured after his third.

LTs comment was immediately after the second Fiji try and it was a good job he isn't making the call, as it was before any of Adam's tries

Just watching the game again and the Scrum is a real problem for Wales, Francis is going to get penalised if he continues to turn in on the loose head.

Oh okay that's two comments on topic and non-offensive that I've had complained about here, including the attack on me and targeting of my comment on the 'delayed games' thread yesterday. The posters (always of a certain nationality) targeting me are the ones who constantly post incorrect stuff just to WUM people on every single Wales match thread. I am surprised this is allowed to continue. You expect posters to stay on topic but allow this to go on, and then you just lock threads rather than deal with individuals.

It's a bloody rugby forum, stop taking things so seriously.

Soul Requiem wrote:It's a bloody rugby forum, stop taking things so seriously.

+1

I would green vote you but i'm not allowed.

Old Man wrote:Great match this, Fiji pushed Wales well, hopefully Biggar will be OK.

Interesting, thought this would have been quite a frustrating game for the neutral.