Month: March 2018

The 2018 Six Nations has ended, and it was quite a strange one. Wales finished second having beaten Scotland, Italy and France at home, and losing to England and Ireland Away. Despite finishing second, there wasn’t a great deal to celebrate and it feels a disappointing tournament.

I think a part of the disappointment has come from the way Wales played in the first game. An inaccurate Scotland were swept aside by a Wales team taking the ball to the line, and putting runners into space with offloads.

Across the remainder of the tournament Wales seemed to flounder back into old patterns, showing glimpses of brilliance within a frustratingly dull play-style.

For the life of me I cannot understand the strategy Wales employ when their first team are all available. Wales constantly kick possession away. As soon as they are anywhere near the 10m lines, the strategy is to kick an up-and-under and hope to regain possession 20 yards further up the field. Far more often than not however, all this does is give the ball to the opposition. Alongside this, Wales never kick to touch, constantly allowing teams space and time to attack. Gatland will say it’s because he believes in the fitness and defensive prowess of his team. However, without the ball you can’t win the game.

It may work against poor teams, but if Wales want to beat the best then they can’t practice a strategy that won’t work against them. If you constantly give possession to the All Blacks you will lose. They know how to retain the ball and grind out penalties, while also playing with their heads up and grasping every opportunity they get to score.

Wales play a style reliant on perfection of execution and they aren’t good enough to do it. So we end up as fans watching a team starving themselves of possession and then making mistakes when they get it.

One positive is that through injuries, Wales have given experience to a host of new players. These players took their chances well and played a fantastic style of traditional Welsh rugby. When given the chance however Gatland returned to form.

It’s great that Wales finished second, though no team was really setting the tournament alight and Ireland thoroughly deserved their Grand Slam.