Month: February 2019

Wales 26 – 15 Italy

The headlines before the game were talking about the 10 changes that coach Warren Gatland had made to the team that beat France a week ago, the conversation was about how effective Wales would be at imposing a game plan on Italy with so much disruption. Those fears were rather justified. Wales struggled to get going and struggled generally across the game to put a fierce Italian team away.

I feel bad moaning as Wales scored almost double the points and have equalled their record 11 wins in a row, but when you look at how England demolished France in the first half of their game I was left feeling rather jealous. Wales and England go on to face each other on the 23rd Feb 2019, England will be seeing themselves as favourites. They are looking incredibly strong, they beat Ireland through sheer muscle power, and beat France with tactical perfection. It’s no surprise that Wales will have to improve to face them.

Against Italy the backs were nonthreatening and the lineout was garbage, facets that will need to be corrected, and probably will be. Dan Biggar, the saviour a week ago against France, didn’t do himself many favours to be picked against England. Though I have a feeling his defensive strength and aerial imperiousness may just edge him ahead of Anscombe. Wales need to be accurate and strong. It’s so frustrating that the politics surrounding Welsh rugby is keeping Rhys Webb out of the number 9 jersey. In an area where Wales is struggling, having his lethality, bravery and pace really lifts the tempo, a key component of their game plan. Aled Davies, when he did get quick ball, looked hesitant and lethargic, only for a few seconds but that’s all it takes for international level defences to reset.

Gatland is often proven correct in the long run and did lots of good things, players were itching for a chance to play and Gatland offered it to them, trusting them to get the job done. Strength in depth is the best it has ever been and lets not forget that at the end of the season there awaits the World Cup, where depth is absolutely vital. It is, however, a mark of how much we expect from Wales to be disappointed with this game. You get the feeling England and Ireland are going to demolish Italy, and bonus points could be crucial in the context of the tournament. It could be possible that Gatland isn’t focused on winning the Six Nations but focused on the World Cup, the one trophy that has eluded him thus far in his successful career.

I’ve purposefully waited a little bit longer than usual to post about this game because there was a lot of emotion tied up in it and I wasn’t quite sure what I felt. With a bit of distance it’s time to look back. From the context of the record breaking autumn series, Wales were terrible in the first half.  The weather was a factor but it certainly didn’t bother the French who only had a single handling error compared to 10 from the Welsh. That kind of inaccuracy just stifles any kind of momentum and continually gives possession over to the French, who played the best rugby I’ve seen them play in a long time.

At half time the score was 16-0 to France, deservedly so. The game seemed to turn at half time with France handing Wales two tries from horrendous mistakes. One was from Huget failing to touch the ball down behind his own try line allowing North to dive on it, the second from three absurdly bad French passes leading to a North interception try.

Wales benefitted hugely from Dan Biggar coming into the game. It wasn’t the kind of game for Anscombe and his kicking out of hand was not effective enough to not be punished by the return kick from Lopez. Biggar is far stronger in the air, is better at the territorial game and a bit more strategic in moving the pieces around him, he’s also a more solid defensive option.

There’s little point at this stage in criticising the “long and on” kicking strategy of Wales. I can see the logic of keeping the tempo high to tire out the huge French forwards, but lets just say the execution needs to be better. It happened on so many occasions where France would gain the ball and punish Wales harder and gain more ground than where the kick was taken, which is so frustrating to watch.

What did infuriate me however, was the decision to kick long at the end of the game allowing France a chance to come back at Wales. All they had to do was tap, take one ruck and then kick the ball out. Keep control of the game in that circumstance, if you have the ball then the other team can’t score. Look at it this way, to complete a ruck and a kick has a lot less risk than a long kick allowing a French counterattack.

I think as a whole rugby needs to deal with the period of the game that occurs between the 10m lines, it seems like it’s too much of a risk to play there because too many kickers have 50m range these days, so the only tactic appears to be the up-and-under. This just boils down to “Well, we don’t know what to do here, so let’s kick it and see if we catch it 10m further down the field where things will be different.” I think this is an area for some innovation.

The bottom line is Wales won, they’ve won 10 games in a row, and in the past this would have been another addition to the “Wales left themselves too much to do after a bad start” list of games. It’s also true that Wales improve over the course of the Six Nations, so I expect a lot of improvements in accuracy and handling.  As a Welsh rugby fan I should be happier that Wales won badly, having watched so many games of them losing well.

Looking forward I expect Wales to beat Italy, quite convincingly, Wales are simply too strong and I can’t see a win condition for Italy outside of Welsh mistakes. Italy have never managed to address the final quarter weakness in their game, I don’t have any stats to hand but from my impressions a vast amount of Italian points conceded would be in the last 20 minutes