Tidy Win for Wales

Wow what a great day to be a rugby loving couch potato. Wall to wall rugby - when two half worlds collide.

Yet again Warren Gatland confounded his critics as his sweeping changes all seemed to come off. A young inexperienced Welsh pack stood up really well to the Argentinians who were playing in their own backyard. Wales always seemed in control against what, it has to be said, was a disappointing Argentinian team.  The South Americans had been installed as favourites by most pundits for this encounter on the basis of the Jaguares recent form. Wales really have unearthed incredible strength in depth in the back row where the new look combination of James Davies, Seb Davies and Ross Moriarty outshone their opponents. It is amazing when you think four British Lions: Warburton, Tipuric, Lydiate and Faletau plus the redoubtable Navidi and Shingler were not on the tour and Ellis Jenkins could not get a place on the bench. There are a host of others not far behind including Thomas Young and Ollie Robinson. It is a position where injuries are commonplace so you can never have too many that is for sure. Poor old Uncle Eddie is having to flaunt his money all over the world to try and convince backrow forwards to become English!

It wasn’t just the back row that played well this was an excellent effort all round with a sound defensive system wrapping up the opposition before they could threaten. The two tries from North and James Davies were well taken and backed up by Patchell’s excellent goalkicking and resulted in a 10-23 scoreline. The two youngsters Lewis and Beard in the forwards had games to remember and Parkes was in excellent form in the centre. Yes, this was certainly something to build on.

Ireland came unstuck in 18-9 Brisbane against Australia in a tough encounter. Although for the first half Ireland dominated possession and territory as usual, the Aussie defence was very aggressive and not about to let them score a try. Ireland’s normal two dimensional game seemed to be reduced to one dimension as, in the absence of Sexton, they did not kick the ball up in the air as much as usual - perhaps this was out of respect to the dangerous Folau. They drove and drove as normal but when this didn’t bring results they didn’t have the answers. The Aussies for their part looked very rusty and seemed to find it difficult to find their normal fluency behind. When they did they looked pretty dangerous out wide where the Irish are vulnerable. The next test between the two sides is sure to be another close one.

And so to England in South Africa. England started with a bang and the Springboks looked half asleep as they conceded three tries and trailed 3-24 almost in the blinking of an eye. I was just reaching for the remote to watch just about anything else when the sleeping lion came to life. South Africa suddenly started to play with tremendous pace and verve and completely overran a bemused England side. They ran in four tries to astonishingly take the lead 29-24. England managed a late penalty goal to trail 29-27 at half time. The second half was not ever going to be such a try fest but South Africa built a decent lead with a try and a couple of penalties and held off England’s late surge to run out winners 42-39.

I didn’t watch the All Blacks against France where it seems New Zealand piled on the points in the latter stages of the match to win 52-11. After having had some liquid refreshment between the England and Wales games, staying up until two in the morning to watch Scotland in Canada was never a realistic proposition. I hear they won comfortably enough 10-48 as you would expect.

Overall it goes down as a victory for the Southern Hemisphere against the Northern Hemisphere 3-1 with only Wales managing a victory. Maybe the tables can be turned next weekend. Let us hope Wales keep up the good work although I guess we can expect another raft of changes from Gatland and the rest of the coaching team.

Sometimes – no always – it’s good to be Welsh! 

As a footnote Wales duly won the second test against Argentina 12-30 to complete a highly successful summer tour. The tour has certainly shown the rich potential in the squad and has improved the strength in depth.

Tariff Free Rugby

Wales playing South Africa at rugby in Washington DC. It doesn’t sound right and at the end of the match you realised that as a PR exercise, if that was what it was, it surely failed miserably to enthuse the hard-bitten US sports fan. The first half an hour was simply dreadful with countless knock-ons and collapsed scrums and indeed almost everything that can be turgid about rugby. In mitigation you could cite the fact that two scratch teams were playing in wet conditions but still…

I know US sports coverage is punctuated by countless commercial breaks but at least there is some decent action in between. On this evidence, Mr Trump certainly doesn’t need to think about tariffs on the import of rugby matches as nobody would want to buy the rights.

Still to the game. After the first half an hour of dross, Wales surprised everyone, themselves included, when they scored two tries and really looked on top. Hal Amos and Tomos Williams found their way to the line following defensive lapses by South Africa. It looked for all the world as if more scores would follow as they led 14-3 at half time.

The second half was really dominated by South Africa as they stepped up their forward power and started to put the Welsh set piece under immense pressure. A panicky Welsh back move led to Ismaiel intercepting a poor pass from Amos and racing in for a try. Wales responded with a penalty but the Springboks were still within a sore at 17-10.

As South Africa pressed, the Welsh defence was heroic at times with plenty of guts and determination on view. One tackle by Hill in the corner will live long in the memory. The Welsh cause was also helped considerably by the number of Springbok errors when a try looked well within their grasp.  The sin binning of Watkin for deliberately batting the ball out of play gave the Springboks an extra man in the backs and they used this to perfection when Mapimpi squeezed in in the corner for a well-worked try. The excellent conversion brought the scores level at 17-17 and there looked to be only one winner as Wales seemed to be wilting under the pressure applied by a Springboks’ pack that had been revitalised by substitutions.

South Africa edged into the lead from a penalty (17-20) and it all looked up for Wales. Just as I had written them off, a dropped high ball gave Wales field position. Although the Boks regained possession, a couple of charged down kicks later, Elias managed to beat the opposition to the loose ball in the South African in-goal area to score a try totally against the run of play. The conversion failed but Wales held a slender 22-20 lead with five minutes or so of the match remaining. Wales made hard work of it but just about managed to hang on to record a victory thanks to a very opportune turnover won by skipper Ellis Jenkins.

I suppose the fact that Wales edged the match in a nail-biting finish helps you to forget the first half an hour. The experimental Welsh team did battle hard and the defence was good. There were plenty of positives among the individual performances too with Ellis Jenkins, Cory Hill and Tomos Williams making telling contributions. The forwards were, however, overpowered in the second half and the pack will need to be beefed up if Wales are to tame the Pumas in the next phase of the tour. I hope that the injury sustained by Steff Evans is not too serious and he makes a speedy recovery.

Come on Wales!