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.