Wales Leave Themselves Too Much To Do

I sat down in front of the TV with a feeling of unease to watch Wales play England at Twickenham yesterday. That unease grew exponentially as Wales made a complete hash of collecting England’s kick off. Somehow Wales extricated themselves from the home side’s early pressure only to try and run the ball from their own twenty two and concede a kickable penalty. This in a lot of ways was the story of the first half. Wales could not get anything going and were turned over and gave away penalties far too easily. In addition, they lost Liam Williams for ten minutes due to a yellow card. Thankfully the Welsh defence was strong and England butchered all their try scoring opportunities. Four penalties from Smith meant that Wales went in at half time 12-0 down and, in reality, it could have been far, far worse. The bright spot for Wales had been some excellent running from Cuthbert who was looking lively on the right wing. For England, Smith was pulling the strings and really does look the complete fly half - dangerous in attack and a nerveless goal kicker.

The second half started in a similar vein with England bossing matters. An awful Welsh lineout near their own line gifted a try to Dombrandt and the English lead was now 17-0. Things were looking desperate.

It was if someone had flicked a switch as Wales suddenly found their mojo and the momentum of the match completely switched. Wales were attacking with a verve that we hadn’t seen before in this match. A great pass from Tomos Williams put Adams over in the corner. The try went unconverted but Wales were off the mark. Wales continued to press and eventually Tompkins forced his was over and with the conversion Wales were back to 17-12. England were looking decidedly rattled. Could the comeback of all comebacks be on?

Ben Youngs came on and steadied the England ship and Wales’ hopes were all but extinguished when they conceded two more kickable penalties which Smith converted with aplomb. The gap had increased to 23-12 and England looked out of reach with time running out.

Wales had not given up and a quick tap penalty from Hardy the substitute Welsh scrum half saw him cross for a try that Biggar converted. There was just enough time left for England to kick off but Wales were in their own twenty two and at 23-19 down needed to score a try. They absolutely tried their best and managed to get into the English half before being turned over by Itoje at a breakdown. You were left wondering what might have been.

A losing bonus point and outscoring England by three tries to one at Twickenham is not to be sneezed at. This certainly did not look remotely likely at half time or when England increased their lead to 17-0. A combination of Wales throwing caution to the winds and England relaxing led to a thrilling fight back. In the end it was penalties conceded and an unreliable lineout that did for Wales.

For Wales, Faletau put in a remarkable performance considering how little rugby he has played. Once the two wings, Cuthbert and Adams, started to see more of the ball they looked dangerous with Cuthbert in particular making a lot of ground. It was a shame that Rees Zammit wasn’t on the bench as his pace might have been a real asset in the frenetic final quarter. Once Wales got on the front foot, they looked a different team the shame of is that they left it too late to snatch an unlikely victory.

Next up for Wales in a couple of weeks time is a visit from France who now look firm favourites for a Grand Slam after a comfortable win at Murrayfield. Wales will have to play like they did in the last quarter for the whole match if they are to trouble Les Bleus. As fans we have to suffer the trials and tribulations of the eight o’clock kick-off on a Friday evening which I for one don’t enjoy at all.

Even though there is no Six Nations rugby next weekend, Pontypool are not scheduled to play a match. The next match will be of Saturday 12^th March when they are at home to Trebanos. The rations of club rugby are pretty thin that is for sure.