Woeful Wales Lose Their Way

This is the one home game of the season that I decided to watch from the comfort of my couch and I was mightily glad that I did. This was a wretched Welsh performance against the big and athletic Fijians. True Wales won but we made really heavy weather out of what should have been a far more comfortable victory. This was meant to be an opportunity for Wales to put down a strong marker for next year’s RWC but they certainly failed to do that.

All the talk before the game was of control, structure and not turning over possession as the way to beat the Fijians. It started so well with Wales doing exactly that and scoring two good tries from North and Cuthbert but then it all started to go wrong. The Fijians started to put in some big hits and Wales started to lose their grip on the ball. This gave the South Sea Islanders all the opportunity they needed to power down the field. Fiji should have scored at least one try but had to be content with two penalties. Wales for their part continued to huff and puff and managed to force a penalty try when Fiji transgressed at a driving maul close to their line. Wales were leading 17-6 with Fiji down to 14 men at the end of the first half. We should coast home from here, I thought.

Nothing could be further from the truth however, as even though Wales had a clear advantage in terms of possession and territory, they could not convert it into points as they made error after error.  Fiji played most of the half with 14 men following a second yellow card for their loose head prop Ma’afu which made the home side’s inability to score even more frustrating. In Wales’ defence they did actually cross the line twice only for what looked like good tries to be disallowed by the TMO. Worse was to come when the giant Fijian centre Nadolo intercepted a pass from Priestland and galloped away to score from his own 22 yard line. Wales were definitely hanging on grimly for the last few minutes with the final result a narrow 17-13 victory.

I am sure the game will be analysed to death today but I found the Welsh lack of control of the game quite alarming. Yes we had made 8 changes but we certainly should not have become something of a shambles as the game progressed. Gatland seems reluctant to use his bench and you wonder why he did not make changes at half back. With the honourable exception of Liam Williams, I don’t think anyone of the Welsh players can be happy with their performance. If Wales play like that next week against the All Blacks I am sure that I would have to turn to strong drink before half time.

Next week’s team to face the New Zealand will clearly be affected by the casualty list but surely Liam Williams must play and we need another goal kicker (Halfpenny) to play. One thing is for sure Wales will face a mighty challenge and they will need to play with as much conviction and fire as the Scots showed against the same opponents.

I watched some parts of all the other games played on Saturday and I have to say the Welsh game was the least exciting even though all four games were close affairs. The South Africans bounced back with a deserved victory over what Lancaster keeps calling his inexperienced England team. Perhaps the game of the day, though, was the France v Australia game and you would not want to write either of those sides for the RWC next year if they play like that.

On the Pontypool front, congratulations to Ben Parry on playing for the Barbarians and great to see that Steve Jones was awarded his Welsh cap albeit posthumously.

Two weeks down and only another three weeks before Pontypool’s next league match.