Déjà Déjà Déjà Vu

After last Tuesday’s embarrassment in Waikato where a Wales “seconds”  were humbled by Waikato “seconds”, I was more than concerned about the senior Wales team’s prospects against the All Blacks in Wellington yesterday. You have to watch though….just in case.

The first half, as ever, was close and hard fought with Wales matching the All Blacks for intensity and spirit. Wales managed to score a good try when Wyn Jones popped up on the wing to cross in the corner to level the scores to 10-10 at half time. For all their undoubted passion, there were still worrying signs for wales as the home ball carriers almost always managed to evade the first tackle to make extra yards. It is noticeable that both backs and forwards have the ability to step sideways just before contact to avoid the full force of the intended hit. For Wales only Faletau and Liam Williams seem to possess this skill.

The second half suddenly erupted after about 50 minutes or so as the All Blacks, bolstered by a substitute or two, cut loose. They turned up the pace and power a notch or three and in the space of twelve minutes any Welsh hopes of a victory evaporated. How do the All Blacks do this? It is as if Hansen flicks a switch that gives them all an electric shock. I do note that the All Blacks seem to bring their replacements one by one with a five minute gap between them from the fiftieth minute onwards. Wales seem to bring them on en masse usually after the horse has bolted. A rout was very definitely on the cards and I was thinking of taking refuge behind the sofa.

To their great credit, Wales refused to buckle and even had the temerity to score a couple of decent tries as the All Blacks seemed to throttle back. The final score of 36-22 is a fairer reflection of the tremendous effort and no little skill that Wales demonstrated. Wales were yet again gallant losers and the wait for a victory goes on.

So to matters parochial and Pontypool’s prospects for next season. I was delighted to see that we seem to have retained the majority of last season’s squad. Hopefully the team will continue to develop and have a really good season. It is a shame that there is no promotion as a carrot but all we can do is keep playing good rugby.

I am amazed that the Championship is now reduced to just twelve teams – twenty two games is not enough to fill a season. With fourteen teams there were big gaps in the fixture list in the autumn and spring this will only make matters worse. The lack of depth in Welsh rugby was cruelly exposed by the Waikato Chiefs – we need more grass roots rugby rather than less.  Maybe there is going to be some exotic cup competition where we get to play teams from Georgia and Romania.

I guess I will have to turn on the TV again next Saturday morning…. just in case!

By the way England beat Australia again in case you haven’t heard.