Wales Back in the Swim

A great start for Wales with a resounding 42-0 win over the hapless Italians. The Italians were hugely disappointing and made life easy for Wales under their new coaching regime. This makes it really hard to judge where Wales are in terms of preparation for the much tougher games to come.

From my seat at the end of the ground, the Welsh defence did not seem quite so watertight as when Sean Edwards was in charge but, nevertheless, they didn’t concede a single point which speaks for itself.

In attack, Josh Adams continues to collect tries whenever there is a sniff of a chance. New boy Tompkins showed some nice touches and Halfpenny hurried and scurried as he ran the ball back at every opportunity. There were still periods of the game when the attack looked a bit toothless but five tries scored, again, speaks for itself.

The most worrying part of the game was the scrummage which creaked and conceded penalties. This is probably the only area where the Italians gave Wales any trouble. The other teams in the Six Nations would certainly exploit this so perhaps we need to consider a larger tight head prop.

So, all in all, an encouraging start but there will be much sterner tests to come.

I only saw flashes of the Ireland v Scotland across a crowded room but the Scots seemed to be a little unlucky to lose 19-12. Their cause wasn’t helped by Hogg making a pig’s breakfast of touching the ball down over the line with a crucial try up for grabs.

France v. England on Sunday was a full-blooded affair with the French dominating the first half and just about managing to hold out the English in the second half. The French defence was much improved and Sean Edwards has surely had a major part to play in that. The French took their chances to score while a rather cumbersome English attack on the whole did not as the aggressive French defence knocked them back. That England got anywhere close was due to two pieces of individual brilliance from Jonny May.

The first round of matches sees Wales on top having had a far easier ride than the other the other teams. With a quick turnaround before the next matches this should surely be an advantage. On the evidence of the first round, France now look to be favourites and should brush Italy aside next week. Scotland will be really up for it against England at Murrayfield and will be hoping to send the English home to think again. Of course, my focus will be on Dublin where the Welsh will have it all to do. This will be the first real test for Wayne Pivac and wales will need to go up a couple of levels if they are to get anything out of their visit to the Irish capital.

Come on Wales!