15. Leigh Halfpenny – Remarkably, he didn’t appear to make one tackle from the official stats. A stat that speaks to the general insipidness of the other overall game. 4/10
14. Liam Williams – Apart from one up and under he regathered, he never got into the game. 4/10
13. Jon Davies – There are a number of things wrong with the current Welsh team, but one of the chief reasons is that the remaining ‘Golden Generation’ players are either no longer standing up, or probably more likely, are just too long in the tooth. Davies was always a decent enough attacker, but World Class defender, and he’s neither at the moment. Managed to miss 4 tackles . 3/10
12. Owen Watkin – Was marginally better than Davies, but only just. When he wasn’t turning over ball, he was going nowhere with it. 3/10
11. Josh Adams – Caught glimpses of his ability, but another one who failed to ignite. 4/10
10. Dan Biggar – When you’ve got a plan, and you’re generally moving forward, ou can carry an attacking black-hole at 10. However, when everyone looks like they’ve just met for the first time just before kickoff, then a lack of creativity at 10 is a killer. Given how desperate this is becoming for Pivac, I can’t help but think he’ll roll the dice in upcoming games, and lucky for him, he’s actually got a slew of attacking 10’s at his disposal. 3/10
9. Gareth Davies – Slow off the base of the ruck, his general play had a big part in our stultifying gameplay. 3/10
8. Taulupe Faletau – Another one like Jiffy Jnr who is working off past reputation. Has done, and continues to do, the square root of fuckall since return from injury. I feel he’s still young enough to maybe come back, but it’s not particularly obvious whether he will at this stage 2/10
7. James Davies – I thought he had a couple of harsh calls today (very much ref interpretations as France got away with same sort off stuff Davies got pinged for today). However, his difficulties were microcosm of Wales’ current inability at the ruck area (which is actually the root of all our current problems. Note, the pack all get an extra 1 off for being so poor at ruck time). 2/10
6. Shane Lewis-Hughes – In the midst of all the shit was one rough diamond. On his debut, he managed a cracking 20+ tackles, and gave everything he could. One for the future. 5/10
5. Alun Wyn Jones - The captain put in a solid shift. It says a lot of our current predicament that a 35 year old is still one of our best forwards. Did give away a load of penalties though. 3/10
4. Will Rowland – Was there to give us extra ballast, which he did, but that’s about all he did. Managed just 4 tackles and nothing in attack. 2/10
3. Tom Francis – Creaked heavily in the scrum, never carried, and barely talked. 2/10
2. Ryan Elias – Poor in everything he did. In a massive shitstorm, he manages to win the prize of being the worst on the pitch with his lineout throwining 1/10
1. Rhys Carre – In Rob Evans, we had a massive lump who never seemed to carry his weight, and I hope Carre isn’t the same. I feel it’s probably more do doo with the tactics and generally poor play from the team, but he didn’t do a lot this game. 2/10
Team Average: 2.8/10 (I think it's the lowest score I've ever given)
Tactics Talk
What tactics? It’s almost impossible to see what is being attempted at the moment. As such, I’m going to instead talk about what we did well during the Gatland era to highlight just how badly its gone now.
As noted above, the root of all evils at the moment is our ruck. We’re ineffective on defence, and are struggling immensely to maintain our own ball, to the degree that even if we do eventually secure the ball, it’s extremely slow. It’s probably worth mentioning that lots of people would put that down to the loss of Edwards, but it may be time to give McBryde his dues. Under him, we were one of the top rucking teams on the planet (I suppose the fact that Leinster, who can pay for just about any coach on the planet, have for his services means he was clearly half decent).
Our defence continues to be a shambles. It doesn’t take a lot these days to break us down, and we seem to be constantly caught between two defensive patterns.
I suppose the zenith of our performance is in attack as it was the one area that seemed most rpe for expansion after the Gatland years. As it is, we’re worse than anything we put out under Gatland.
All in all, there’s not a lot to cheer about. I don’t know if it says more about Scotland, or our underlying ability to get better, that Scotland only managed to beat us by a few points when we put in probably our worst performance since the Gyppo-caust. I suppose the upcoming games will tell us.
Jeff's All New and Exasperated Wales Ratings v Scotland
To be fair to us, though, Geoff, we have a fine tradition of failing to show up for away games. The fact that today we managed to screw the nut and grind out the win is a massive step forward for us, defensively and more importantly psychologically.
It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.
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Hal Jordan
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I have absolutely no dog in this fight but there's something very comforting that this thread can exist once more.
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Jeff the Bear
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You're right...maybe I should take another point off everyone!
I'm not going to shit on someone's win, so I will say that having been where you've been, then I agree that sometimes it doesn't matter how uou do it, getting the monkey off your back is more important than how you do it.
Just as in France, Wales look lacklustre tired and devoid of ideas and lack direction, as things stand Wales will struggle against Georgia and like Scotland will fancy their chances.
You have to say Penny Davies Toby three players who were our leading lights, played badly.
The hard question is, who is to blame because the team lack motivation or desire, something is badly wrong, the players must take some responsibility but our play looks rudderless, I have not seen Wales play so badly for years and I fear against England and Ireland we will get a royal pasting.
You have to say Penny Davies Toby three players who were our leading lights, played badly.
The hard question is, who is to blame because the team lack motivation or desire, something is badly wrong, the players must take some responsibility but our play looks rudderless, I have not seen Wales play so badly for years and I fear against England and Ireland we will get a royal pasting.
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Line6 HXFX
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I tend to think when we play that badly we usually bounce back.clive wrote: ↑Sat Oct 31, 2020 6:19 pm Just as in France, Wales look lacklustre tired and devoid of ideas and lack direction, as things stand Wales will struggle against Georgia and like Scotland will fancy their chances.
You have to say Penny Davies Toby three players who were our leading lights, played badly.
The hard question is, who is to blame because the team lack motivation or desire, something is badly wrong, the players must take some responsibility but our play looks rudderless, I have not seen Wales play so badly for years and I fear against England and Ireland we will get a royal pasting.
Our problem is when they think they are good. It all goes to their heads.
When they think they are shite, hopeless etc, right at their lowest ebb... they play like demons.