Team for Italy

[morepork]

That's karma for being such a chippy little prick.

[Buggaluggs]

That's karma for being such a chippy little prick.

Did you get a forum ban or something?

[Spiffy]

The Italian FB Minozzi is the find of the Tournament.

[Banquo]

The Italian FB Minozzi is the find of the Tournament.

He's great isnt he? The Italian backs could be a handful with some good half backs. As MP said, Parisse's best days are behind him, so glad he is hanging up his boots.

[normanski]

That was the BP win we needed to get into second place ahead of England by one point and a superior points difference. It wasn’t pretty in the first half as we wore down the Italians but the combinations worked better in the second half.

A few selection headaches for next week.

[Sourdust]

It was very weird how the pundits were talking at half-time as if the score was 17-7 to Italy, not Wales. Expectations on Wales are all very well, but Italy are regularly in touch at the half even against the very best sides. It might have been deflation after the early flurry suggested 100 points, but they should know that ALWAYS happens with Wales.

It wasn't one for the video collection, in fact it was quite frustratingly turgid at times. But a scratch side, down to 14 men for 20 minutes, never looked remotely like losing and got the bonus point. That's got to go down as a decent shift by Wales.

But we'll never beat anyone decent with that amount of ball, and Gatland knows it. There's no point having a ball-playing back row if you can't win the ball off Italy. So I would expect a more pragmatic balance for France, with Owens, Evans & AWJ starting and Biggar probably on the bench.

[Sandydragon]

We need to get more possession. We can’t win a game with 30 percent of th ball and giving th opposition so much through poor kicking.

Some good stuff in there, but some poor as well.

The good:
Nicky Smith. Decent shift from a reserve prop, real nuisance at the breakdown.
Dee. Plenty of energy.
Second row. On the positive side.
Cubby and Tipuric were a pain for the Italians all afternoon. Not sure they are a great combination but individually they played well.
Faletau is back.
North looks back on form.
Watkins had some nice touches, one for the future.
Parkes was very good.
Anscombe had some nice touches

Poor:
Still don’t think that Francis is an international tighthead.
Davies does some good stuff but equally has some real brain farts,
Anscombe had some brain farts.
Liam Williams was a long way off his best. Ran the ball back but seemed to kill the move on a number of occasions. Some of his kicking was terrible.
Stef Evans. I’m not sold yet. Most of his grubbed kicks just gave the ball away, he runs away from support as well. Potential is there but in the lead up to the next RWC, I don’t think he is there yet. I still prefer Amos.

Game plan. We seem to be confused. Are we still kicking away all of our possession and relying on defence, without Lydiate and Roberts, or are we keeping the ball in hand? For much of the game we seem to try and let the opposition run at us, then we try to play rugby in the last 20.

[Sandydragon]

Overall though, a largely reserve side beat th Italians comfortably. Plenty to be happy with, but I suspect we will have the team vs Ireland back next week.

[Buggaluggs]

Agree regarding Steff Evans. I think he (and Scot WIlliams) are both among the world's best against mediocre opposition. But their tricks don't work so well against top drawer players. They kill moves because they try things that usually work against poor defences, but simply bury the move against the best defences. Evans has time to graduate to the top level, but right now I'd prefer Liam Williams or Amos on that wing if ½p is at fb.

[Sandydragon]

Agree regarding Steff Evans. I think he (and Scot WIlliams) are both among the world's best against mediocre opposition. But their tricks don't work so well against top drawer players. They kill moves because they try things that usually work against poor defences, but simply bury the move against the best defences. Evans has time to graduate to the top level, but right now I'd prefer Liam Williams or Amos on that wing if ½p is at fb.

Aye. Evans willl have plenty of opportunities post the next RWC but right now, Amos offers more all round.

[Sourdust]

Steff WAS offering an all-round game for the Scarlets, but I tend to agree he's yet to fire for Wales. Not in any sense a BAD international winger, but not yet a great one either. That said, he put in a tidy shift as emergency scrum-half today.

[Numbers]

Steff WAS offering an all-round game for the Scarlets, but I tend to agree he's yet to fire for Wales. Not in any sense a BAD international winger, but not yet a great one either. That said, he put in a tidy shift as emergency scrum-half today.

He's beaten more defenders than anyone else in the competition hasn't he?

[Numbers]

We need to get more possession. We can’t win a game with 30 percent of th ball and giving th opposition so much through poor kicking.

Some good stuff in there, but some poor as well.

The good:
Nicky Smith. Decent shift from a reserve prop, real nuisance at the breakdown.
Dee. Plenty of energy.
Second row. On the positive side.
Cubby and Tipuric were a pain for the Italians all afternoon. Not sure they are a great combination but individually they played well.
Faletau is back.
North looks back on form.
Watkins had some nice touches, one for the future.
Parkes was very good.
Anscombe had some nice touches

Poor:
Still don’t think that Francis is an international tighthead.
Davies does some good stuff but equally has some real brain farts,
Anscombe had some brain farts.
Liam Williams was a long way off his best. Ran the ball back but seemed to kill the move on a number of occasions. Some of his kicking was terrible.
Stef Evans. I’m not sold yet. Most of his grubbed kicks just gave the ball away, he runs away from support as well. Potential is there but in the lead up to the next RWC, I don’t think he is there yet. I still prefer Amos.

Game plan. We seem to be confused. Are we still kicking away all of our possession and relying on defence, without Lydiate and Roberts, or are we keeping the ball in hand? For much of the game we seem to try and let the opposition run at us, then we try to play rugby in the last 20.

According to the official stats we had 45% possession and 49% territory so I'm not sure where you have got 30% from.

The only real concern I have over this game was the amount of penalties conceded, Gareth Davies, Liam Williams, Tomas Francis and Nicky Smith all conceded 2 apiece, this kept Italy in the game and a more clinical side would have turned some of those opportunities into tries.

[Sandydragon]

It was about30 % in the first half, the same situation, actually worse, when we played England and Ireland. We have to be competitive for 80 minutes or we will get buried, that’s the point.

[Sandydragon]

Steff WAS offering an all-round game for the Scarlets, but I tend to agree he's yet to fire for Wales. Not in any sense a BAD international winger, but not yet a great one either. That said, he put in a tidy shift as emergency scrum-half today.

He's beaten more defenders than anyone else in the competition hasn't he?

He can often beat the first tackler, but we often lost possessions soon afterwards. On Saturday it was at least two poor grubbers and one turnover.

[Numbers]

Steff WAS offering an all-round game for the Scarlets, but I tend to agree he's yet to fire for Wales. Not in any sense a BAD international winger, but not yet a great one either. That said, he put in a tidy shift as emergency scrum-half today.

He's beaten more defenders than anyone else in the competition hasn't he?

He can often beat the first tackler, but we often lost possessions soon afterwards. On Saturday it was at least two poor grubbers and one turnover.

He got turned over twice, as did Liam Williams and Hadleigh Parkes, Faletau was turned over 3 times, he made 4 clean breaks and beat 3 defenders, Parkes beat 7 but Evans was the 2nd best performer in this regard. You would expect someone making clean breaks to get turned over more regularly as they are generally running away from support. I assume one of the two grubber kicks you refer to was the one which would have been a try had it not been for Gareth Davies overrunning the play?

[Sandydragon]

No. That one st least had a red shirt vaguely near to the ball.

The fact is that despite plenty of regional promise, he hasn’t translated that to the international environment yet. He probably will in due course, but Amos did very well against the best teams in the world on the AIs, right now with the RWC not too far away, Amos is the better option.

Evens at times feels like he is trying too hard to do something exceptional.

[Numbers]

No. That one st least had a red shirt vaguely near to the ball.

The fact is that despite plenty of regional promise, he hasn’t translated that to the international environment yet. He probably will in due course, but Amos did very well against the best teams in the world on the AIs, right now with the RWC not too far away, Amos is the better option.

Evens at times feels like he is trying too hard to do something exceptional.

Well the coaches don't agree with you and the stats bear that out, I think Amos is a very good player but I see him as a 15, that is where he has started to play for the Dragons so you can guarantee that has been a move mooted by the Welsh management, at the start of the campaign I would have selected Amos in front of Evans as he was our best back in the AIs imo (mind you there wasn't a great deal of competition for that accolade), but as they have decided to go down the route of Evans it would seem a bit pointless to chop and change now.

I think Amos will be a backup player come the next World Cup and probably our 15 for the 2023 World Cup, tho injuries could change all of that of course.

[Sourdust]

I have no problem persisting with Evans as I still believe he's the real deal; but I think, with hands on hearts, we'd all hoped for a little more from him in this tournament. He's established himself and deservedly so, but not to the point where he's undroppable. I think there's a case for trying someone else against France. Amos, Adams, or even ½p if Gats wants to offer Sanjay a shot at redemption. But if Steff is deemed worthy of another chance, fair enough.

[Sandydragon]

To be fair, some people will push Evans, others will suggest Amos. Both have bags of potential and can offer real value.

Nice situation to be in where we actually have some options for a change.

[Renniks]

I think you should stick with Cuthbert for the foreseeable future.

Oh and Roberts in the centre

And Biggar and Halfpenny starting

If you could also find a more turgid 9, not play Davies at 13, and lose some of the talent you have in the backrow

Thanks

[Numbers]

Whoops wrong thread