Wales vs NZ Team announcements

[Sandydragon]

Fourth try for wales.

Plenty of debut caps today.

Three minutes to make the gap respectable

[Sandydragon]

And that was just too easy. We can’t play teams like this with a player down for so long. Our discipline needs to improve.

[pompey-zebra]

Goal kicking today has been first rate by both fly halves

At least Evans missed this one not last week's!

Another 50 pointer conceded. This second half was some good moments scattered amongst a shed load of all black pressure.

[Sandydragon]

Goal kicking today has been first rate by both fly halves

At least Evans missed this one not last week's!

Another 50 pointer conceded. This second half was some good moments scattered amongst a shed load of all black pressure.

There was one point where our defence was driving them backwards, the Thomas made a no arms tackle and got carded.

Clearly that wasn’t a full strength AB team either and we still conceded fifty points which is a massive concern. Our attack looks better than it has for ages but we need to tighten up, particularly if we are co caistenoy only getting 30-35% possession.

[Buggaluggs]

Daft mistakes, poor kickoff capture, and terrible aerial play - often all three in one play - doomed us. Nice attacking moves and tries, but i figure we shipped 21 points unnecessarily. That could have been a 26-31 which sounds way better. Albeit against a pickup team who have barely practiced before.

[UKHamlet]

We got four tries, but leaked seven. That was, believe it or not, our highest score against the ABs. I haven't seen the match because I'm away in Scotland at a wedding. From the comments I glean we put up a fight for fifty minutes, albeit a rearguard action, but it was against the weakest NZ in a generation. Any generation. I'm glad Joe Hawkins went well, hes been the best prospect at IC for donkey's years. Did Inspector Morse get on? If so, how did he go?

We still appear to need a fullback who can outjump a hobbit. Meanwhile, despite my antipathy towards Rogers, you can't argue with a hattrick. Maybe we can persuade LRZ?

Mann is our six for the foreseeable future, but unless he learns the jackaling trade he's ineffective at seven.

Pleased the Carré comeback is working, but Assirrati has completely surprised me. I thought he was too small.

Anything worth looking out for when I watch the match on Monday?

[Graigwen]

Morse got a cameo. Looked OK. Deaves was good I thought. Mann was also good. LRZ is getting better now his USA holiday is over.

Carre was good but not flawless. Assirati was again good. Thomas was careless, Griffin still well below his supposed "high ceiling".

Centres were much better, but still outclassed.

Plumtree still has difficulty being alert, he got a very stupid yellow card.

It could have been much worse. Maybe there are green shoots to be seen.

As for next week.......
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[Graigwen]

Why is our lineout so poor. It is not all down to lake.
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[UKHamlet]

Quite honestly, we need to bulk up. LRZ could give the players a few tips, but quite honestly, we need a few really big guys out there. The centres are tall, but you could never say they're intimidating, and our locks are both beanpoles. None of our back row are seriously muscular and our tightheads are both hobbits. At a minimum you need one lock who enjoys ripping heads off shoulders, a TH prop who can carry a Landrover on one shoulder, and an OC who can do 1000 pressups on broken glass while holding a burning brazier in his teeth. Ideally, a FB who can command the air would help.

[pompey-zebra]

We got four tries, but leaked seven. That was, believe it or not, our highest score against the ABs. I haven't seen the match because I'm away in Scotland at a wedding. From the comments I glean we put up a fight for fifty minutes, albeit a rearguard action, but it was against the weakest NZ in a generation. Any generation. I'm glad Joe Hawkins went well, hes been the best prospect at IC for donkey's years. Did Inspector Morse get on? If so, how did he go?

We still appear to need a fullback who can outjump a hobbit. Meanwhile, despite my antipathy towards Rogers, you can't argue with a hattrick. Maybe we can persuade LRZ?

Mann is our six for the foreseeable future, but unless he learns the jackaling trade he's ineffective at seven.

Pleased the Carré comeback is working, but Assirrati has completely surprised me. I thought he was too small.

Anything worth looking out for when I watch the match on Monday?

To be fair Wales put up a fight for the whole 80 minutes, but the game was just only close for 50. One good thing Tandy seems to have done is instill a battling mentality. I've seen none of the capitulation of the England game.

The thing that frustrates me ( and I've mentioned it in earlier posts) is being unable to exert sustained pressure. As soon as we get a score we made a mistake which let the AB's in. Similarly, basic errors such as knock ons or not straight line outs when in good positions occurred just as pressure was building. As you say this isnt a vintage AB side ( though I'd be happy if Wales were as good!) and it would have been interesting to see how close the game could have been if we hadnt kept giving them chances to hit back as soon as we'd scored.
Compare that with Ireland v SA. Even when down to 12, Ireland made the Bokke work for everything. Granted much of it was cynical ( and they could have had more in the bin) but they didn't gift SA anything.

To end on a higher note though, I'm increasingly impressed with Dan Edwards . He looks sharp and his kicking was excellent.

[Graigwen]

Yes, Dan Edwards looks increasingly good. He is a long way off perfect but does pay attention to what is going on round him and gives the impression of learning all the time.

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[Sandydragon]

Or half backs have been a positive from the AIs and they should be allowed to co time, injury permitting, into the six nations.

I sense as well that our starting centre partnership now needs to be given more game time. There are other players who will force the issue but our midfield from Saturday deserve some more game time together.

It’s not all doom and gloom but we need to find a way to manage our lack of physicality which isn’t going to resolve itself overnight.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Although this was a weak NZ, there are positives, mainly that we were able to score 4 tries despite 33% possession. So we can make things happen. With parity in possession we'd have had an extra 10+ minutes with the ball, and them 10 less, and that would have made a big difference to the scoreline. Add to that the fussy ref (no excuses, she's from the URC so we should be used to her) and less time in defence would have meant less penalties.

A big part of possession lost was our continuing lineout frailty: much like the previous matches we only won 80% of ours. Just not good enough. Lake needs to improve but it can't just be him. At the same time we put zero pressure on the opposition: exactly like Arg and Japan, they won 100% of their lineouts. This is just not good enough - it was like a scrum put-in for them, a dead cert attacking platform. Lineout has been a problem for Wales for decades - we need something to change here.

Again, the scrum was fine although there were only 7 in the whole match!? So this is a positive.

High ball: a bit better than previous weeks but still a definite weakness. Could do with a taller/better high ball operator at FB.

Defence: we had to do a lot of it, so the tackle numbers are high for everyone. Jenkins, Mann and Plumtree completed the most tackles at 21 each but Daf only missed 2, the others missed 4 each. Plumtree was also turned over 4 times (and got that yellow, of course), so although be brings a lot, it comes at a cost. Lake and Deaves got 20, missing 0 and 3, so that makes Lake our best tackler. Deaves had a decent debut, not a star but not out of place. I would like to have seen more of Morse - he didn't put a foot wrong but it was just a cameo appearance.

Hawkins showed defensive problems, completing 12 tackles but missing 6. Llewellyn was solid again, getting 14, missing 2. I would give Hawkins another chance and definitely stick with Llewellyn, who was excellent in attack. It would have been nice to have had Hennessey on the bench to see him before he goes back to Bath, but that will have to wait.

LRZ got the most line breaks (of both teams) with 3, and Rogers next with 2. Unfortunately we don't have LRZ next week after that world-class dive into the corner and that stunning high ball take. Rogers obviously had quite a game with the hat-trick, although I'd say most wingers would have finished off 2 of them, given the chance. Handing that bouncing offload from Edwards for the other one was very well done.

Care still has yet to prove his worth, although has not been a liability either. Gareth Thomas's no-arms tackle was careless although it was just a matter of time before someone went to the bin.

Edwards had a fantastic game, making at least 2 of the tries and kicking perfectly. He's the man. Obviously Tomos is too, so at least we have a nailed down halfback pairing . Except we lose Williams next week .


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