An exit strategist?

[Sandydragon]

Apparently, South Africa are appointing Brendan Venter as their 'defence and exit strategies' coach. Given how badly our exit strategy was against France (frankly if we had won those restarts we would have won) do Wales need to consider some specialist support? Given how often you see teams concede a score immediately after scoring, is this an area which needs specific attention?

[joshfishkins]

You may have a point, but if we could score tries following a break - simple follow the runner stuff I mean - that would go a long way to ensuring we win more than we lose.

[Sandydragon]

You may have a point, but if we could score tries following a break - simple follow the runner stuff I mean - that would go a long way to ensuring we win more than we lose.

Aye, that too.

[ALunpg]

Defend..Exit..Transition..

It's a new language but are we any better at it ...

[Sandydragon]

Isthere any part of our game at the moment that we would rate as strong, or even adequate/ The lineout has improved and defensively I would suggest that we are decent. Otherwise, Im struggling to think of any particular area.

[Son of Mathonwy]

We are still strong defensively.
Lineout and scrum are decent (which for the lineout is a massive improvement from a few years ago, even if we rarely disrupt or steal effectively).
I don't recall how our "exit" strategies (=get the ball out of our 22) worked for the whole 6N. I don't remember them being a massive problem (but maybe I'm just blotting out painful memories).
Closing out matches hasn't been too bad. Obviously England was a fail on this score, but I saw that as our defence being stretched too far rather than a failure of composure.

Attack is the problem. Aside from a couple of planned moves our attack is slow and predictable. Rather than building up pressure we seem to run out of steam the longer we have the ball. Only Webb and Sanjay are willing and able to mix things up, but not enough.

[joshfishkins]

England was a total lack of composure. Davies (G) should have sent the forwards in one more time to allow a better position for Biggar. JD2 should not have recieved the ball at all (and should have leathered it off the park). The blame Cuthbert got was a little unfair as he was not the only one to blame.

The whole plan of keeping the ball in play is fatally flawed imo, and has cost us many close games over the last few years.

[Sandydragon]

England was a total lack of composure. Davies (G) should have sent the forwards in one more time to allow a better position for Biggar. JD2 should not have recieved the ball at all (and should have leathered it off the park). The blame Cuthbert got was a little unfair as he was not the only one to blame.

The whole plan of keeping the ball in play is fatally flawed imo, and has cost us many close games over the last few years.

Three close games against the Aussies spring to mind.

[joshfishkins]

England was a total lack of composure. Davies (G) should have sent the forwards in one more time to allow a better position for Biggar. JD2 should not have recieved the ball at all (and should have leathered it off the park). The blame Cuthbert got was a little unfair as he was not the only one to blame.

The whole plan of keeping the ball in play is fatally flawed imo, and has cost us many close games over the last few years.

Three close games against the Aussies spring to mind.

Exactly.

[Son of Mathonwy]

England was a total lack of composure. Davies (G) should have sent the forwards in one more time to allow a better position for Biggar. JD2 should not have recieved the ball at all (and should have leathered it off the park). The blame Cuthbert got was a little unfair as he was not the only one to blame.

The whole plan of keeping the ball in play is fatally flawed imo, and has cost us many close games over the last few years.

Three close games against the Aussies spring to mind.

Exactly.

Yes, our end of game composure is dreadful against the Aussies. I don't see the England game as the same thing because we were pressured so much for the whole match. That they cracked our defence right at the end was just a timing thing IMO - we've done the same to them in the past.

[Sandydragon]

Three close games against the Aussies spring to mind.

Exactly.

Yes, our end of game composure is dreadful against the Aussies. I don't see the England game as the same thing because we were pressured so much for the whole match. That they cracked our defence right at the end was just a timing thing IMO - we've done the same to them in the past.

I agree that it wasn't just mental frailty against England; our failure was largely due to our inability to score points when we had the opportunity to do so. But that ball should not have been given to a left footer, who shouldn't have kicked it down field and then embarrassed one of our worst defensive backs.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Exactly.

Yes, our end of game composure is dreadful against the Aussies. I don't see the England game as the same thing because we were pressured so much for the whole match. That they cracked our defence right at the end was just a timing thing IMO - we've done the same to them in the past.

I agree that it wasn't just mental frailty against England; our failure was largely due to our inability to score points when we had the opportunity to do so. But that ball should not have been given to a left footer, who shouldn't have kicked it down field and then embarrassed one of our worst defensive backs.

All true. And it's not the first time running around Cuthbert has proved to be a good end of game strategy.

[Digby]

Why shouldn't the ball have gone to a left footer?

[Sandydragon]

Why shouldn't the ball have gone to a left footer?

Bad angle to get some distance into touch, assuming that JD2 was intending to kick for touch, I think he just went for distance because that has been programmed into them. If biggar had been in that position he would have had a better angle.

[Digby]

Why shouldn't the ball have gone to a left footer?

Bad angle to get some distance into touch, assuming that JD2 was intending to kick for touch, I think he just went for distance because that has been programmed into them. If biggar had been in that position he would have had a better angle.

Fair enough. Though for just getting it into touch it it'd have been easier to charge down a right footer. I don't know how much he went for distance and how much he was out off by Sinckler doing a good job of staying aware to JD being left footed

[Sandydragon]

Before the ball got released, it should have gone through another forward phase. But it didn't and the rest is history. If we had somehow won that game, and he French one, then 4 wins would have glossed over some real issues, most notably our play with ball in hand. We had opportunities in all 3 of the matches we lost to attack but failed to mount anything meaningful, particularly in the second halves.