RugbyRebels

normanski wrote:Wales confounded the critics. I thought there was no way our eight would hold their own in the scrums or lines out but they did even stealing a couple of Irish throws. Murray and Sexton didn't dominate the game as predicted and this was a pretty good team performance from Wales. It still doesn't mean I want Howley to stay on board.

Agreed on all counts.

Howley deserves his share of the credit for a performance none of us saw coming, but he's still firmly in the red. Let's see what happens in Paris...

Pretty impressive tackle stats (2nd column) and tackle missed stats 3rd)

R EvansP 0 6 2 0
K OwensH 0 14 0 9
T FrancisP 0 7 0 0
J BallL 0 10 0 0
A JonesL 1 14 3 0
S WarburtonF 1 18 1 0
J TipuricF 0 18 0 0
R MoriartyN8 2 13 0 0
S BaldwinR 0 3 0 2
N SmithR 0 3 0 0
S LeeR 0 4 0 0
L CharterisR 0 5 0 0
T FaletauR 0 3 0 0

Thought the Welsh back row were the better unit on today's showing..
Thought North was going to break through for a third.... I think a roasting did home good.

Howley deserves huge credit for sticking with a team that everyone in Wales wanted to change. Maybe he chanced his luck and it paid off...who knows? Fact is, he oversaw a tremendous team effort tonight.

And what an effort it was too. Still don't get Webb's motm when a few, especially Tips played near faultless games but every one of those players stood up tonight.

Think Howley is lucky Ireland don't have a Liam Williams/ Hogg type player. If they did with that possession they would have scored.

Glad to be proved wrong, i didn't think we'd win, that kick up the arse got North back to his best, he needs another one before we play France. Onwards and upwards.

MrK wrote:Much better performance.

Our bench actually made an impact (although IMO G Davies made a poor impact)

Still work to do but will always take a Wales win.

Still not comfortable with Biggar at 10 and 1/2p at 15.

Still think JD2 can improve.

Still think we need a ball carrier in the pack that consistently breaks the line.

That said, cant really fault the effort.

Yeah. I was a bit concerned when davies came on, he just seems like a headless chicken at times.

Sourdust wrote:

normanski wrote:Wales confounded the critics. I thought there was no way our eight would hold their own in the scrums or lines out but they did even stealing a couple of Irish throws. Murray and Sexton didn't dominate the game as predicted and this was a pretty good team performance from Wales. It still doesn't mean I want Howley to stay on board.

Agreed on all counts.

Howley deserves his share of the credit for a performance none of us saw coming, but he's still firmly in the red. Let's see what happens in Paris...

Yup. If we do the same in Paris, including the playing flatter and positively then I will definitely rethink. I really hope we don't revert back. If we do well then I would be less concerned by howley remaining in post, but I don't think I would want him as head coach when gatland departs. Time for fresh ideas and leadership, and howley can be a head coach somewhere else and develop his own ideas, he still has plenty of time.

Sandydragon wrote:

Sourdust wrote:

normanski wrote:Wales confounded the critics. I thought there was no way our eight would hold their own in the scrums or lines out but they did even stealing a couple of Irish throws. Murray and Sexton didn't dominate the game as predicted and this was a pretty good team performance from Wales. It still doesn't mean I want Howley to stay on board.

Agreed on all counts.

Howley deserves his share of the credit for a performance none of us saw coming, but he's still firmly in the red. Let's see what happens in Paris...

Yup. If we do the same in Paris, including the playing flatter and positively then I will definitely rethink. I really hope we don't revert back. If we do well then I would be less concerned by howley remaining in post, but I don't think I would want him as head coach when gatland departs. Time for fresh ideas and leadership, and howley can be a head coach somewhere else and develop his own ideas, he still has plenty of time.

Yeah, great game - great result, scoreline, trycount. All unexpected but welcome.

But I'm taking the more pessimistic view here.

Aside from the radically altered attack - ie flat (and all that by forcing Biggar to play a game he doesn't play, while the expert is on the bench for 79 minutes) - I'm not sure much of this can be repeated with any regularity. Excepting the flat attack, our win came from an amazing, lapse-free defensive effort, an intensity rarely seen, an unusual number of errors from the Irish (some, but not all due to the aforementioned intensity), sheer luck (Biggar charged down in the in-goal area and intercepted twice, all leading to nothing), and the rub of the green re cards shown (ie Sexton controversially in the bin, but Webb not seeing yellow despite bringing a player down with his arm wrapped around his neck - the refs have forgotten they had zero-tolerance on high tackles about 6 weeks ago).

Can this last chance to redeem themselves be repeated time and time again? I doubt it... the pressure's off now, the players know they're safe, under normal circumstances they'll be picked regardless of performance. If this intensity becomes the norm, that's fine, I was wrong, Howley's a great coach. But I doubt it will continue.

Sandydragon wrote:

Sourdust wrote:

normanski wrote:Wales confounded the critics. I thought there was no way our eight would hold their own in the scrums or lines out but they did even stealing a couple of Irish throws. Murray and Sexton didn't dominate the game as predicted and this was a pretty good team performance from Wales. It still doesn't mean I want Howley to stay on board.

Agreed on all counts.

Howley deserves his share of the credit for a performance none of us saw coming, but he's still firmly in the red. Let's see what happens in Paris...

Yup. If we do the same in Paris, including the playing flatter and positively then I will definitely rethink. I really hope we don't revert back. If we do well then I would be less concerned by howley remaining in post, but I don't think I would want him as head coach when gatland departs. Time for fresh ideas and leadership, and howley can be a head coach somewhere else and develop his own ideas, he still has plenty of time.

I thought our front row showed up exceedingly well in the tight with Ken Owens putting in a real shift in the loose. It does take time for young props to bed in and exert crucial influence on the game but it now looks as if ours are starting to gel and give us a solid platform.

Francis could emulate Adam Jones in longevity if he remains relatively injury free. It will be interesting to see how they manage against the heavyweight French front row next week.

It was a great match & a great result but nothing we havn't really seen from this team before. There were worrying signs in the last 15/20mins when we were ahead & seemed happy to sit on the lead, stop playing rugby & box-kick all our possession away. Fair enough it worked yesterday but against the better sides its failed time & time again. We go to Paris with nothing to lose now & can hopefully kick on but for me, we remain in need of some faces in the team & dire need of a new coaching outlook. I jst cannot see it coming from Gatland, Howley & co.

Tumbleweed ............

wayneha50 wrote:It was a great match & a great result but nothing we havn't really seen from this team before. There were worrying signs in the last 15/20mins when we were ahead & seemed happy to sit on the lead, stop playing rugby & box-kick all our possession away. Fair enough it worked yesterday but against the better sides its failed time & time again. We go to Paris with nothing to lose now & can hopefully kick on but for me, we remain in need of some faces in the team & dire need of a new coaching outlook. I jst cannot see it coming from Gatland, Howley & co.

I'm not sure that's true.

Yes, we were hanging on near the end again, but that was due to intense Irish pressure rather than a conscious decision to defend, IMO. When the opportunity arose to go back on the attack, we took it and won the game. In the past, in similar positions, we've seen Wales decide that their defence is doing okay so they'll hold onto what they've got. This time, they sensed the danger and maneuvered themselves out of it, and into the position to put unbearable pressure on the opposition.

That, and the general sense of hunger to attack throughout, is why I'm encouraged, if only with strong reservations. We lost the penalty count 10-4, at home, which is ridiculous; after seemingly years of being unable to score first-phase tries, we suddenly don't score any other kind; and as said above, what the thinking was behind asking Dan Biggar to morph into Sam Davies when Davies was actually in the building, is anyone's guess.

Most of the criticisms of Wales that were valid on Friday afternoon are still valid. But when you turn over the pre-match favourites by three tries to nil, you earn the right to a bit of a break, so I'll be giving them one.

Ireland are a good team, the mistakes they made were down to the pressure we put on them, I'm happy and I think we will go to Paris and win, this team likes playing there, it'll be a great game because France look like they are playing like the France of old. There is no pressure on either team and I expect a Barbarians type try fest.
I'll leave Howler & Co alone this week, mind they will incur my wrath if we should lose next week.

I expect Howley will mix things up. Roberts and Faletau to start. Everything else will be the same of course.

Well done lads. A fantastic win. Great game too, but disappointed that Ireland lost.

I thought Scott Williams and Ken Owens had great games.

Owens would be my pick for Lions hooker.

A very good peformance, we increased the speed of our phase possession to the point we started making some actual ground which was the main reason we won this game imo along with a cast iron defence.

Not sure why they think Biggar can play flat, he seems to take the wrong options, like throwing the ball directly to Sexton.

Numbers wrote:A very good peformance, we increased the speed of our phase possession to the point we started making some actual ground which was the main reason we won this game imo along with a cast iron defence.

Not sure why they think Biggar can play flat, he seems to take the wrong options, like throwing the ball directly to Sexton.

He didn't look comfortable that flat, and there was still an element of pre programming to his phase play.