RugbyRebels

UKHamlet wrote:

Son of Mathonwy wrote:Wales team: Liam Williams; Louis Rees-Zammit, George North, Nick Tompkins, Josh Adams; Dan Biggar, Kieran Hardy; Gareth Thomas, Ryan Elias, Dillon Lewis, Will Rowlands, Adam Beard, Dan Lydiate, Tommy Reffell, Taulupe Faletau.

Replacements: Dewi Lake, Wyn Jones, Sam Wainwright, Alun Wyn Jones, Josh Navidi, Tomos Williams, Gareth Anscombe, Owen Watkin

Just the one change for Cuthbert. How long will Biggar and Lewis last?

Biggar is definitely a mistake. Fit he plays every time given the form he's in, but he looked well out of sorts just before he went off and it didn't look like the kind of injury that you come back from in a week. Having said that, I would play Dan Lydiate if he only had one working leg.

I don't know about Lewis. How badly was he injured?

Arm in a sling after the match . . . hopefully fit now?

Hope Lewis doesn’t have to go off early although the rookie replacement looks as if he could develop into a very useful squad member.

SKY Bet have SA at 9/1 on for this and Wales 5/1 with 20/1 for the draw, the handicap betting suggests they think SA will win by 13 points. I'm not so sure about that, the Springboks side in the 1st test looked rusty and they've had no more game time together whereas we have had relative continuity, if they are as disjointed as they have been in the first two tests we're in with a shout I reckon.

To be fair I’ve never seen an accurate prediction in the fresh/rested vs cohesive/battle-hardened debate, but it does feel like the momentum is with you and a 13 point handicap doesn’t seem right.

Numbers wrote:SKY Bet have SA at 9/1 on for this and Wales 5/1 with 20/1 for the draw, the handicap betting suggests they think SA will win by 13 points. I'm not so sure about that, the Springboks side in the 1st test looked rusty and they've had no more game time together whereas we have had relative continuity, if they are as disjointed as they have been in the first two tests we're in with a shout I reckon.

True the Boks looked rusty in the first test. A fair bit of that was down to the play of their half backs, de Klerk and Jantjies, who was particularly poor. Now the hard nosed Pollard is back, de Klerk gone, and SA are fielding a strong first XV, I doubt that they will be as bad again. That is a fearsome pack with a great bench. Wales have played with a lot of spirit and are in with a chance. I hope they are willing to bring on Anscombe early if they need a bit of attacking spark that Biggar can't provide. Wales' best chance is to play it fast and loose and get the ball into the mitts of LRZ at every opportunity. He can out-gas anyone on the field.

The tectonic plates have just moved in the SH with Ireland beating an often hapless Kiwi side 32-22.

You know you have them on the run when they whistle and cat call Sexton when he was taking penalty kicks and conversions. They’re such bad losers and I hope this is start of their slow decline before RWC.

Let’s hope we can emulate Ireland and do the same to the Bokkes.

Same catcalls and whistling from the Aussie crowd. Such bad losers but it didn’t do them much good, they still lost.

The tectonic plates have moved a little further north.

Last week we won a game that we probably should have lost. The week before it was the reverse. I have been pleasantly surprised how well we have played as a team There are not any real points of contention with todays team, partly as we are scraping the barrel with what is available.

To be honest, even a fairly big defeat today would not stop the tour as a whole being very useful. We have learned a lot about some players.

I don't know why I am suddenly so relaxed about this.

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Anscombe and Faletau both out. Bugger

Sandydragon wrote:Anscombe and Faletau both out. Bugger

Indeed!

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Not a great start…

Phew

what happened?

That touch judge needs charging for a ticket if he's not prepared to call that as in touch without the TMO

The boks are certainly up for it this week

32nd Man wrote:That touch judge needs charging for a ticket if he's not prepared to call that as in touch without the TMO

Yeah. Not even close

Lydiate off for HIA

Great passage of play. Bit harum scarum in places but good retention and a try for Reffell.

Biggar just misses

We’re giving away far too many penalties, scrums and driving lineouts not pretty. But we are defending like mad

Sandydragon wrote:We’re giving away far too many penalties, scrums and driving lineouts not pretty. But we are defending like mad

Yes, may work as the boks fluff their lines more and more.

Our attacking play looks far more coherent this week. George north making dents

Carley has form for not giving head shot yellows.

Kicking off a bit now

32nd Man wrote:Carley has form for not giving head shot yellows.

South African player very lucky there.

Rolling maul, Bok try. Thankfully no penalties so we still have 15 players on the field.