Portugal

[Sandydragon]

Lastnchance

[Sandydragon]

Last last chance

[Sandydragon]

Well done Portugal you’ve done yourselves proud

[UKHamlet]

Thank fuck for Faletau

[bruce]

Well I said they would make heavy weather of it.

[normanski]

Thank goodness for Faletau.

[normanski]

That’s driven me to drink!

[Buggaluggs]

harsh

[Buggaluggs]

hope Biggar doesn't get hurt

[Sandydragon]

Well, we won and we got the BP. No one’s been injured.

But a few of that team have played themselves out of contention.

[UKHamlet]

Well, we won and we got the BP. No one’s been injured.

But a few of that team have played themselves out of contention.

Certainly Anscombe. Possibly Tomos. I don't think the locks were that great. The centres were penalty machines. Rio was busy but not productive.

Halfpenny though. I'm going down his parents house tonight to offer my wife and daughters.

[Graigwen]

Well we certainly made heavy weather of that!

We constantly refuse to play to our strengths.

It was a good idea slipping Morgan into the side at the last moment.

I am going to drink more beer, watch Ireland, and think about that game later.

[Son of Mathonwy]

This should be an easy win, a bp win. (I hope). But we really want these guys to show their class, not let anything through our defences, play on a better level, not stumble to victory. I want to see them making a claim for the first XV.

Most of all I want to see a great performance from Anscombe (ideally he should be kicking the goals too). Then Lake nailing the lineout. Then our centres imposing themselves without silly mistakes.

Yeah we got the easy win and just got the bp. Apart from that, nothing that I was hoping to see.

Almost all the good play* came from the first XV players - Morgan, LRZ, Faletau. Lucky Morgan got that late call. And Faletau, just pure class.

Great try from Lake but the line out's got to be better than that. Anscombe wasn't even half-cooked (not that Costelow was any better). The centres made absolutely no case for first team selection.

Amongst other things our players kept making half-breaks, looked for the offload and 100% of the time there was no one fucking there to take the ball. Support? Jesus.

But job done, thanks to our star players, we can move on. Gatland can return to his original XV.


* with the exception of Halfpenny

[morepork]

Robots have been programmed for the kick...kick...kick

It's evident across all teams. There must be a coaching by numbers ticktock that is all the rage.

[Graigwen]

I think Pinto was unlucky.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Here are the stats. No great surprises after watching it. Tshiunza had a decent game to be fair. Lake would be great were it not for that lineout thing that hookers need to do.

https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/playerstat ... gue=164205

[normanski]

I think Pinto was unlucky.

Not if your foot climbs higher as you land. You just can’t kick people in the head.

A three match ban in my book.

[Beasties]

I really enjoyed the way Portugal played, proper gave it a lash. Neither team seemed to want to hang onto the ball which made it entertaining. If Portugal had a decent kicker it could’ve been squeeky bum time for Wales. And Dickson’s scrum lottery machine was in play, felt sorry for the Portugese front row who were bewildered.

No doubt Wales will improve but well done Portugal for making that interesting.

[Buggaluggs]

Ireland look better than us, don't they.

[normanski]

Ireland look better than us, don't they.

A full strength Ireland side versus our second no hopers. What do you expect.

[UKHamlet]

Ireland look better than us, don't they.

They'd smash us. No question.

[Sandydragon]

Here are the stats. No great surprises after watching it. Tshiunza had a decent game to be fair. Lake would be great were it not for that lineout thing that hookers need to do.

https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/playerstat ... gue=164205

Tshiunza looked far more comfortable today, less of the rabbit in the headlights. We just need to work out what his best position is now.

[Sandydragon]

I think Pinto was unlucky.

Not if your foot climbs higher as you land. You just can’t kick people in the head.

A three match ban in my book.

Yeah. That was silly

[Sandydragon]

On the bright side, we have 10 points from 2 games and no one injured. I don’t think we expected that.

[Son of Mathonwy]

On the bright side, we have 10 points from 2 games and no one injured. I don’t think we expected that.

Yeah, it is mission accomplished for the first 2 games, if only just.

And the silver lining on today's performance is that Gatland won't have too many sleepless nights making his selections for next week. It's last week's team. perhaps with a slightly different bench.