RugbyRebels

newgalesurf wrote:Glad to be back. Did check in a few years ago to a dead forum link, and for a while couldn't find my way home.

Don't know much of Pivac, not seen the Scarlets play under his control ut the resume looks good. Other teams have improved, but the bunch of Welsh lads should be pretty battle hardened

Never say never on the championship. New leadership may have a dramatic effect

Welcome back. This forum could do with some old/new blood. It gets dire at times.

I think it’s an interesting 6N in store.

Wales have, following the last three World Cups, always done well. Could this be a winning championship start just like 2008?

We’ve got to hope that the structures Gatland put in place carry over smoothly to the new coaching team.

Could it be after a decade plus of Gatland ball this is the year we take them all by surprise?

Sandydragon wrote:Could it be after a decade plus of Gatland ball this is the year we take them all by surprise?

Yep! The focus seems to be on England, France and Ireland with the bookies going that way as well.

We need a solid win on Saturday to ensure the systems are in place and understood. Probably a slow and close first half but then we get going like Paris last year.

Ireland seemed to have had the demons at RWC and it will be interesting to see how they go against the Scots.

If they struggle a bit then I’ve got a feeling this could be our year in Dublin and being the ‘dark horses’ of the tournament we could go on and surprise both France at home and England at Twickenham.

We’ve got so many good and battle hardened players coming back from injury over the next six weeks that Pivac probably has one of the strongest group of players for many a year.

With the exception of OC, we have plenty of cover. The young right heads deserve their chance so I’m not even too concerned about that.

I’m nervous about how good our defence will be. Otherwise I’m very optimistic.

All three games are must sees this weekend. You’re right about Ireland. They came completely undone at the RWC. Although they were also poor in the six nations.

England are the most settled team. But how good will they be without Billy V? Without him they are nowhere near as good, although at Twickenham they are always hard to beat.

France. God alone knows how they will play, even across 80 minutes. Lots of young players and plenty of talent.

This feels like one of the hardest to call six nations for many years.

newgalesurf wrote:Glad to be back. Did check in a few years ago to a dead forum link, and for a while couldn't find my way home.

Don't know much of Pivac, not seen the Scarlets play under his control ut the resume looks good. Other teams have improved, but the bunch of Welsh lads should be pretty battle hardened

Never say never on the championship. New leadership may have a dramatic effect

Welcome back. I'm very excited and moderately confident about what Pivac is going to bring to Wales. A coach who is a bit more interested in scoring tries, more into winning than not losing, is exactly what I've been calling for for years. Hope it goes to plan .

I guess the danger is that Pivac will be our version of Gregor Townsend, and bring brilliance and catastrophe in equal measure. But I think he's a too well-rounded a coach for that to happen.

Son of Mathonwy wrote:

newgalesurf wrote:Glad to be back. Did check in a few years ago to a dead forum link, and for a while couldn't find my way home.

Don't know much of Pivac, not seen the Scarlets play under his control ut the resume looks good. Other teams have improved, but the bunch of Welsh lads should be pretty battle hardened

Never say never on the championship. New leadership may have a dramatic effect

Welcome back. I'm very excited and moderately confident about what Pivac is going to bring to Wales. A coach who is a bit more interested in scoring tries, more into winning than not losing, is exactly what I've been calling for for years. Hope it goes to plan .

I guess the danger is that Pivac will be our version of Gregor Townsend, and bring brilliance and catastrophe in equal measure. But I think he's a too well-rounded a coach for that to happen.

Lol. Glad I popped in.

Think we can put a check mark against that defensive resiliency box. Will be tougher against Ireland, but to nil any national team is an achievement.

Good balance of expansive play. Lineout needs practice, and scrum creaked a little. But this can be fixed

Great to have competition for places. Back row battle is gonna be awesome

newgalesurf wrote:Think we can put a check mark against that defensive resiliency box. Will be tougher against Ireland, but to nil any national team is an achievement.

Good balance of expansive play. Lineout needs practice, and scrum creaked a little. But this can be fixed

Great to have competition for places. Back row battle is gonna be awesome

After 30 minutes play we had only given away one penalty to Italy’s six and that was not in a kickable position. It did even up in the second half and I haven’t seen the final stats but think it was nearer 9 - 10. A number of the penalties we conceded came in the scrum as Lewis tired or in their half.

Perhaps it would have been better to have brought on Brown 10 minutes earlier to shore up the scrum.

The one area where I think we missed a trick was at prop.
Dillon struggled a little bit which was understandable as he's played very little rugby since RWC.
I'd have given Will Griff John a start to see how he went, with Brown as back up. Maybe him going back to Sale last week went against him training wise.

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