Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2025 12:28 pm
Howley out. Watkins and Williams injured. Anscombe, Llewellyn and Jarrod Evans in.
Seems pretty sensible?
Will Howley get a replacement I wonder? Howley's charmed life under Gatland has come to an end at long last* - and will always be a bit of a mystery.
Anscombe and Llewellyn are no-brainers. Bringing Evans in as the 3rd fly half (assuming Ben Thomas is now a centre) is reasonable although there's a case for bringing in Sheedy or Lloyd instead.
With Williams out it's perhaps surprising that Cardiff coach Sherratt didn't look to Winnett but there are several full back options in the squad (plus Anscombe).
I feel more hopeful now. Shame it's Ireland next and the Italy game is gone. But that's on the WRU.
* actually, that may not be true if Gatland needs an ineffective backs coach wherever he goes next.
Evans and Thomas know each others game inside out so we can expect to see Ben Thomas starting at 12 before the end of the tournament.
We might get to see Wales play some good rugby in this six nations after all. I don’t think that a midfield of Williams, Evans, Thomas and Llewelyn is particularly robust defensively but they could go well in attack. Perhaps with a Scarlets back 3 of Rogers, Mee and Rogers at full back.
Squidge rugby did a decent piece yesterday on YouTube. He reckons that a team largely made up of Ospreys forwards and Scarlets backs could be made competitive pretty quickly. Let’s hope so.
PS - good suggestions above re trying out Ratti at 6. We have tried some decent players at 6 recently, who all have their merits (Plumtree, Botham & Wainwright) but another heavy ball carrier would help. I don’t think the tactic of giving it to Rowlands every time we get past 2 phases is working anymore.
Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2025 1:46 pm
Will Howley get a replacement I wonder? Howley's charmed life under Gatland has come to an end at long last* - and will always be a bit of a mystery.
Anscombe and Llewellyn are no-brainers. Bringing Evans in as the 3rd fly half (assuming Ben Thomas is now a centre) is reasonable although there's a case for bringing in Sheedy or Lloyd instead.
With Williams out it's perhaps surprising that Cardiff coach Sherratt didn't look to Winnett but there are several full back options in the squad (plus Anscombe).
I feel more hopeful now. Shame it's Ireland next and the Italy game is gone. But that's on the WRU.
* actually, that may not be true if Gatland needs an ineffective backs coach wherever he goes next.
Evans and Thomas know each others game inside out so we can expect to see Ben Thomas starting at 12 before the end of the tournament.
We might get to see Wales play some good rugby in this six nations after all. I don’t think that a midfield of Williams, Evans, Thomas and Llewelyn is particularly robust defensively but they could go well in attack. Perhaps with a Scarlets back 3 of Rogers, Mee and Rogers at full back.
Squidge rugby did a decent piece yesterday on YouTube. He reckons that a team largely made up of Ospreys forwards and Scarlets backs could be made competitive pretty quickly. Let’s hope so.
PS - good suggestions above re trying out Ratti at 6. We have tried some decent players at 6 recently, who all have their merits (Plumtree, Botham & Wainwright) but another heavy ball carrier would help. I don’t think the tactic of giving it to Rowlands every time we get past 2 phases is working anymore.
I do t think Rowlands has been quite the same since his move to France, but equally with Lake missing, he’s our only big carrier in the front five, so it’s not hard for the defence to target him.
Lakes return will surely help there but another decent carrier would be very helpful. It’s a real shame that we can’t seem to sort out Carres fitness issues.
Evans and Thomas know each others game inside out so we can expect to see Ben Thomas starting at 12 before the end of the tournament.
We might get to see Wales play some good rugby in this six nations after all. I don’t think that a midfield of Williams, Evans, Thomas and Llewelyn is particularly robust defensively but they could go well in attack. Perhaps with a Scarlets back 3 of Rogers, Mee and Rogers at full back.
Squidge rugby did a decent piece yesterday on YouTube. He reckons that a team largely made up of Ospreys forwards and Scarlets backs could be made competitive pretty quickly. Let’s hope so.
PS - good suggestions above re trying out Ratti at 6. We have tried some decent players at 6 recently, who all have their merits (Plumtree, Botham & Wainwright) but another heavy ball carrier would help. I don’t think the tactic of giving it to Rowlands every time we get past 2 phases is working anymore.
I do t think Rowlands has been quite the same since his move to France, but equally with Lake missing, he’s our only big carrier in the front five, so it’s not hard for the defence to target him.
Lakes return will surely help there but another decent carrier would be very helpful. It’s a real shame that we can’t seem to sort out Carres fitness issues.
Or accept that he's just a 30 minute player and make use of him that way.
We might get to see Wales play some good rugby in this six nations after all. I don’t think that a midfield of Williams, Evans, Thomas and Llewelyn is particularly robust defensively but they could go well in attack. Perhaps with a Scarlets back 3 of Rogers, Mee and Rogers at full back.
Squidge rugby did a decent piece yesterday on YouTube. He reckons that a team largely made up of Ospreys forwards and Scarlets backs could be made competitive pretty quickly. Let’s hope so.
PS - good suggestions above re trying out Ratti at 6. We have tried some decent players at 6 recently, who all have their merits (Plumtree, Botham & Wainwright) but another heavy ball carrier would help. I don’t think the tactic of giving it to Rowlands every time we get past 2 phases is working anymore.
I do t think Rowlands has been quite the same since his move to France, but equally with Lake missing, he’s our only big carrier in the front five, so it’s not hard for the defence to target him.
Lakes return will surely help there but another decent carrier would be very helpful. It’s a real shame that we can’t seem to sort out Carres fitness issues.
Or accept that he's just a 30 minute player and make use of him that way.
The problem with that is if we get an early injury to a prop we would be screwed, he could of course knuckle down and get himself to the right levels of fitness for International rugby.
I do t think Rowlands has been quite the same since his move to France, but equally with Lake missing, he’s our only big carrier in the front five, so it’s not hard for the defence to target him.
Lakes return will surely help there but another decent carrier would be very helpful. It’s a real shame that we can’t seem to sort out Carres fitness issues.
Or accept that he's just a 30 minute player and make use of him that way.
The problem with that is if we get an early injury to a prop we would be screwed, he could of course knuckle down and get himself to the right levels of fitness for International rugby.
All true. Nothing's certain in rugby. Of course if his scrummaging isn't up to it then it's a non-starter anyway.
I do t think Rowlands has been quite the same since his move to France, but equally with Lake missing, he’s our only big carrier in the front five, so it’s not hard for the defence to target him.
Lakes return will surely help there but another decent carrier would be very helpful. It’s a real shame that we can’t seem to sort out Carres fitness issues.
Or accept that he's just a 30 minute player and make use of him that way.
The problem with that is if we get an early injury to a prop we would be screwed, he could of course knuckle down and get himself to the right levels of fitness for International rugby.
That’s kinda my issue. Unless he starts and it’s Adam Jones revisited when he gets hooked off after 30 mins then he needs to get fitter.
Wallpaperman wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 11:57 am
Looks like Gatland is gone, we will need to wait for the announcement re the support coaches.
Franco Smith and Pat Lam would look to be good fits for Wales. I was also very impressed with Brad Mooar when he was at the Scarlets, albeit too briefly.
Mark Jones looks to be a Wales coach for the future, I would like to see him get more experience at the Ospreys first though.
I like Gatland and am sad that it will end like this for him, the 2008 grand slam and the world cups in 2011 and 2019 reflect very well on him. All the best to him for the future.
We all know that there are much deeper problems with Welsh rugby than the head coach, but Wales need to pick their best side, and they haven’t since the 2023 World Cup, so today’s decision is understandable. I had hoped that he would be kept on in some sort of overseer capacity, given his vast knowledge of the game, but there you go.
Is it true that even when he was Wales coach, Gatland spent a lot of time living abroad?
Wonder if that would be a problem in taking such a role.
Yes, he did go back to NZ for long periods. He might have had a different view on players if he had been here throughout the season but Gatland has always had pretty binary views on h the e bulk of players available to him.
I just hope the boys have a (controlled) rage inside them on Saturday. It’s difficult to know if this is the best team but they need to die for the cause.
Our scrum has held up well in the first two games and will need to go really well against a very strong Ireland eight. It would be good if our new front row can get par or even better. I’d rather have seen Wainwright than Reffell in the back row but if this is Sherratt’s new look it’s worth a run out.
Another changed back line doesn’t bode well for cohesion but if they click it could be a moment to savour.
I don't think I've ever looked forward to a Wales/Ireland game this much. If at all.
I don't think it's likely you'll do it, but that team looks far more capable and I expect to see a bit of fire. Reffell over Wainright is a big call but he's a good bench option too. Is Faletau still up to it?
Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 2:58 pm
I don't think I've ever looked forward to a Wales/Ireland game this much. If at all.
I don't think it's likely you'll do it, but that team looks far more capable and I expect to see a bit of fire. Reffell over Wainright is a big call but he's a good bench option too. Is Faletau still up to it?
I'm honestly dreading the Wales/Scotland game.
I agree with you. It’s not realistic to think Wales can even come close after our run of losses with a constantly changing team and players out of position but with fire in their belly we might surprise lots of people. I’m looking forward to a Wales performance to bring some hope back and if we can do that, then your home game against us could be a cracker.
Thinking at length about the events of the past few months, I do think Gatland was right to see if Ben Thomas worked at stand off. The potential benefits might have been large, but the experiment went on one game more than it ought to.
.
We had a frustrating first half and then imploded in the last twenty. The fourteen point turnaround was cruel and there was a bit of fortune in some of the first half English tries. But our defence was just dire. All England had to do was run straight and recycle.
We need to find a decent coach. We need to sort out pretty much everything about our game (albeit scrum and lineout has been ok for most of the last three games).
We need to find a win from somewhere. Right now Japan must be licking their lips. The bonus is the lions won’t disrupt us too much this year. Hopefully we can get a coach onboard soon and they can begin to rebuild this team.
Forshaw can go right now. Our defence has never looked convincing under him, although today was a special kind of catastrophe.
Obviously we need a good head coach who will assemble his own coaching team. We can make a fresh start and win in Japan.
Hopefully our players won't be permanently traumatized by that but it was truly a dreadful performance. They do need to take some responsibility for that total capitulation at home. Utterly unacceptable.
Sandydragon wrote: ↑Sat Mar 15, 2025 8:40 pm
According to the collective wisdom of the Fail readership we need to sack everyone now and get rid of two regions.
Dropping half our regions would be a huge mistake. But it is clear that we need to go for a 2+2 model for a while and get some teams competitive.
Yeah, 2+2 would be good, anything to concentrate the money while keeping 4 regions. Not sure the business model will allow this to happen though. And there's certainly been no sign that this is the WRU plan.
Sandydragon wrote: ↑Sat Mar 15, 2025 8:40 pm
According to the collective wisdom of the Fail readership we need to sack everyone now and get rid of two regions.
Dropping half our regions would be a huge mistake. But it is clear that we need to go for a 2+2 model for a while and get some teams competitive.
Yeah, 2+2 would be good, anything to concentrate the money while keeping 4 regions. Not sure the business model will allow this to happen though. And there's certainly been no sign that this is the WRU plan.
I don’t know what the plan is but they need to get one and quick they can all agree on. This feels worse than the 90s. At least the. You could look to the loss of talent to Rugby League. I can’t think of many players who I’d suggest we have who would booster that lot.
Sandydragon wrote: ↑Sat Mar 15, 2025 8:40 pm
According to the collective wisdom of the Fail readership we need to sack everyone now and get rid of two regions.
Dropping half our regions would be a huge mistake. But it is clear that we need to go for a 2+2 model for a while and get some teams competitive.
Yeah, 2+2 would be good, anything to concentrate the money while keeping 4 regions. Not sure the business model will allow this to happen though. And there's certainly been no sign that this is the WRU plan.
I don’t know what the plan is but they need to get one and quick they can all agree on. This feels worse than the 90s. At least the. You could look to the loss of talent to Rugby League. I can’t think of many players who I’d suggest we have who would booster that lot.
We've seen how difficult it is for the WRU to get the regions to sign up to any agreement. I just can't see them getting signatures on a 2+2 agreement - unless 2 regions are on the verge of bankruptcy.
