RugbyRebels

Beat NZ to earn a draw against England for 5th.

Pretty good tournament. A heavy defeat to France cost us as Fra, Arg and Wales all finished the group with 2 wins a piece, but bonus points had us in third.

Bloody good result that at any level.

Fake goddamn news.

The weather was a bit of a leveler but we'll take it!

A really disappointing game against England yesterday.

They had the wind taken out of their sails early on when a promising attack turned into a runaway try for the English winger and then a series of expensive missed tackles- 16 in the first half alone - just opened the floodgates. Even scoring three rolling maul tries after the break couldn’t put them back on the front foot as sill mistakes and missed tackles cost them dear.

I read somewhere that Byron Hayward was helping their defensive tactics. On this evidence he will have to improve markedly to follow in Shaun Edwards’ boots.

normanski wrote:I read somewhere that Byron Hayward was helping their defensive tactics. On this evidence he will have to improve markedly to follow in Shaun Edwards’ boots.

A couple of years ago, the Scarlets' defence was excellent, leading me to think that Hayward was a good man to be promoted to the Wales job. Recently things have not been so good - although hopefully this, and the general decline of the Scarlets, has been due to players transferred or injured rather than poor coaching.

It is of course in the interest of each of the outgoing coaches that their successor is noticeably worse than they are. Therefore, while Edwards is still an employee of the WRU, they should ensure that a proper handover takes place to Hayward (and from each coach to their successor*).



* We can skip Howley

I guess time will tell with Byron but I would have felt happier if Shaun was there to ‘hold his hand’ for the first couple of years.

Nothing stays the same forever and we have to hope that Pivac’s team can carry on where Gatland leaves off, especially with a tour to New Zealand next summer.

Just wonder how France will go with Shaun’s discipline. Could become a potent force with solid defence to back up their flair in attack.