Season summary

[UKHamlet]

There is a view that two bad halves of rugby were the difference between a good and a decidedly ordinary season.

It lies deeper than that though. Wales lack that spark of inventiveness that marks a good a team out. We also lack the variation of play that marks out a great team.
I don't know if we're capable of playing heads up rugby, but we really need to try, rather than persist with the leaden-witted, rugby by numbers game we're currently playing.

The plus points from the season are, we have a scrum, North has returned to form and Priestland is starting to play like we know he can. We have also found a new backrow star and we have two really good scrum halves.

[wayneha50]

i think we are capable of playing it but we won't under the current coaches & i expect to see more of the same from them for the next 3 years

a very mediocre season for Wales & the 6 Nations in general with only England really approaching anything like competence

[stud muffin]

If I'm being polite I would say the standard of rugby this 6N has been pretty stale. Reality kicks in and the quality in the whole tournament has been utter shite.

Italy made us look good today!

Don't like saying that England deserved to win, but they have been the best side. Can't see France doing anything to stop them winning the GS with what they have served up so far.

Impressed by Moriarty today, we've been crying out for one of our pack to be able to run with dynamism.
Webb is our first choice scrum half, but we have a very able understudy.
I do think we've been over coached and have become incredibly predictable, which makes us easy to defend. probably too much training in the gym and not enough training on grass
Having Scott Williams and 1/2p back will make a massive difference.
Ken Owens has looked good every time he's come on.
I don't shudder with fear everytime Priestland has the ball.
Think Wales are the fittest side in the 6N

Don't think NZ will be losing any sleep

[Sandydragon]

Some flashes of decent play amid some utter dross. If our management adapt our attacking play and we see some of the offloads and interplay we did today then mixed with our usually solid defence and decent pack, we could be a very good team.

If we do look like we have turned a corner then this poor season will have been worth it. But if not then it's going to be a long four years.

[Billyfish]

Patchy. The problems and the solutions both on view, but seemingly without a coach to interpret this for the team. I get the feeling they are trying to tweak things, but are a bit out of their depth when they do so. No team was much cop this season, if we'd successfully played Gatball#1 we should have beaten everyone. We didn't. The 60 min horror show against England shows there really are some deep seated issues.

[Sandydragon]

Patchy. The problems and the solutions both on view, but seemingly without a coach to interpret this for the team. I get the feeling they are trying to tweak things, but are a bit out of their depth when they do so. No team was much cop this season, if we'd successfully played Gatball#1 we should have beaten everyone. We didn't. The 60 min horror show against England shows there really are some deep seated issues.

Gatlandball will still work, but not if played as poorly. As they did against Ireland and England in large parts. But that tactic won't result in that many tries and thus we struggle against the best teams.

No game plan will survive missing as many tackles as we did against England. Equally, just throwing the ball wide isn't the answer. Against Italy we showed some promise. We used Roberts as a decoy and used offloads to decent effect. What we need is someone who can blend the opportunities into good attacking options, whilst not throwing away the good work in defence.

If I have two worries it's that Howley isn't that visionary and that our players still seem not to play what's in front of them.

[Son of Mathonwy]

A big question is whether yesterday's match (where the players were clearly given licence to throw the ball around a bit) was a sign that the tactics are being tweaked, or whether this was just a blip, a bit of fun against a team we would struggle to lose to. As it was we were still pretty ponderous when going through the phases (I think Biggar is simply not the man for the job if we want to be more aggressive and inventive in attack). We would have won this 6N if we'd played Gatball better, but we need to play differently to beat the SH teams - I would love to believe we're thinking about this, but clearly we woud need more practice otherwise we'd be intercepted to death by NZ this Summer. Having said all this, I expect Gatland to return to standard Gatball for the tour and lose every match, albeit without embarrassing ourselves too much.

It's not clear what Baldwin is doing to keep the 2 shirt ahead of Owens.
We had back row problems, but I think a lot was due to Warburton not being up to speed. Moriarty looked good yesterday (albeit it was only Italy) and it will be interesting to see if he threatens Tipuric's position.
It's great that we have Webb and Davies to choose from.
With 1/2p back we can afford to play Priestland instead of Biggar. From what we've seen this 6N I'd like to see this. I'd like to see Sam Davies in the squad as back up fly half.
It will be great to have Scott Williams back, but where does he fit in? Roberts isn't going to be dropped. If Foxy is fit would Scott displace him? Would Scott take Anscombe's place on the bench?
1/2p's return will finally give us a very good winger to go alongside North (whether that's 1/2p himself or more likely Liam Williams). None of the alternative wingers we've tried this 6N have given us much to get excited about.

[Sandydragon]

A big question is whether yesterday's match (where the players were clearly given licence to throw the ball around a bit) was a sign that the tactics are being tweaked, or whether this was just a blip, a bit of fun against a team we would struggle to lose to. As it was we were still pretty ponderous when going through the phases (I think Biggar is simply not the man for the job if we want to be more aggressive and inventive in attack). We would have won this 6N if we'd played Gatball better, but we need to play differently to beat the SH teams - I would love to believe we're thinking about this, but clearly we woud need more practice otherwise we'd be intercepted to death by NZ this Summer. Having said all this, I expect Gatland to return to standard Gatball for the tour and lose every match, albeit without embarrassing ourselves too much.

It's not clear what Baldwin is doing to keep the 2 shirt ahead of Owens.
We had back row problems, but I think a lot was due to Warburton not being up to speed. Moriarty looked good yesterday (albeit it was only Italy) and it will be interesting to see if he threatens Tipuric's position.
It's great that we have Webb and Davies to choose from.
With 1/2p back we can afford to play Priestland instead of Biggar. From what we've seen this 6N I'd like to see this. I'd like to see Sam Davies in the squad as back up fly half.
It will be great to have Scott Williams back, but where does he fit in? Roberts isn't going to be dropped. If Foxy is fit would Scott displace him? Would Scott take Anscombe's place on the bench?
1/2p's return will finally give us a very good winger to go alongside North (whether that's 1/2p himself or more likely Liam Williams). None of the alternative wingers we've tried this 6N have given us much to get excited about.

The result aside, there were still plenty of times where we were pondorous With the ball in hand. Roberts hasn't been encouraged to work in his passing and Biggar doesn't have the passing range or depth of Priestland. JD2 has also had his criticism when passing.
Which is why the second 5/8 experiment with Anscombe was interesting. The aim seems to be to bring him in fro full back in attack and help distribute. There were times yesterday when that seemed to work. Something to perhaps try against better opposition, or do we look at the future role of Roberts?

[Mikeyv]

One of the worst things about this season has been the officiating.

A complete and utter lack of consistency, on top of sheer incompetence on the pitch and in the tmo room.

Yesterdays England game was ruined for me by that posturing pillock, Owens, refusing to look properly at the obstruction, despite the tmo obviously believing it was an offence, and the absence of any action, or even comment from the commentary team on the late trip, or the two handed gouging, which looked worse than the Francis incident to me.

Consistency, that's all I ask.

[joshfishkins]

The callsto drop Biggar for Priestland are a little premature I think.

[Sandydragon]

The callsto drop Biggar for Priestland are a little premature I think.

Id like to see Biggar play a little flatter. Priest land has a better passing game, but Biggar I think is being forced to play deeper. It makes defending against us a bit easier. Personally, I still think Biggar is our best all round 10, but he needs to vary his game up a bit.

Noticeably, we seemed to kick far less against Italy and keep the ball in hand more. Im not suggesting a return to harum scarum tactics, but keeping the ball in hand is a useful tactic. The All Blacks may kick more than most, but they seem to have the game intelligence to understand when not to kick the ball away and make the most of their opportunities. Since we don't, I think we need to make sure we can generate more opportunities on the basis that some of them will be converted.

[Tre]

Season is still going mun. Derbies galore coming up

[Son of Mathonwy]

Some welcome and wholly unexpected attempts by the coaches to change tactics slightly:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35854143

And interesting from Biggar:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35857432

"It's difficult really, because we've got such a set-in-stone sort of pattern in which we play," said Biggar.

"But the coaches have always said 'whenever it's on, if you're on your own goal line and you've got a 3 v 2, throw the ball; if it goes wrong, we're not going to blame you'.

This is great, but it seems like our boys need to practice more heads-up rugby in training, otherwise when overlaps do appear they are too rusty to hold onto the ball. If we don't improve our accuracy NZ will intercept half of our miss passes and we'll go back to Gatball 1.0.

But there is a little bit of hope that Gatland is genuinely thinking outside the box* in order to impress his fellow Kiwis on the tour.


* Obviously just a teeny bit outside the box. This is Gatland.

[Stooo]

Rugby players "too rusty" to expose an overlap?!? WTF?!?

This is a basic skill that they should be doing week in and week out with Wales and their respective clubs.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Rugby players "too rusty" to expose an overlap?!? WTF?!?

This is a basic skill that they should be doing week in and week out with Wales and their respective clubs.

Yes, no doubt they are but it seems to me that there needs to be more time spent on this with Wales. It's all very well for the coaches to say "if you've got a 3 v 2, throw the ball", but they need to ensure that the players (as team Wales) have actually spent enough time practicing it. We'll just keep overrunning the ball, knocking on, throwing intercepts and NZ will be all over us.

[Stooo]

You've got that all arse backwards imo.

They should not be having to spend time coaching basics at an international level.

The gameplan is basic and boring because the players arent coming in with the skills to execute anything more complicated imo.

[Len]

If Preistland came from any of the big 3 he'd have been permenantly dropped years ago for throwing games away. As it is he plays for Wales who aren't exactly blessed with depth. Dropping Biggar for Preistland would be a huge mistake IMO, who wants to see him crumble at Eden park in front of 80000 mad kiwis?

Cuthbert is in the same boat, guy is an actual wreck.

[Dacre]

If Preistland came from any of the big 3 he'd have been permenantly dropped years ago for throwing games away. As it is he plays for Wales who aren't exactly blessed with depth. Dropping Biggar for Preistland would be a huge mistake IMO, who wants to see him crumble at Eden park in front of 50000 mad kiwis?

Cuthbert is in the same boat, guy is an actual wreck.

Fixed - http://edenpark.co.nz/about/

It actually says 'just under 50,000'

[Len]

If Preistland came from any of the big 3 he'd have been permenantly dropped years ago for throwing games away. As it is he plays for Wales who aren't exactly blessed with depth. Dropping Biggar for Preistland would be a huge mistake IMO, who wants to see him crumble at Eden park in front of 50000 mad kiwis?

Cuthbert is in the same boat, guy is an actual wreck.

Fixed - http://edenpark.co.nz/about/

It actually says 'just under 50,000'

The RWC final in 2011 was 61000 apparently. Doesn't matter.

[Son of Mathonwy]

You've got that all arse backwards imo.

They should not be having to spend time coaching basics at an international level.

The gameplan is basic and boring because the players arent coming in with the skills to execute anything more complicated imo.

In an ideal world the international coaches should not have to coach the basics, but in this world Gatland and team need to deal with the players as they are. I don't know how happy or otherwise Gatland is with the standard of training the players get when at their clubs (...do you know?). Hopefully now that the WRU and clubs aren't in open war with each other they can help each other out a little more.

However, no matter how well trained they are when they arrive at camp, they do need to practice heads-up rugby - with their Wales team mates - in order to execute it slickly. It's not just a matter of being given licence to throw the ball around - they need to have actually put in the time to be comfortable doing it. Obviously it's a matter of degree - it just seems to me that they could give this kind of training a higher priority if we are to put it into practice when it matters.

[Lord Llandaff]

You've got that all arse backwards imo.

They should not be having to spend time coaching basics at an international level.

The gameplan is basic and boring because the players arent coming in with the skills to execute anything more complicated imo.

Nonsense. These players have all come up through the ranks because they have shown they can do the basics. We've seen glimpses of their ability from time to time but at the start of a match it is clear that they are following a rigid game plan. If Gatland/Howley select this game plan because they genuinely believe the players can't do any more than that then they need to be replaced with coaches who have confidence in their players.

Unless you believe that England have suddenly acquired skills that we don't possess?

The biggest issue in this 6 Nations for me was that Wales and France both have coaches whose best years are well behind them because the rugby has moved on and left them behind.

[hawkaye]

There is not much wrong that a change of tempo wouldn't put right. Too slow clearing out and too slow getting the ball to the OH.
Oh and first up tackles pl.
Times against Italy when they were over ambitions - too loose, miracle long passes to wide receivers killing momentum. Just do simple stuff accurately and at pace; better to cut back inside off a shorter pass. Good to see legal blocking lines being run in support of the ball carrier - about blwdee time too.
But problem in periods when we were poor were mainly up front when we didn't front up - low energy and falling off tackles.

[Sandydragon]

The pressure we put on opposition breakdowns needs to be evaluated as well. The Zfail have produced some stats that show Sam making no turnovers during the entire campaign. Bviously more to his game than just turnovers, but our game plan does like the potential of counter attacks, if our key fetcher isn't making them, then we need to create opportunities in other ways.

That experiment with him at blindside didn't do him any favours in my opinion.

[Sourdust]

An example of the kind of heads-up play we need: Foxy's try.

When Amos fumbled the ball backwards, our forwards got there quickly but Webb was miles away. So many times before, we've see situations like that where we just wait aeons for our backs to realign while the defence jogs back to their stations. But this time, instead of powering into the ruck, Faletau reached down for the ball, and in one movement, flicked out a perfect long pass off the ground to Biggar - and instead of evaporating, the overlap was maintained and exploited.

[Stooo]

You've got that all arse backwards imo.

They should not be having to spend time coaching basics at an international level.

The gameplan is basic and boring because the players arent coming in with the skills to execute anything more complicated imo.

Nonsense. These players have all come up through the ranks because they have shown they can do the basics. We've seen glimpses of their ability from time to time but at the start of a match it is clear that they are following a rigid game plan. If Gatland/Howley select this game plan because they genuinely believe the players can't do any more than that then they need to be replaced with coaches who have confidence in their players.

Unless you believe that England have suddenly acquired skills that we don't possess?

The biggest issue in this 6 Nations for me was that Wales and France both have coaches whose best years are well behind them because the rugby has moved on and left them behind.

I've seen nothing to suggest from this group of players that they are capable of more.