Wales RWC 2019 Thread

[Guest]

First topic message reminder :

WALES’ 2019 RWC SQUAD:

Forwards: Jake Ball, Adam Beard, Rhys Carre, James Davies, Elliot Dee, Ryan Elias, Tomas Francis, Cory Hill, Alun Wyn Jones, Wyn Jones, Dillon Lewis, Ross Moriarty, Josh Navidi, Ken Owens, Aaron Shingler, Nicky Smith, Justin Tipuric, Aaron Wainwright.

Backs: Josh Adams, Hallam Amos, Dan Biggar, Aled Davies, Gareth Davies, Jonathan Davies, Leigh Halfpenny, George North, Hadleigh Parkes, Rhys Patchell, Owen Watkin, Liam Williams, Tomos Williams.

[Pie]

Dont Wales have to beat England to take the number 1 spot?

Yes and no. We’re there mathematically already. It’s just that they don’t actually publish the new table until Monday so a loss to England on the weekend would probably see us go back below NZ by the time the table is published. And rightly so.

You better go and beat them then.

Yes I hope we havent handed it over to a dud side that's just gonna lose it first match they play. Ten years to beat Wales.

Tick tock tick to.....come on, make a go of it.

Tick tock indeed, the end of the All Blacks aura in one afternoon, one wonders what the ref did wrong this time lol

[maestegmafia]

Dont Wales have to beat England to take the number 1 spot?

Yes and no. We’re there mathematically already. It’s just that they don’t actually publish the new table until Monday so a loss to England on the weekend would probably see us go back below NZ by the time the table is published. And rightly so.

You better go and beat them then.

Yes I hope we havent handed it over to a dud side that's just gonna lose it first match they play. Ten years to beat Wales.

Tick tock tick to.....come on, make a go of it.

Tick tock indeed, the end of the All Blacks aura in one afternoon, one wonders what the ref did wrong this time lol

To be honest the Aussies looked very dangerous and Wales have them in our group.

Surprised by the size of the score. This will make the ABs much stronger.

Exciting stuff. I would be in heaven if Wales could play attacking rugby like that this afternoon.

[Taylorman]

Dont Wales have to beat England to take the number 1 spot?

Yes and no. We’re there mathematically already. It’s just that they don’t actually publish the new table until Monday so a loss to England on the weekend would probably see us go back below NZ by the time the table is published. And rightly so.

You better go and beat them then.

Yes I hope we havent handed it over to a dud side that's just gonna lose it first match they play. Ten years to beat Wales.

Tick tock tick to.....come on, make a go of it.

Tick tock indeed, the end of the All Blacks aura in one afternoon, one wonders what the ref did wrong this time lol

Why? I don't care what the ref did. Leave you to do that.

[maestegmafia]

Dont Wales have to beat England to take the number 1 spot?

Yes and no. We’re there mathematically already. It’s just that they don’t actually publish the new table until Monday so a loss to England on the weekend would probably see us go back below NZ by the time the table is published. And rightly so.

You better go and beat them then.

Yes I hope we havent handed it over to a dud side that's just gonna lose it first match they play. Ten years to beat Wales.

Tick tock tick to.....come on, make a go of it.

Tick tock indeed, the end of the All Blacks aura in one afternoon, one wonders what the ref did wrong this time lol

Why? I don't care what the ref did. Leave you to do that.

Exciting game

Sorry the result didn’t go your way Taylorman. But after reading a few articles in the kiwi herald this morning it certainly doesn’t see as though the kiwis have gone into some form of crisis post match.

The Aussie played very well, especially at the breakdown and found a it of space out wide.

Wales have to face them in the pool stage at the RWC so very interesting to see them play with such tenacity. Be interesting to see what happens in the next fixture. All good stuff for the Wales analysts

[maestegmafia]

England 62 Wales 5

Just like 2007.

Standing by that now that the sides have been announced?

Even after the teams have been announced a number of articles are choosing England in their predictions to come out narrow winners. I’m not including the Western Mail in that who are confident of an uninspiring but confident welsh win.

I would love to see a great game with both sides challenging each other. Best way forward towards the Rwc. Never easy for any team to win at Twickenham. Really looking forward to the game.

Can’t see a large one sided scoreline this time though.

[RiscaGame]

Dont Wales have to beat England to take the number 1 spot?

Yes and no. We’re there mathematically already. It’s just that they don’t actually publish the new table until Monday so a loss to England on the weekend would probably see us go back below NZ by the time the table is published. And rightly so.

You better go and beat them then.

Knowing how Wales tend to perform I think it might be a World Cup blessing if we didn’t go into it off the back of a load of warm up wins, unbeaten this and that, world no.1, etc. We usually suck when we’re hyped or seen as ‘favourites’! We’re always much better as the plucky underdog

Even Gats preferred it when we were “under the radar”.

[maestegmafia]

Dont Wales have to beat England to take the number 1 spot?

Yes and no. We’re there mathematically already. It’s just that they don’t actually publish the new table until Monday so a loss to England on the weekend would probably see us go back below NZ by the time the table is published. And rightly so.

You better go and beat them then.

Knowing how Wales tend to perform I think it might be a World Cup blessing if we didn’t go into it off the back of a load of warm up wins, unbeaten this and that, world no.1, etc. We usually suck when we’re hyped or seen as ‘favourites’! We’re always much better as the plucky underdog

Even Gats preferred it when we were “under the radar”.

You can only be underdogs for so long...!

There is still a lot of rugby to be played and things to be learnt by all the teams before the RWC kicks off.

I think the rankings mean nothing to any supporters at the moment. Maybe bar us welsh for 18 hours or so. I am sure the focus will firmly be on SA, the ABs, Ozzies and England again by September no matter whether we win or lose our next four games.

[Hoonercat]

Strange. I feel we need to beat SA and NZ on neutral ground before we start calling ourselves number 1. Aus too, they’re still capable of a world class performance.

Pretty convinced the Welsh players will feel the same and will be just as keyed up as they would have been if ranked lower. They'll enjoy the No1 status but I honestly can't see it having a negative impact on their performances, there's too much strength of character throughout the team. I wish I could say the same about England.

[maestegmafia]

Strange. I feel we need to beat SA and NZ on neutral ground before we start calling ourselves number 1. Aus too, they’re still capable of a world class performance.

Pretty convinced the Welsh players will feel the same and will be just as keyed up as they would have been if ranked lower. They'll enjoy the No1 status but I honestly can't see it having a negative impact on their performances, there's too much strength of character throughout the team. I wish I could say the same about England.

There are a lot of English players getting a starting opportunity in a very big game today, those players have a massive opportunity to show their worth come the RwC.

[mikey_dragon]

Sounds like we need to add a bit of muscle to the pack. How did Shingler go if and when he came on?

[mikey_dragon]

I’m not sure Anscombe is a huge loss. I rate Biggar as better and we have two other potentially great fly-halves to try out. Given we have Jenkins and Faletau out, Tipuric would be a big loss for his leadership among other things.

[LondonTiger]

Sounds like we need to add a bit of muscle to the pack. How did Shingler go if and when he came on?

He struggled. Tried to add some oomph but got mashed a few times.

[maestegmafia]

Sounds like we need to add a bit of muscle to the pack. How did Shingler go if and when he came on?

Looked good considering it’s his first game in what, 18 months?

A few issues at the set piece and some dropped balls/poor passes but the creative attack looked good.

Gareth Davies try was sublime, had a tough of Gareth Edwards vs Scotland about it.

[mikey_dragon]

Oh that doesn’t sound good, but like you say it is his first game in 18 months. Is it a lot to ask of him if he is to start for the return fixture? We have a good back 3 right now so it’s disappointing if they didn’t click fast enough and take all of their chances.

[majesticimperialman]

Is Halfpenny injured? or is he rested?

[RiscaGame]

Sounds like we need to add a bit of muscle to the pack. How did Shingler go if and when he came on?

He struggled. Tried to add some oomph but got mashed a few times.

Was running way too upright. He wasn’t the only one. It’s never going to work, when you’re working off a standing start.

[mikey_dragon]

Did Aled Davies get on the pitch at all, and was he awful?

[RiscaGame]

Both 9s were pretty ponderous today. Gareth Davies got caught at least twice while trying to box kick. Hard to make anything of any 9 really. Considering we were chasing the game for a long time today, I thought both of our 9s could’ve got rid of the ball quicker.

To be honest, missing today could’ve done Tomos Williams a big favour.

[mikey_dragon]

Just goes to show we still need Webb, and despite the money I still believe Toulon was a bad move for him - we can thank Ospreys and Tandy for that saga.

[maestegmafia]

Both 9s were pretty ponderous today. Gareth Davies got caught at least twice while trying to box kick. Hard to make anything of any 9 really. Considering we were chasing the game for a long time today, I thought both of our 9s could’ve got rid of the ball quicker.

To be honest, missing today could’ve done Tomos Williams a big favour.

The charge down was a mix of both complacency on Gareth Davies part and opportunism well taken by Ewels

Gareth’s try was a work of magic, best scrum half try I have seen in years

[mikey_dragon]

Davies was mostly sublime early in his career. Now he’s capable of both the sublime and ridiculous, in one single match sometimes too.

[Collapse2005]

Both 9s were pretty ponderous today. Gareth Davies got caught at least twice while trying to box kick. Hard to make anything of any 9 really. Considering we were chasing the game for a long time today, I thought both of our 9s could’ve got rid of the ball quicker.

To be honest, missing today could’ve done Tomos Williams a big favour.

The charge down was a mix of both complacency on Gareth Davies part and opportunism well taken by Ewels

Gareth’s try was a work of magic, best scrum half try I have seen in years

Yeah it was good but really bad defending from England especially from Daly.

[LondonTiger]

Both 9s were pretty ponderous today. Gareth Davies got caught at least twice while trying to box kick. Hard to make anything of any 9 really. Considering we were chasing the game for a long time today, I thought both of our 9s could’ve got rid of the ball quicker.

To be honest, missing today could’ve done Tomos Williams a big favour.

The charge down was a mix of both complacency on Gareth Davies part and opportunism well taken by Ewels

Gareth’s try was a work of magic, best scrum half try I have seen in years

Yeah it was good but really bad defending from England especially from Daly.

I thought Heinz was most at fault in terms of defence. While a great sidestep someone of Heinz supposed experience should not have been as close to his fellow defender (big Joe?) to allow them both to be beaten by the step.

[TightHEAD]

Billy V positioning was out a couple times too, but at the end of the day they were the No1 team..................in the world.

[Guest]

Billy V positioning was out a couple times too, but at the end of the day they were the No1 team..................in the world.

...........Ever!

[Taylorman]

ha ha, love it. This WCups gonna be fun. So many chances out there.

[mikey_dragon]

I think two players who struggle with defensive positioning for us are Moriarty and Parkes, seen them both caught out a few times and especially during this game. Aled Davies.... oh man. Whilst his passing was above average for a change he is still an absolute liability, slow and ponderous at everything how the hell does he have a bloody career. These 3 I’d like to come out of the starting team, possibly the match day squad. Wainright was a bit slow to react on the blindside, Billy V exposed that a couple times.

Shingler, Navidi, T Williams, Watkin, J Evans, Evans and Lee need to come back in if all are available, hopefully Tips is good. This is a must win now let’s face it;

L Williams, North, JD2, Watkin, Adams, Biggar, G Davies; Smith, Owens, Francis, Beard, AWJ, Shingler, Tipuric, Navidi.
Dee, Evans, Lee, Ball, Wainright/Lydiate, T Williams, J Evans, Parkes/Halfpenny/Amos/S Williams.

[robbo277]

Both 9s were pretty ponderous today. Gareth Davies got caught at least twice while trying to box kick. Hard to make anything of any 9 really. Considering we were chasing the game for a long time today, I thought both of our 9s could’ve got rid of the ball quicker.

To be honest, missing today could’ve done Tomos Williams a big favour.

The charge down was a mix of both complacency on Gareth Davies part and opportunism well taken by Ewels

Gareth’s try was a work of magic, best scrum half try I have seen in years

Yeah it was good but really bad defending from England especially from Daly.

I thought Heinz was most at fault in terms of defence. While a great sidestep someone of Heinz supposed experience should not have been as close to his fellow defender (big Joe?) to allow them both to be beaten by the step.

Matawalu nearly scored a similar try against England in the 2015 World Cup, although it has to be said there was a different set of players and a different set of coaches. I think Webb may have scored a similar one in the Six Nations that year, but from much shorter range.

Not sure if it was something specifically targeted by Wales for England or just a set play they've been working on, but it was set up well. The entire backline was stacked on the open side and Wainwright did his job holding our 6 in. It was well taken from there from Davies.

[maestegmafia]

Both 9s were pretty ponderous today. Gareth Davies got caught at least twice while trying to box kick. Hard to make anything of any 9 really. Considering we were chasing the game for a long time today, I thought both of our 9s could’ve got rid of the ball quicker.

To be honest, missing today could’ve done Tomos Williams a big favour.

The charge down was a mix of both complacency on Gareth Davies part and opportunism well taken by Ewels

Gareth’s try was a work of magic, best scrum half try I have seen in years

Yeah it was good but really bad defending from England especially from Daly.

I thought Heinz was most at fault in terms of defence. While a great sidestep someone of Heinz supposed experience should not have been as close to his fellow defender (big Joe?) to allow them both to be beaten by the step.

Matawalu nearly scored a similar try against England in the 2015 World Cup, although it has to be said there was a different set of players and a different set of coaches. I think Webb may have scored a similar one in the Six Nations that year, but from much shorter range.

Not sure if it was something specifically targeted by Wales for England or just a set play they've been working on, but it was set up well. The entire backline was stacked on the open side and Wainwright did his job holding our 6 in. It was well taken from there from Davies.

Any player that can run almost half the pitch from a set piece and beat six of seven defenders is doing very well in my opinion.

[majesticimperialman]

For me this game started as atypical Wales game. Slow in the first half do to abit a rustiness. And then come back in the second half and win.But the second half come back did not happen.

Wales have won 14 games on the trot. A bit like England when Eddie Jones first took over and won how many it was on the bounce before they got stopped.

Next week will see if this week was a blip, or are Wales losing the will to win ( come from behind and win games ) and put team like England away.

[TightHEAD]

Wales will win in Cardiff.

Eddie will want to see how some of the extra fringe players deal with the cauldron that is the MS. Not like he can play his 2nds/3rds again so it will be an interesting selection. I guess Gats has no option but to field a similar team in the hope they can get a win.

Will the roof be open or closed?

[RiscaGame]

Hopefully Cory Hill will be fit, as he is clearly the difference between winning in the Six Nations and losing yesterday.

Also, might it be the time to try somebody like Owen Lane? Whilst it is harsh to drop Josh Adams off the back of one relatively poor game, we do need to look at other options sooner rather than later. I expect Gatland to do his usual of give his team a chance to rectify their poor performance, but I think a couple of changes would be good.

[Poorfour]

It's certainly set up an interesting clash next week. Factors in Wales's favour:
+ It's in Cardiff
+ They will be strongly motivated after Sunday's performance
+ They have got Gatland's traditional "ropey first game of a series" out of the way and are likely to be stronger
+ England's defence in open play looked very suspect
+ Eddie may not risk Billy again
+ Elliot Daly is not a fullback

Factors in England's favour:
- England have a lot of major players still to have a run out: Mako, Marler, George, Itoje, Wilson, Underhill, Slade, Farrell, May
- Wales don't
- A pack that ended with a third string loosehead and hooker, a second string tighthead and two locks playing on the flanks still had the upper hand at the end of the game

Factors that are anyone's guess:
? What Eddie and Gatland are actually aiming to get out of these warm-ups
? What tactics they have in reserve and aren't going to disclose at this point
? Where the players actually are in their training and whether they've started their taper
? How much each team wants to fight for the #1 spot

[Luckless Pedestrian]

It's certainly set up an interesting clash next week. Factors in Wales's favour:
+ It's in Cardiff
+ They will be strongly motivated after Sunday's performance
+ They have got Gatland's traditional "ropey first game of a series" out of the way and are likely to be stronger
+ England's defence in open play looked very suspect
+ Eddie may not risk Billy again
+ Elliot Daly is not a fullback

Factors in England's favour:
- England have a lot of major players still to have a run out: Mako, Marler, George, Itoje, Wilson, Underhill, Slade, Farrell, May
- Wales don't
- A pack that ended with a third string loosehead and hooker, a second string tighthead and two locks playing on the flanks still had the upper hand at the end of the game

Factors that are anyone's guess:
? What Eddie and Gatland are actually aiming to get out of these warm-ups
? What tactics they have in reserve and aren't going to disclose at this point
? Where the players actually are in their training and whether they've started their taper
? How much each team wants to fight for the #1 spot

This is the key 'unknown' for me. It was a very good win for England, and nothing changes that, but given how many people commented on how heavy-legged Wales seemed to be, is it possible that Gatland wanted to see how well his first XV could play when they were heavy-legged? Was it intentional? Either way, England's win sets things up really nicely for the return match.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

The other thing to say is that it's still a bit strange for me to see England fans so happy to get a home win over Wales. I remember when we couldn't buy a win at Twickenham and would barely give England a game. It's still slightly surreal for us be a scalp.

[TightHEAD]

The other thing to say is that it's still a bit strange for me to see England fans so happy to get a home win over Wales. I remember when we couldn't buy a win at Twickenham and would barely give England a game. It's still slightly surreal for us be a scalp.

[robbo277]

The other thing to say is that it's still a bit strange for me to see England fans so happy to get a home win over Wales. I remember when we couldn't buy a win at Twickenham and would barely give England a game. It's still slightly surreal for us be a scalp.

I think given the line-ups and the comfort of the win it was a good day out for England. I think I saw a twitter poll where 77% predicted a Wales win - this put out there by a neutral account so not overly-skewed by die-hard fans either way.

Things have definitely changed over the last 11 years of Gatland. Wales have 3 wins at Twickenham (2008, 2012, 2015) and, although we've won the last 3 Six Nations games at HQ, wins over Wales at home can't be taken for granted. Each one has to be earned.

[TightHEAD]

Very quiet here today. C'mon guys I'm sure you'll get a win on Saturday with the crowd acting as the 16th man and the roof closed.

[Rinsure]

Some news I just saw - Anscombe is out of the RWC with an ACL injury.

Really bad news for you guys, he's quality.

[LondonTiger]

Awful news, firstly for the player but also for Wales. Biggar is a quality 10 but they need to wrap him in cotton wool now.

[Poorfour]

I feel for him. Really tough to go out that way, especially in a warm up game.

[RiscaGame]

Awful news. I did fear the worst, when he went down the second time.

I wonder whether Gatland might look at Evans to start on the weekend now and leave Biggar as the player to come on?

[BamBam]

That is tough, at the time it did seem as though he could be doing himself some real damage by not coming off immediately, but with an ACL I assume it was gone as soon as the first knock happened

Who is next man up at fly half after Biggar? He's been really suited to that "closer" role off the bench, do you think he's automatically the starter or is there someone else who could do what Anscombe did from the start

[Luckless Pedestrian]

Awful news. I did fear the worst, when he went down the second time.

I wonder whether Gatland might look at Evans to start on the weekend now and leave Biggar as the player to come on?

He'll have to, won't he? Evans needs all the game time he can get now.

[RiscaGame]

I would say he has to.

[Soul Requiem]

Terrible news that, Anscombe was instrumental in Wales winning the grand slam this year and it worked so well having Biggar coming on later in the game.

[robbo277]

It is terrible news for Anscombe and bad news for Wales as well.

Would echo what some have said, Gatland's approach from here will be interesting. Does he go with Biggar to start and bring someone in from the bench? Or try to use Biggar as a finisher with a different starter?

I think he's got the game this weekend and the two against Ireland to experiment, but I'd imagine it would be Biggar to start.

[formerly known as Sam]

You'd assume Bigger will be wrapped in cotton wool now. To lose him as well would be a huge blow to Wales chances.

[tigertattie]

Gutted for him.

You can’t wrap Biggar in cotton wool as he’d go into the WC undercooked. The worst thing Biggar can do now is play with avoiding injury in the back of his mind. You need to play how you always do. Worrying about injury and then going into things not fully committed is then increasing the risk of injury.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

If you were trying to put a positive spin on it, you'd say it's better that it happened in the first warm-up game than in the last, or during the tournament itself.

[Sponsored content]