WALES INTERNATIONAL: GAMES, SQUADS, TOURNAMENTS, CHAT - SUMMER TOUR & SEASON 2022/23

First topic message reminder :

Here it is:

Springbok team to face Wales in Cape Town:
15 – Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers) – 17 caps, 12 pts (1t, 2c, 1p)
14 – Cheslin Kolbe (Toulon) – 19 caps 18pts, 50pts (10t)
13 – Lukhanyo Am (Cell C Sharks) – 27 caps, 25 pts (5t)
12 – Damian de Allende (Wild Knights) – 59 caps, 35 pts (7t)
11 – Makazole Mapimpi (Cell C Sharks) – 26 caps, 100 pts (20t)
10 – Handre Pollard (Leicester Tigers) – 61 caps, 613 pts (6t, 83c, 131p, 4d)
9 – Jaden Hendrikse (Cell C Sharks) – 3 caps, 5 pts (1t)
8 – Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers) – 12 caps, 0 pts
7 – Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz) – 59 caps, 25 pts (5t)
6 – Siya Kolisi (captain, Cell C Sharks) – 64 caps, 30 pts (6t)
5 – Lood de Jager (Wild Knights) – 57 caps, 25 pts (5t)
4 – Eben Etzebeth (Cell C Sharks) – 99 caps, 15 pts (3t)
3 – Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers) – 47 caps, 5pts (1t)
2 – Bongi Mbonambi (Cell C Sharks) – 49 caps, 50 pts (10t)
1 – Trevor Nyakane (Racing 92) – 55 caps, 5pts (1t)

Replacements:
16 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 48 caps, 55 pts (11t)
17 – Steven Kitshoff (DHL Stormers) – 60 caps, 5pts (1t)
18 – Vincent Koch (Wasps) 33 caps, 0 pts
19 – Franco Mostert (Honda Heat) – 52 caps, 5pts (1t)
20 – Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs) – 20 caps, 5 pts (1t)
21 – Elrigh Louw (Vodacom Bulls) – 1 cap, 0pts
22 – Faf de Klerk (Canon Eagles) – 37caps, 25pts (5t)
23 – Willie le Roux (Toyota Verblitz) – 73 caps, 60 pts (12t)

carpet baboon wrote:Is AWJ injured?

Rested with next week in mind.

No, Pivac read a tweet suggesting he's passed it, so decided to drop him.

mikey_dragon wrote:No, Pivac read a tweet suggesting he's passed it, so decided to drop him.

past*

Only messing Mikey. To be honest we know what AWJ brings to the party & it will be a good chance for us to see what Daf can bring. From what I have read, it sounds like the management have a good communication relationship with Baxter & the coaching set up down at Exeter & he won't be available next weekend so lets go. Beard seems to have gone slightly off the boil recently so hopefully he can get back to a bit of his better form.

I can never tell the difference, but at least I know the difference between there and their!

mikey_dragon wrote:I can never tell the difference, but at least I know the difference between there and their!

Easy one this

PasT - T as in time. In the past.
Passed - no T but “ed”. He passed him the ball

Cuthbert is past his best

Ye Welsh fans must be seriously pulling out your hair right now.
Not that Georgia are a bad side and they are playing well but Wales just look disjointed.

Has to be sacked.

We will probably hold on, but I want us to lose to really drive home the point.

This is embarrassing.

Brilliant stuff.

Yeah Pivac has resided over home losses to Italy and now Georgia. People like chris will still say he’s doing well.

Georgia weren’t even good. Absolutely awful.

Owen Watkin took up first phase ball into two men with one player within 10m and was turned over. Summed it up - disgraceful

mikey_dragon wrote:Yeah Pivac has resided over home losses to Italy and now Georgia. People like chris will still say he’s doing well.

I’m sure you’ll take pleasure in being the happiest man in Wales tonight then Mikey. I still can’t believe it’s Pivac telling Cuthbert to run sideways into touch though.

Wow, savage for Georgia. What a win for them

Wales... Rudderless and no direction...

WOW... just WOW... utterly pathetic from Wales, was a total embarrassment that effort from the Welsh team was. Beaten at home by Italy and Georiga in the same season.

chris_501 wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Yeah Pivac has resided over home losses to Italy and now Georgia. People like chris will still say he’s doing well.

I’m sure you’ll take pleasure in being the happiest man in Wales tonight then Mikey. I still can’t believe it’s Pivac telling Cuthbert to run sideways into touch though.

He put him there. Why not play Dyer, who needs more international experience?

chris_501 wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Yeah Pivac has resided over home losses to Italy and now Georgia. People like chris will still say he’s doing well.

I’m sure you’ll take pleasure in being the happiest man in Wales tonight then Mikey. I still can’t believe it’s Pivac telling Cuthbert to run sideways into touch though.

You got to tell lies like this to ‘try and get one over’, where-as I just tell the truth and you get triggered. Tell us again how Pivac is doing well, go on?

Georgia were good and what a try but Wales utterly woeful.
That was embarrassing.

Amazing win for Georgia well done to them, they're continuing to make strides forward as a rugby nation and it's great to see. They were only narrowly beaten by Samoa last week, due to a late try. It's been a great autumn for Georgia.

Wales...this might be the lowest point for them in quite a while. But they picked themselves up from the NZ defeat to beat Argentina...same again with Australia next?

…and no disrespect to Italy or Georgia. Both have improved in recent years. Everyone has improved except for Wales!

What a shock that was.
I am not a big Welsh fan but i would of bet any money Wales would beat Georgia any day.

That performance was indefensible.

mikey_dragon wrote:…and no disrespect to Italy or Georgia. Both have improved in recent years. Everyone has improved except for Wales!

Wales are truly going backwards at a rate of knots. Pivac is seriously not the man to take Wales to the World Cup, he must go now and give someone else enough time to build something. There may not be a lot of funds but the Wales job is still one of the biggest jobs out there.

eirebilly_01 wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:…and no disrespect to Italy or Georgia. Both have improved in recent years. Everyone has improved except for Wales!

Wales are truly going backwards at a rate of knots. Pivac is seriously not the man to take Wales to the World Cup, he must go now and give someone else enough time to build something. There may not be a lot of funds but the Wales job is still one of the biggest jobs out there.

I’ve said it for years mate, and even to this day there are some around here who think Pivac does well. Saying that, it’ll take a top coach to turn us around, someone in the caliber of Scott Robertson.

mikey_dragon wrote:

eirebilly_01 wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:…and no disrespect to Italy or Georgia. Both have improved in recent years. Everyone has improved except for Wales!

Wales are truly going backwards at a rate of knots. Pivac is seriously not the man to take Wales to the World Cup, he must go now and give someone else enough time to build something. There may not be a lot of funds but the Wales job is still one of the biggest jobs out there.

I’ve said it for years mate, and even to this day there are some around here who think Pivac does well. Saying that, it’ll take a top coach to turn us around, someone in the caliber of Scott Robertson.

At last, you’ve given us your next choice! What happened to Pat Lam? If you think Robertson is going to come to coach us on the budget we’ll have you’re deluded.

Is there time for someone to actually make any difference to Wales now. We all want to see a fully functioning Welsh side but that wasn't close.

mikey_dragon wrote:

eirebilly_01 wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:…and no disrespect to Italy or Georgia. Both have improved in recent years. Everyone has improved except for Wales!

Wales are truly going backwards at a rate of knots. Pivac is seriously not the man to take Wales to the World Cup, he must go now and give someone else enough time to build something. There may not be a lot of funds but the Wales job is still one of the biggest jobs out there.

I’ve said it for years mate, and even to this day there are some around here who think Pivac does well. Saying that, it’ll take a top coach to turn us around, someone in the caliber of Scott Robertson.

There is an Australian Rugby League coach, Des Hasler, who I think would be a great match for Wales. Different code I know but he does know Union...

chris_501 wrote:

At last, you’ve given us your next choice! What happened to Pat Lam? If you think Robertson is going to come to coach us on the budget we’ll have you’re deluded.

I am not sure that it is all about money, there is prestige in coaching one of the biggest countries. Wales is still very much a big job and that may be enough to snatch a good coach.

It's honestly hard to know what exactly Wales could do to improve.  It's obvious Pivac needs to go, but it's hard to point specific players, and say if we brought in these players, we get an improvement, in reality we've probably got our best group of players in the squad.

All you could really do it Steve Hansen it, i.e. scrap the entire set up, and all the old players, and try and develop a group of young players and better ones from the U20's over a few years and hope for the best.  

Even getting rid of Pivac though, underneath that you have a huge coaching team of big name, former professional Welsh international rugby players, most of them former captains, who cannot inspire this group of Welsh players, or get them to play half decent rugby.

This isn’t too dissimilar to the end of Dean Ryan for Dragons. Plenty of people saying who can replace him and we find somebody and then see an upturn in performances. Anybody could do a better job. There are probably lots of coaches with international ambitions and now they would know they have a free pass into the WC.

Argentina last week was a fluke. They were rubbish. We were marginally better and won by a lucky charge down.

Wales is still very much a big job and that may be enough to snatch a good coach.

Its really not. Like Scotland its very much a second tier coaching job with the same issues attracting a coach. Your choice is an up and coming coach looking to make a name, a patriotic welshman or a coach who has either failed in a top job or never made it

TJ wrote:

Wales is still very much a big job and that may be enough to snatch a good coach.

Its really not.  Like Scotland its very much a second tier coaching job with the same issues attracting a coach.  Your choice is an up and coming coach looking to make a name, a patriotic welshman or a coach who has either failed in a top job or never made it

The biggest worry is how poor the regions are doing too. It’s not like Ireland a few years ago when their clubs were performing well, but not reaching those heights internationally. It’s a huge job to get players over performing from their week in week out levels.

TJ wrote:

Wales is still very much a big job and that may be enough to snatch a good coach.

Its really not.  Like Scotland its very much a second tier coaching job with the same issues attracting a coach.  Your choice is an up and coming coach looking to make a name, a patriotic welshman or a coach who has either failed in a top job or never made it

Of course its a big job, Wales are a big part of the 6N and are in the RWC. The passion in Wales for rugby is immense so if ye are a coach, ye would relish the chance of coaching Wales. I do think the WRU do need to think outside the box though. As I said before, Des Hasler would be a perfect fit for me.

The big jobs are NZ SA and England

Why would a top coach at the top of his career go for Wales or Scotland or any of the other second rank teams? they wouldn't

Reckon Wales is an attractive job tbf. Not sure who would come under the umbrella of top coach at the top though? Personally if Jones were sacked tomorrow id what McCall or Robertson who I guess some under up and coming? My fear is Wales offer either of them a job first.

chris_501 wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

eirebilly_01 wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:…and no disrespect to Italy or Georgia. Both have improved in recent years. Everyone has improved except for Wales!

Wales are truly going backwards at a rate of knots. Pivac is seriously not the man to take Wales to the World Cup, he must go now and give someone else enough time to build something. There may not be a lot of funds but the Wales job is still one of the biggest jobs out there.

I’ve said it for years mate, and even to this day there are some around here who think Pivac does well. Saying that, it’ll take a top coach to turn us around, someone in the caliber of Scott Robertson.

At last, you’ve given us your next choice! What happened to Pat Lam? If you think Robertson is going to come to coach us on the budget we’ll have you’re deluded.

We’re just putting names out, Pat Lam was one I put out like 2 years ago? And you’re still going on about it as if you’ve won something. Lam is still a better coach than Pivac, so I don’t get your point. Nobody is more deluded than you who said just a few comments back how Pivac is doing a good job. This narcissism from you is beyond pathetic now.

eirebilly_01 wrote:

TJ wrote:

Wales is still very much a big job and that may be enough to snatch a good coach.

Its really not.  Like Scotland its very much a second tier coaching job with the same issues attracting a coach.  Your choice is an up and coming coach looking to make a name, a patriotic welshman or a coach who has either failed in a top job or never made it

Of course its a big job, Wales are a big part of the 6N and are in the RWC. The passion in Wales for rugby is immense so if ye are a coach, ye would relish the chance of coaching Wales. I do think the WRU do need to think outside the box though. As I said before, Des Hasler would be a perfect fit for me.

He’s just wumming and he’s not very good at it.

The Wales job is definitely a big job, can see Robertson taking it if Pivac is fired.

Seeing as we’re putting names out there, I’m going to raise Steve Borthwick too.

Maybe Andy Farrell too, just kidding.

mikey_dragon wrote:Seeing as we’re putting names out there, I’m going to raise Steve Borthwick too.

You mean the nailed on favourite to take over from Eddie Jones after the World Cup? We can all play the game of ‘name the best coaches in the world’, the fact remains we 1. Are a mess regionally and 2. Don’t have the cash to just throw money at a coach, let alone pay out to the current one.

I would dearly love Borthwick to go to Wales. Not saying he wouldn't be good but I want some entertainment in England games soon!

O'Gara

Jason Holland (Hurricanes) would be my choice, he's pretty cheerful and laid back, but he likes to understand what going on in players heads. He'd need his own back staff though, and has a huge background in Northern Hemisphere rugby, so he's knows Wales reasonably well.

carpet baboon wrote:O'Gara

Rob Baxter .

No 7&1/2 wrote:I would dearly love Borthwick to go to Wales. Not saying he wouldn't be good but I want some entertainment in England games soon!

Bring your cheque book if that's the case. Pinchen the Tigers CEO has said that the club won't stand in the way of him going to England but any other party interested will have to fight to get him out of Leicester.

With Wales losing to Georgia what now for Pivac?
Will he lead Wales to the RWC or will he be removed before then?

majesticimperialman wrote:With Wales losing to Georgia what now for Pivac?
Will he lead Wales to the RWC or will he be removed before then?

Thank the Lord you’re asking the questions that have already been asked. This from the England fan that didn’t know all AI games were on prime. Have a day off and try google, or read some posts before, for half your rubbish

mikey_dragon wrote:

carpet baboon wrote:O'Gara

Rob Baxter .

I think Baxter would be a good fit