Wales International Rugby Summer 23 onwards.

First topic message reminder :

As the pages were going over 20 shortly, I’ve had to start a new thread. This is still the place to discuss the U20s, the women and everything else internationally. Updated RWC 23 squad below.

Forwards (25)

Corey Domachowski (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd– uncapped)
Kemsley Mathias (Scarlets – uncapped)
Nicky Smith (Ospreys / Gweilch– 42 caps)
Gareth Thomas (Ospreys /Gweilch – 21 caps)
Elliot Dee (Dragons / Dregiau– 41 caps)
Ryan Elias (Scarlets – 33 caps)
Dewi Lake (Ospreys / Gweilch – 8 caps)
Sam Parry (Ospreys / Gweilch – 5 caps)
Keiron Assiratti (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd– uncapped)
Tomas Francis (Ospreys / Gweilch – 71 caps)
Dillon Lewis (Harlequins – 50 caps)
Henry Thomas (Montpellier – uncapped)
Adam Beard (Ospreys / Gweilch– 46 caps)
Ben Carter (Dragons / Dregiau– 9 caps)
Rhys Davies (Ospreys / Gweilch – 2 caps)
Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs / Caerwysg – 6 caps)
Will Rowlands (Dragons / Dregiau – 23 caps)
Christ Tshiunza (Exeter Chiefs / Caerwysg – 5 caps)
Teddy Williams (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd– uncapped)
Taine Basham (Dragons / Dregiau – 11 caps)
Taulupe Faletau (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 100 caps)
Dan Lydiate (Dragons / Dregiau – 68 caps)
Jac Morgan (Ospreys / Gweilch – 9 caps)
Tommy Reffell (Leicester Tigers / Caerlŷr– 9 caps)
Aaron Wainwright (Dragons / Dregiau – 37 caps)

Backs (22)

Gareth Davies (Scarlets – 67 caps)
Kieran Hardy (Scarlets – 17 caps)
Tomos Williams (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 45 caps)
Gareth Anscombe (unattached – 35 caps)
Dan Biggar (Toulon – 107 caps)
Sam Costelow (Scarlets – 2 caps)
Owen Williams (Ospreys / Gweilch – 7 caps)
Mason Grady (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 2 caps)
Max Llewellyn (Gloucester Rugby / Caerloyw – uncapped)
George North (Ospreys / Gweilch – 113 caps)
Joe Roberts (Scarlets – uncapped)
Nick Tompkins (Saracens – 27 caps)
Johnny Williams (Scarlets – 5 caps)
Keiran Williams (Ospreys / Gweilch – uncapped)
Josh Adams (Cardiff Rugby / Caerdydd – 49 caps)
Alex Cuthbert (Ospreys / Gweilch – 57 caps)
Rio Dyer (Dragons / Dregiau – 7 caps)
Cai Evans (Ospreys/ Gweilch – uncapped)
Leigh Halfpenny (unattached – 99 caps)
Louis Rees-Zammit (Gloucester Rugby / Caerloyw– 25 caps)
Tom Rogers (Scarlets – 2 caps)
Liam Williams (Cardiff Rugby/ Caerdydd – 84 caps)

Yeah, somehow we’ve got back to 13-19 without doing much!

Really can’t believe we are currently within six.

Good to see Wainwright back in form. Dragons need him firing too. Badly.

Momentum changed when Australia spilled the ball from the restart at 19-0.

Since then, been all Wales.

Rogers is playing well too, overall. But if Rio Dyer had missed his man like Murray did for one try, the inquest at CF10 and Llanelli would still be ongoing now.

Interesting first half. Good to see some common sense decisions from the ref around some of the head contacts. Also good to see him ping the Oz scrum when they face plant (could have done with him last week). Only thing that puzzled me was Wales did a lovely sliding flick up from off the floor when the ball went loose from a restart, but I thought you weren't allowed to play the ball when off your feet?

Wales have their tails up now so could be a great 2nd half.

RC incoming

Would like to say that's an obvious 20 minute red...but who knows with the consistency of officiating!

Yeah, about that consistency...

That's an obvious yellow.

We'll Wales pretty lucky not to get a card of their own there

But Aus score from the pen and take the gap out again

Puzzled how a shoulder to the chin isn't yellow?

Ellis Bevan was soo lucky. Not sure how he dodged a card.

I'm retracting my earlier statement about the ref making good decisions re head contact - that one was just bizarre ...

Heaf wrote:Puzzled how a shoulder to the chin isn't yellow?

The arm to the chin from the 9 on 9? Looked a fair call at a penalty but if that's a red for Kerevi then it does look generous. Thought Kerevi was shoulder on shoulder that bounced up to head on head and that yellow was enough.

Jeez, we’re such a pushover.

Well the RC does not seem to have done Wales any favours

They have gone right off the boil again and a mountain to climb now

I also thought the first one was shoulder to shoulder, but I also thought the 2nd one was shoulder to chin - maybe needed another replay

Wales not really got the hang of this man advantage thing.

BigGee wrote:Well  the RC does not seem to have done Wales any favours

They have gone right off the boil again and a mountain to climb now

They like a comeback though so wouldn't rule them out just yet

Duty281 wrote:Wales not really got the hang of this man advantage thing.

Another 6 mins and it will be back to 15 on 15 and they can start playing again ...

Heaf wrote:I also thought the first one was shoulder to shoulder, but I also thought the 2nd one was shoulder to chin - maybe needed another replay

Problem was he was leading with his shoulder and upright, everything wrong with the technique, even if he only glanced his head it was very dangerous

Those are exactly the tackles we want out if the game

BigGee wrote:

Heaf wrote:I also thought the first one was shoulder to shoulder, but I also thought the 2nd one was shoulder to chin - maybe needed another replay

Problem was he was leading with his shoulder and upright, everything wrong with the technique, even if he only glanced his head it was very dangerous

Those are exactly the tackles we want out if the game

I'm OK with the red - just can't square it with a shoulder to the chin being just a pen

Elias doing Elias things again. Would not have made the front row changes before the first one, in a good position.

Oh heck.

Heaf wrote:

BigGee wrote:

Heaf wrote:I also thought the first one was shoulder to shoulder, but I also thought the 2nd one was shoulder to chin - maybe needed another replay

Problem was he was leading with his shoulder and upright, everything wrong with the technique, even if he only glanced his head it was very dangerous

Those are exactly the tackles we want out if the game

I'm OK with the red - just can't square it with a shoulder to the chin being just a pen

Agreed, the other was a YC all day long

Inches from being another 20 minute red.

Australia win the RC spell 21-0.

Duty281 wrote:Inches from being another 20 minute red.

Australia win the RC spell 21-0.

Pathetic from Wales, isn’t it?!

Wales suffering at the line-out big time

Not able to watch the game. Are Oz playing well or is it wales being poor?

Heaf wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Wales not really got the hang of this man advantage thing.

Another 6 mins and it will be back to 15 on 15 and they can start playing again ...

Told ya ...

Its a good job we are not playing Georgia anytime soon. Right now we would lose to them....

tigertattie wrote:Not able to watch the game. Are Oz playing well or is it wales being poor?

Bit of both

Oz getting loose now

OK a Wales comeback now is unlikely

In all honesty we need a miracle not to get the wooden spoon in the next 6 nations. We dont even have many options to change things either. I just hope both the regions and WRU come together and start planning some residency based signings for 5 years from now or at least go heavily into development for youngsters but our U20 system hasnt got a big pool of talent either in it.....so I dont think that is an option for us at the moment. We can forget 2027 and at this point should start looking at 2031 as a realistic target.

Schmidt has done a good job with Aus and let’s be fair, it was a big job!

Wales and the Gatland-Howley combo are an embarrassment. Must be loving his 600K per year.

We would have smashed ‘em if this game was on a Saturday!

Radradra red card v Wales - Fiji scored the next 18 points
Kerevi red card v Wales - Australia scored the next 21* points

Russ Petty on X

Christ, look at all the empty seats in the top tier. Gotta be a pretty low attendance.

Yeah he got us a lot of success in his first stint but we had better forward and defence coaches back then. Plus the game was different back then. I'm not a fan of hiring coaches back for a second time. It rarely works out for them.

In all fairness as I said before I dont think it even matters. We simply dont have the experience, talent or strength in depth required. Look at our regions - none of them have viable option in the tight 5 and they are all getting beaten up in the URC. We have a couple of guys but at international rugby you really need 16 top end forwards if we want to be a tier 1 nation. Right now we dont even have a front 8 at that level.

TAFKA The Oracle wrote:Christ, look at all the empty seats in the top tier. Gotta be a pretty low attendance.

I said this would happen given the prices and win rate. There is no way in hell the WRU will make 100 million in turnover in 2025. I can see the last 40 million of reserves disappearing next year if they are not careful......

mikey_dragon wrote:Schmidt has done a good job with Aus and let’s be fair, it was a big job!

Wales and the Gatland-Howley combo are an embarrassment. Must be loving his 600K per year.

Schmidt has a brilliant ability to simplify the game, get teams to buy in and build a direct system with scope for players to express themselves. He was a brilliant appointment for Australia and he's turning them around.

Wales need shot of Gatland. There might not be a legendary group of players for him to select from but there's no excuse for a set of results this bad.

Atrocious from Wales and they've got South Africa next week!

Australia looking like they have the foundations of a promising team, but they've been up against two woeful defences recently. Scotland/Ireland might prove a better barometer of their progress.

Mike Phillips was right then, and to think the worshipers went after him (virtually).

formerly known as Sam wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Schmidt has done a good job with Aus and let’s be fair, it was a big job!

Wales and the Gatland-Howley combo are an embarrassment. Must be loving his 600K per year.

Schmidt has a brilliant ability to simplify the game, get teams to buy in and build a direct system with scope for players to express themselves. He was a brilliant appointment for Australia and he's turning them around.

Wales need shot of Gatland. There might not be a legendary group of players for him to select from but there's no excuse for a set of results this bad.

Agree with you on all of that. I said we should have let go of Gatland after the World Cup - some people fail to realise we weren’t that good at the World Cup….

I’ve never been a fan of Gatland. I’ve always been of the opinion that he took a decent squad of players and had them all playing the way he wanted and when that squad went, or when he had the lions, his lack of flexibility and adaptability were evident.

Now that he doesn’t have an embarrassment of riches he’s looking exposed.

Surely he’s getting his jotters after the autumn?

Gatland sounds like he knows his time is up

tigertattie wrote:I’ve never been a fan of Gatland. I’ve always been of the opinion that he took a decent squad of players and had them all playing the way he wanted and when that squad went, or when he had the lions, his lack of flexibility and adaptability were evident.

Now that he doesn’t have an embarrassment of riches he’s looking exposed.

Surely he’s getting his jotters after the autumn?

Gatland was good at bringing together a physical and direct style of rugby that really suited the players Wales had available at the time. He's never had much success moving away from that core strategy and now Wales don't have the players to operate in that way things are indeed dire.

If he offers to go again the WRU should bite his hand off. Who they'd bring in next would be a big question though. Leon MacDonald is out of work and would be an obvious option, not often someone or his calibre is available.

Watching the Gatland interview, he wants out.
When a coach says he wants to talk to his wife and the sacrifices he has made to come back to Wales need to be weighed up. He looks broken and with SA next....

Record 11 losses in a row, cant see that ending with SA next, and away to France first game in 6 nations, then away to Italy is best chance to end it, but I think Italy at home against this Wales side would start favourites, lose that and could end 6nations with record 17 losses in a row. Not a good position to be in, as said previously not sure if change of coach will change much, its Wales under 20s not finishing in top 3 in U20 6 nations since 2017 and being last or 2nd last, the last few years thats lead to Wales reaching this low point, need to address the underage systems to have a sufficent number of quality underage players getting game time for regions and then Wales, before Wales will be a force again.

Recwatcher16 wrote:Watching the Gatland interview,  he wants out.
When a coach says he wants to talk to his wife and the sacrifices he has made to come back to Wales need to be weighed up. He looks broken and with SA next....

SA by 90 then.