Quarter Finals and Wales

First topic message reminder :

There is a lot of speculation amongst Wales fans that they face a real chance of going out in the pool stages. Which leads me onto these question. Will the Welsh be satisfied with a quarter final exit? Will or Should it keep Gatlands job safe and would a quarter final defeat depend on the opposition (i.e. Australia or Ireland).

Would you accept a quater final exit as acceptable?

But seriously.

Do Welsh supporters really believe that their team won't make the quarters?

I would say that Scottish fans have less to be optimistic about in a number of respects and I'm still going to regard it as a disaster if we cannot beat Argentina in the pool stages.

Especially given how nice our new navy and gold shirt is.

maestegmafia wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Maesteg, do you have your record against Oz to hand? Sorry for being lazy

Oz 29 - 23 WAL 2007
OZ 31 - 0 WAL 2007

WAL 20 - 32 OZ 2008
WAL 21 - 18 OZ 2008

WAL 12 - 33 OZ 2009

WAL 16 - 25 OZ 2010

Cheers for those

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Maesteg, do you have your record against Oz to hand? Sorry for being lazy

Oz 29 - 23 WAL 2007
OZ 31 - 0 WAL 2007

WAL 20 - 32 OZ 2008
WAL 21 - 18 OZ 2008

WAL 12 - 33 OZ 2009

WAL 16 - 25 OZ 2010

Cheers for those

No worries mate

any one got the wales V new zealand results handy.

on second thoughts, please dont post those

dogtooth wrote:any one got the wales V new zealand results handy.

on second thoughts, please dont post those

There arent many teams that have decent results against NZ...

i do like this one though

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/international/4023029.stm

I think it's realistic to expect Wales to go to the quarter finals. Looking at the quality of defending in this years Pacific Nations Cup there is no reason why Wales shouldn't beat both teams fairly easily.

I think Wales do have the advantage going into both the games against Samoa and Fiji, firstly unlike previous World Cups, both these teams must pull out all the stops to beat each other as well as beat Wales so it's not as if it's an all or nothing on one game like in previous years. they will have to raise their game twice not just once. As much as their is a romantic history between Wales verses Samoa and Fiji, the reality is Fiji and Samoa will be more concerned with each other. Fiji and Samoa is their equivalent of Wales verses England.

Secondly even in the defeat to Fiji in the 2007 World Cup the referee on the day Stuart Dickinson (Australia) let Fiji get away murder, quite literally, the amount of yellow cars that should of been issued for late tackles (2 on Popham alone), high tackles (Dwayne Peel) and dangerous tackles was plain silly. If you actually sit down and watch the game again, knowing your team is going to lose so there is no emotion and watch what Fiji were allowed to get away with, you's wonder how Dickinson is allowed to referee test matches.
I actually checked to make sure he wasn't selected to referee in this World Cup and thankfully he isn't!
I'm not saying Wales lost because of Dickinson but if he had refereed within the laws of the game then Fiji would of been down to 13 men for most of the match, and they wouldn't of won under those conditions. In fact when Fiji did have a man yellow carded for kneeing Stephen Jones in the groin, several seconds after they'd been warned for very late tackle on Popham, Wales went on the rampage and scored several tries in that 10 minutes.
This time it will be Wayne Barnes (England) and Alain Rowlands (Ireland) refereeing, and they won't show much mercy to dangerous play. Rowlands will send a player off for almost nothing and he is always very kind to Wales. Barnes is also very strict and isn't afraid to put people in the bin. That will help Wales a lot.

A lot of factors conspired against Wales to help them lose. Stephen Jones had an awful day with place kicking hitting the post on 3 occasions whilst missing several more shots. Matthew Rees had a shocker with his line out throwing putting Wales under real pressure at times. He has improved immeasurably in this area. Gareth Thomas had a shocker too.

Another thing to consider if Fiji are actually weaker now than in 2007. Their scrum got totally minced on the day and Graham Dawes (loose head) and Sunia Koto (Hooker) are still in the team. Matthew Rees and Gethin Jenkins hammered them, and in the current Wales team Chris Horeman will be replaced by Adam Jones, while Fiji will have Deacon Manu at tight head and he often gets stuffed by Gethin Jenkins in Blues verses Scarlets games.
Their lineout was average while Wales has improved a lot.

Finally Wales are much more aggressive these days, and are much harder to intimidate. Rees has come into his own, Bradley Davies gives Wales grunt and we are a much harder team to beat. Provided Wales don't kick loose ball into open play Wales should beat Samoa and Fiji. Provided Wales has Jamie Roberts marking Seru Rabeni in the center, we will be fine because many of Fiji's opportunities came from him simply smashing Hook out of the way.

27 Nov 2010 Wales 25 - 37 New Zealand
26 Jun 2010 New Zealand 29 - 10 Wales
19 Jun 2010 New Zealand 42 - 9 Wales
07 Nov 2009 Wales 12 - 19 New Zealand
22 Nov 2008 Wales 9 - 29 New Zealand
25 Nov 2006 Wales 10 - 45 New Zealand
05 Nov 2005 Wales 3 - 41 New Zealand
20 Nov 2004 Wales 25 - 26 New Zealand
02 Nov 2003 New Zealand 53 - 37 Wales
21 Jun 2003 New Zealand 55 - 3 Wales
23 Nov 2002 Wales 17 - 43 New Zealand
29 Nov 1997 New Zealand 42 - 7 Wales
31 May 1995 New Zealand 34 - 9 Wales
04 Nov 1989 Wales 9 - 34 New Zealand
11 Jun 1988 New Zealand 54 - 9 Wales

So not quite as bad as all that.

Although obviously, not great.
:run2:

"Finally Wales are much more aggressive these days, and are much harder to intimidate. Rees has come into his own, Bradley Davies gives Wales grunt and we are a much harder team to beat."


That almost sounds like a Welsh fan giving Warren Gatland some credit

I still dont see what you guys rate so highly in Rees, nice pass but nothing else. I hope he isnt in the Squad.

damngoodOvalball wrote:Furthermore, you dont get to play all your games at home like you did last time. You actually have to leave Wales and travel to New Zealand like the other teams. Uh oh!!

Last time I checked, Nantes is in France.

maestegmafia wrote:I still dont see what you guys rate so highly in Rees, nice pass but nothing else. I hope he isnt in the Squad.

I always assumed it was just the anti-Gatland brigade wanting to make the point that they don't want players like Phillips and Peel involved because they would be being picked on "reputation". Rees is therefore the perfect pick, because (quite rightly) he has no reputation.

funnyExiledScot wrote:"Finally Wales are much more aggressive these days, and are much harder to intimidate. Rees has come into his own, Bradley Davies gives Wales grunt and we are a much harder team to beat."


That almost sounds like a Welsh fan giving Warren Gatland some credit

Well as much as Wales fans hate the way Gatland likes Wales to play, i.e. no taking risks and controlled percentage rugby, it's EXACTLY the way we need to play against Fiji. In 2007 Wales were reckless and made mistakes which gave Fiji about 3 tries in 10 minutes as a result of panicking, I can't see that happening to this Wales team. Their much older now and far more streetwise. I'd like to see Hook at fly half though, as Jones has a nasty habbit of kicking it long in field and we don't want Fiji to hit us on the counter attack. We will also need to have a lot of players protecting the ball at the break down, Wales are so idiotic at times where we put 2-3 men to protect the ruck and those players simply get bashed out the way by higher numbers from our opponents, leading to turnovers.

maestegmafia wrote:

dogtooth wrote:any one got the wales V new zealand results handy.

on second thoughts, please dont post those

There arent many teams that have decent results against NZ...

i do like this one though

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/international/4023029.stm

was that really so long ago.

George Carlin wrote:
07 Nov 2009 Wales 12 - 19 New Zealand

i was there for that match, it was when carter high tackled he old scarlet scrum half (roberts?) who would have scored if it had not been for the tackle and the ref played on, carter got man of the match that game and was the first time i heard carter get booed by welsh fans.

welshy824 wrote:

George Carlin wrote:
07 Nov 2009 Wales 12 - 19 New Zealand

i was there for that match, it was when carter high tackled he old scarlet scrum half (roberts?) who would have scored if it had not been for the tackle and the ref played on, carter got man of the match that game and was the first time i heard carter get booed by welsh fans.

Even the female fans...!