The Silver Fern

Wales best game of the tournament, but not enough to beat a strong and confident French team. N'tamack was sublime. Is he the world's best 1st Five ? Russell can be brillant but is rocks and diamonds. You rarely see N'tamack make blunders.

@MiketheSnow But where to now for Wales, Mike? Ok get players contracts/pay sorted, but after that? Coaches have already been swapped out. Some older players need to be dropped but not all. Wales is a proud rugby country. Need a new direction/thought pattern and fast.

@MiketheSnow said in Scotland v Wales 6N:

@pooler-fan said in Scotland v Wales 6N:

@Catogrande not seen anything of Jenkins but Costelow at the Scarlets also has serious potential at 10.
Not sure what position Bristol player Ioan Lloyd or his brother Jac will end up playing but are also very talented.
Wales haven't blooded enough new talent since the last RWC & it's now coming back to bite us.

Costelow is this year’s Colin Stephens

Now THAT is a brutal insult.

@Bovidae said in Wales v Ireland 6N:

@mariner4life said in Wales v Ireland 6N:

Garlands old men were fucking average too. AWJ, Tipuric and Faletau were liabilities, too slow of foot. They also aren't fit enough

I'd include Owens and North as well. But are the next tier any good? The Welsh scrum is still a liability.

Gatland's biggest mistake of this selection was not having Tompkins inloved

@booboo said in Wales v Georgia:

@Catogrande said in Wales v Georgia:

@Kiwiwomble

Just what is wrong with having the traditional colours with ONE back up change?

England have gone from white unless a clash, in which case black, to all the colours of the fucking rainbow including purple FFS and for no real reason at all, save for trying to milk a few quid. If ever there was an example of the law of diminishing returns better than that, I’d, well I’d cheer on Wales!

Why would England's change strip not be red? Or maybe blue?

Why would it?

Traditionally it was always black, though hardly ever used. Not sure why black but there you are, it is what it is. Until the marketing fluffybunnies get involved.

@MiketheSnow said in Wales v Argentina 12 Nov 22:

I must have been watching a different match

When the stadium announcer said ‘and today’s MOTM is…’

Everyone around me said Tomos Williams

He is everything wrong with Welsh rugby

Faletau put a tremendous shift in

But Tompkins MOTM for me

Without him we don’t look like scoring

North must be pound for pound the weakest player in the Welsh team

Dyer went well again

LRZ looked very comfortable at 15

Terrible coaching putting Rowlands back on

Or maybe gunshy from all the head knocks ?

@Nepia said in All Blacks vs Wales:

Dagg showing that maybe the standard of education at fancy pants private schools isn't that great. 😉

Well this is triggering cc: @Magpie_in_aus

The first 15 minutes were pretty crazy. Welsh tackle count ? and penalty count? It was pretty impressive from the Boks. The guys left a few tries out there but still won pretty comfortably after their week off. Thought Carley was decent but the turf at CT stadium needs sorting asap. Trevor N and PTSD still need gametime imo. Hope the guys enjoyed sinking a few together afterwards because it really was a tense tight series and I think that next year‘s World Cup is lining up to be a pretty tight affair as well where small margins are going to make a big difference. The Welsh Irish French Scots and Argies will all be looking to get their names engraved for the first time with arguably more justifiable hope than ever before. Love it.
Lastly…Quick off topic shout out to Chile for beating USA 👌🏻

@Billy-Webb said in Springboks v Wales 2nd Test:

Congrats to Wales. Enjoy @MiketheSnow

2 comments:

Most undeserved YC I've ever seen. Hard luck to AWJ. I can only imagine how spitting mad any Welshman must have been.

Not a terrible outing for the Boks. In the final reckoning, the inexperience and at times lack of combination time showed. But the players will be better for it. Some of them will have advanced their claims, while others are clearly still work in progress.

Looking forward to the series decider this weekend. I'll be there and expect / hope for a good one.

Cheers

Agreed on both counts

Enjoy

@gibbon-rib worked for Barnes.

@profitius said in 6N 2022 : Wales v Italy:

It's not a great time for Welsh rugby. They've an aging team, their u20s only beat a rabble of a Scottish side and all their regions look like missing out on the top 8 of the URC. Meanwhile the WRU have just built a hotel. Priorities!

If five of our best performers this 6N had been selected to start - Francis, Rowlands, Basham, Cuthbert, Liam Williams - the result would have been very different

And Scott Williams should have been brought in at 12 from the start

Colin Charvis speaking on BBC Wales Scrum V was correct

You don’t become a shit team overnight

A better game plan with the players we have and we get different results

For that reason, the first to go is Pivac

NOW

Shit selections
No real, modern game plan

Then Jones
Unless he’s toeing the Pivac line

And the new hotel is magnificent and a far better return on investment than Pivac

I think this game suggests you can gas the big French forwards. Biggar's kicking game was superb and turned around the big munters at times.

@mikethesnow said in 6N 2022 : England v Wales:

@mariner4life said in 6N 2022 : England v Wales:

@mikethesnow said in 6N 2022 : England v Wales:

However, despite gaining loads of metres when he was brought down it either resulted in turnover ball or a penalty for holding on.

i noted a couple of very good Welsh breaks came to nothing because the support play was absolute zero. There were white jerseys everywhere scrambling, and not a red jersey in sight.

Cuthbert the best line breaker on the day and the worst culprit of running away from support

That game epitomised Cuthbert for me. All the physical attributes but just not very bright. Also i think that England missed an opportunity to put the ball behind him as his positioning is a bit suss and he has the turning circle of a supertanker.

On the money yet again

Squidge take inlcuding "It's almost ineviatable that some coaches have some areas of the game they don't understand as well as others... Gregor Townsend doesn't really understand the scrum, Warren Gatland attack, or Ian Foster rugby"

@duluth And that three-match ban will become a two-match ban ...

The No.8 will miss the Brumbies’ Super Rugby Pacific trial matches against the NSW Waratahs on January 29 and the Brumbies’ development team the following week plus their competition opener against Moana Pasifika on February 18.

But Valetini can opt to complete a Head Contact Process Coaching Intervention course to have his ban reduced to two matches.

That avenue is available to offending players in the hope of modifying specific techniques and technical issues that contributed to the foul play.

I hadn't realised that that option to complete a Head Contact Process Coaching Intervention replace one of the matches a player is suspended for, had been adopted for the November internationals. Is it part of the law trials, or is it an official rule now? I only remember it being trialled by the the U20s a few years ago.

By the way, that a game of the Brumbies development team counts towards his suspension is ridiculous.

Some beautiful tries in that match.

Red was 100% from the highlights vid.

@pakman said in Wales v South Africa:

I haven't watched a Squidge video for while, forgot what they're like and made the mistake of trying to watch at 1x speed

@no-quarter said in Wales v All Blacks 30th Oct NH Tour:

@crazy-horse said in Wales v All Blacks 30th Oct NH Tour:

@stodders said in Wales v All Blacks 30th Oct NH Tour:

Did anyone read the player ratings today in the Sunday Times by Mr S Jones. Barrett was lucky to get a 6/10 and is almost as overrated as SBW. He does make me chuckle, especially when he's salty 🤣. He did v much enjoy the English win over NZ today. Is he really Welsh still?

Haven't read what Jones wrote, but I too am not as excited about BB's performance as most seem to be. It was typical BB in that he showed he is a very very good rugby player but an average International 10 in other aspects.

At the moment we have 2 flawed 10s, so the challenge for the coaches is how to best use their strengths. Right now they appear to prefer Beauden starting with Mo'unga on the bench, and I agree with that approach.

Beauden handles the physical stuff better, is a solid defender, and is not afraid to run straight and hard when required. He's also worth 1 - 3 tries per game at any stage pretty much out of nowhere. He's a nightmare to defend as you can't take your eye off him for a second or he'll burn you. However, he won't take control of a tight test and drive the team around the park as you'd expect a traditional 10 to do.

Mo'unga looks a million bucks when his forward pack is bitch slapping the opposition all over the park (Saders), is lethal in open play and comes into his own towards the end of the game when defenses are tiring. He also has a better kicking game from hand. However, he doesn't handle the physical teams well at all, and has gone missing against the English and the Boks when they've had our pack on the back foot, so is also unable to take control of a tight test. He's also a poor defender so doesn't often defend in the line as other teams will target him.

Given their attributes, I can understand the preference for Beauden starting, though it can be horses for courses a bit depending on the opposition.

That's spot on in my opinion even though I rank Richie as the better overall 10 (and BB has lost some of his outrageous slinky acceleration). If Jordie is kicking conversions I agree with the selection (sorry, Crusader fans, I can only defend your team for so long).