[2017 RBS Six Nations] Round 4: Wales v Ireland (11/02/2017)

[valley commando]

I agree when it comes to tipuric, he has been in constant great form for the ospreys and wales for 3 years now, literally never has a bad game, unfortunately for him it was at the time that warburton was on great form and it was keeping him off the 1st team sheet,
our brand of rugby is just non existant , we have gone from warrenball to playing tennis like the ospreys in the 1st games, and then to playing the ball wide over and over again without earning the right too, a bit like the scarlets, there is just no game plan at all

You forgot to add playing like ****e, very much like Cardiff blues

 

[welshoptimist]

You forgot to add playing like ****e, very much like Cardiff blues

lmao yeah I didn't think wales have achieved Cardiff blues's level of playing ****e, yet XD doesn't help we have a small child at full back , think james should be in the wales set up though

 

[ThebigARena]

Surprised by this..NO;

Annoyed..YES;

Frustrated..ABSOLUTELY.

I am not even in the mood for watching this game o. Friday night game, I knew howler had no ******** but this is taking the **** and to try and justify by stupid statement "oh you don't become a bad team overnight " so where has he been the last FIVE years , I'm so infuriated I can't even begin to describe. I am giving up hope as long as this management team stays in charge. Did they not even think of switching George to the left wing where he has always played better, bringing in Steff on the right wing, and shifting Liam to 15 ? 1/2p is not "with it" at present and just does not deserve to be a starter.
Why bother to bring in 7 uncapped players, then stick to the same 23-25 players for the entire championship?

It's difficult to get into the Welsh matchday squad.

Once in the matchday squad, it's difficult to get out.

That sums up Howley - deeply, deeply conservative, afraid to take risks & unable to think outside the box.

Start praying for a miracle on Friday.

 

[valley commando]

Surprised by this..NO;

Annoyed..YES;

Frustrated..ABSOLUTELY.

I am not even in the mood for watching this game o. Friday night game, I knew howler had no ******** but this is taking the **** and to try and justify by stupid statement "oh you don't become a bad team overnight " so where has he been the last FIVE years , I'm so infuriated I can't even begin to describe. I am giving up hope as long as this management team stays in charge. Did they not even think of switching George to the left wing where he has always played better, bringing in Steff on the right wing, and shifting Liam to 15 ? 1/2p is not "with it" at present and just does not deserve to be a starter.
Why bother to bring in 7 uncapped players, then stick to the same 23-25 players for the entire championship?

It's difficult to get into the Welsh matchday squad.

Once in the matchday squad, it's difficult to get out.

That sums up Howley - deeply, deeply conservative, afraid to take risks & unable to think outside the box.

Start praying for a miracle on Friday.

Excellent post, but I'm praying we get stuffed and with luck its bye bye Howler and bye bye Gareth perfect hair Davies because the 2 of them aren't fit for purpose.

 

[TW27BA]

It's only 16 months ago Wales turned over hosts and RWC hopefuls England at Twickenham.

Look what has happened in the interim. Wales supporters have every right to be angry.

 

[valley commando]

Howler is the rugby version of Wenger without the success Wenger has had, our only hope of a victory on Friday and I don't wish injury on anyone but is that a 3 players (all backs)
get injured between now and kick off, he even has Roberts on the bench, so Sam D is the only creative player he can bring on what a dipstick Howler is, he could have at least put Keelan or Steff in place of Roberts.

- - - Updated - - -

Actually just seen a post on Wales on Line comparing Howler to Corbyn, possibly a better comparison than Wenger.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

It's only 16 months ago Wales turned over hosts and RWC hopefuls England at Twickenham.

Look what has happened in the interim. Wales supporters have every right to be angry.

I dunno. I reckon the Welsh fans on here are way too hard on their side. Check the rankings.

http://www.worldrugby.org/rankings/mru

Above a rapidly improving France and a very talented Argentina. Pretty much alongside South Africa and the best Scottish side for a generation. Results and performances are understandably going to fall off with a backup coach. Yes, it wasn't a vintage performance at Murrayfield but any combination of Welsh players could have lost by 16 points. The Scottish tactics were good and executed to near perfection for large periods of the game. Howley wants to give those players a chance to redeem themselves rather than throw them under the bus. I'd like to see some experimentation now Wales can't win the tournament but I can see where Howley is coming from.

I'm just not sure what Welsh fans were realistically expecting from the tournament this year. No team is scoring a shedload of points (barring against Italy) and there are hardly any bonus points being claimed. Two wins in this tournament is a decent return for Wales, Scotland and France. Three would be pretty outstanding and Wales still have an outside chance of that.

 

[munstermuffin]

Bruce_ma_goose does rankings are deceiving. They tell of a medium term form but not how a team is playing etc.

 

[BPM]

What starting team do most Welsh fans want to see??

From an outsiders POV the more obvious changes would be to bring Faletau, Sam Davies and switching out one of North or Halfpenny to make way for Giles or Evans, but beyond that, I'm not sure too many more changes would be an improvement?

Faletau is only just back from injury and when Moriarty has been playing so well, I can understand why Howley would keep him in the side. Perhaps Moriarty could have been moved to 6, but then Howley would have had to have dropped Warburton (or more likely) Tipuric. When the back row has arguably been Wales' best performing unit, that doesn't make a huge amount of sense.

Sam Davies is clearly a special talent but I'd question whether a game of this magnitude is the right time to throw him in at the deep-end. He is a fairly obvious improvement over Biggar in attack, but there is a very real possibility that Ireland will be on top and Biggar's experience may be more valuable.

Re. the back three, Halfpenny has been fairly inconspicuous and North has looked poor. I think there's an argument for both having their place in the side under review, but as with Davies, I can understand why Howley is going for experience over two uncapped players.

I don't understand why you'd pick Jamie Roberts on the bench though? The 23 shirt should have gone to Giles or Evans for sure.

 

[corny]

Saw a stat somewhere that said Ireland had capped 17 new players since the WC and Wales had capped just 3. Not that we need confirmation of Howleys conservatism but thats absolutely damning if true.

 

[munstermuffin]

Saw a stat somewhere that said Ireland had capped 17 new players since the WC and Wales had capped just 3. Not that we need confirmation of Howleys conservatism but thats absolutely damning if true.

Interesting stat but being fair they capped a fair few before RWC and we capped few only due to injury at times that turned to be blessings in disguise. Although I'd be stretched to name 17 we capped I suppose if we exclude Canada game whats the figure.

 

[mosfeldt]

Am I the only one not totally appalled by the Bowe selection? It could be a nostalgia thing for me, but I dunno, I can understand Schmidt's logic. We don't see what he does in training, we don't deal with him day in day out. Schmidt is picking him based on supposed good performances for Ulster recently (which I haven't had the chance to see), impressive runs in training, his ability under the high ball, his physicality, knowledge of Welsh rugby and just general overall international experience. On paper it sounds like a very wise choice but as we all know Bowe is not the man he used to be unfortunately.

However, I don't think his woeful cameo against Scotland solidifies him as done and dusted. I just have a feeling he may have another performance in him yet. Wishful thinking maybe. The man is 33 after all, which for a winger, is pretty old. I don't know. I think either Bowe or Gilroy is gonna be a bit of a gamble either way. We just don't have quality wingers yet. I am personally not in favour of throwing people like Byrne or Sweetnam into the deep-end in a match like this, so it's hard to say.

Regarding the match I keep floating between confident to quite nervous. Wales' form should see us win this, and when I looked at the Wales team announcement I felt kind of relieved. Yet, a few minutes later I did start to think that a lot of this Wales team are the team that were WC2011 semi-finalists who dumped us, GS winners of 2012 and back-to-back champs of 2013. Yeah that was 4 years ago and that's a long time in rugby but still, a lot of these guys have brought utter glory to Welsh rugby not so long ago and when there's nothing left but pride to play for, I fear a monstrous backlash. So hard to call though, sometimes you just never know with Wales...

All in all really looking forward to it. This fixture (along with England) is my favourite 6N fixture. If I were to be asked who would I consider our biggest rival I would definitely say Wales! Being small Celtic nations aside, I feel we're really on par with each other. We've had so many contentious nail-biting games in the past, our team stats are almost parallel and in the past few years it's very hard for me to say one is better than the other... and we've both been coached by Gatland Expecting it to be close, can't wait for the aerial battles.

For the craic I'm going to say Ireland by 5.

 

[munstermuffin]

Am I the only one not totally appalled by the Bowe selection? It could be a nostalgia thing for me, but I dunno, I can understand Schmidt's logic. We don't see what he does in training, we don't deal with him day in day out. Schmidt is picking him based on supposed good performances for Ulster recently (which I haven't had the chance to see), impressive runs in training, his ability under the high ball, his physicality, knowledge of Welsh rugby and just general overall international experience. On paper it sounds like a very wise choice but as we all know Bowe is not the man he used to be unfortunately.

However, I don't think his woeful cameo against Scotland solidifies him as done and dusted. I just have a feeling he may have another performance in him yet. Wishful thinking maybe. The man is 33 after all, which for a winger, is pretty old. I don't know. I think either Bowe or Gilroy is gonna be a bit of a gamble either way. We just don't have quality wingers yet. I am personally not in favour of throwing people like Byrne or Sweetnam into the deep-end in a match like this, so it's hard to say.

Regarding the match I keep floating between confident to quite nervous. Wales' form should see us win this, and when I looked at the Wales team announcement I felt kind of relieved. Yet, a few minutes later I did start to think that a lot of this Wales team are the team that were WC2011 semi-finalists who dumped us, GS winners of 2012 and back-to-back champs of 2013. Yeah that was 4 years ago and that's a long time in rugby but still, a lot of these guys have brought utter glory to Welsh rugby not so long ago and when there's nothing left but pride to play for, I fear a monstrous backlash. So hard to call though, sometimes you just never know with Wales...

All in all really looking forward to it. This fixture (along with England) is my favourite 6N fixture. If I were to be asked who would I consider our biggest rival I would definitely say Wales! Being small Celtic nations aside, I feel we're really on par with each other. We've had so many contentious nail-biting games in the past, our team stats are almost parallel and in the past few years it's very hard for me to say one is better than the other... and we've both been coached by Gatland Expecting it to be close, can't wait for the aerial battles.

For the craic I'm going to say Ireland by 5.

At moment Bowe struggles to make 23 for Ulster. He's behind Gilroy Piatau Trimble and Payne in back 3. He has no form and hasn't played well for Ulster and that is what Ulster fans would tell you. I'd be hopeful he will do well but equally on recent form I'd be worried if he was needed after 5 mins.

 

[mosfeldt]

Yeah I'm just really hoping he only has to come on for the last 10 minutes, at which point it hopefully won't matter too much. Earls is pretty sturdy though, and Zebo isn't too bad for getting injured.

Out of interest is there any instance of an aged player, who out of form, was randomly picked and delivered one final class international performance?

 

[munstermuffin]

Yeah I'm just really hoping he only has to come on for the last 10 minutes, at which point it hopefully won't matter too much. Earls is pretty sturdy though, and Zebo isn't too bad for getting injured.

Out of interest is there any instance of an aged player, who out of form, was randomly picked and delivered one final class international performance?

Not often. Sport can be cruel. ROG finished awful vs Scotland.
And I'd disagree on back 3. I work with 2 boys at Munster and they are prone enough. Kearney is walking hospital lately. It is risky but Schmidt is paid to make call. And at end of day it reflects on him so I'm sure he has the belief in Bowe and it won't be issue. Being honest can't see it being wide game

 

[dunney77]

Roof open or closed?

 

[munstermuffin]

Roof open or closed?

Closed. Will maybe suit Ireland as I believe they're fitter.

 

[dunney77]

Doesn't matter how fit you are when Barnes is blowing for not rolling away

 

[ncurd]

Doesn't matter how fit you are when Barnes is blowing for not rolling away

How about your players effing roll away them? Its in the bloody lawbook.

Sorry comments like this wing me up "waaahhhh the ref is enforcing the laws and if we break them in this way it benefits us why won't he enforce them the way we want them".

Plus if you do you have to be fit as you'll be rushing to bolster your defence.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Interesting stat but being fair they capped a fair few before RWC and we capped few only due to injury at times that turned to be blessings in disguise. Although I'd be stretched to name 17 we capped I suppose if we exclude Canada game whats the figure.

I think its more than 17.
Stander, Ringrose, VdF, Dillane, McCloskey, Bealham, TO'H, Healy, Carbery, N Scannell, J Ryan, Tracy, Roux, Reidy all played outside of the Canada match and then you have McGrath, Leavy, O'Donoghue, Holland and Adeolokun.

That's 19 and outside of Reidy, Roux, Holland, Adeolokun and Healy all these guys have the potential to be 20 cap internationals. McCloskey will struggle, O'Donoghue will bave to fight Conan and Stander for them and TO'H will need to improve but its promising. Tadhg Furlong and Zebo have established themselves as starters in this time too. And in all liklihood Adam Byrne, RO'L/Stockdale/Kelleher, Sweetnam, R Scannell, Aki and Bleyendaal/R Byrne will debut in the next 15 months our depth will be in rude health for the foreseeable future.