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[2018 6Nations] Round 5 Wales V France (17/03/2018)

biggar is crap , he stands still all match ? useless. patchell is light years better, fast ambitious powerful , brave, adventourous, lovely passer off both hands, he can kick goals from 60 metres too and one of the few 10s Ive ever seen who can kick superbly off both feet

Well we saw Biggar (whether he was fit or not) in two games this championship and they were imo our two worst performances. I honestly think we should leave Biggar at home this summer and use Patchell for the 1st 60 mins of all three tests, with Anscombe coming on in the last 20. When all things are considered I just can't see how Patchell isn't the best long term option at 10 at the moment... and Anscombe is made for the finishing part of the game when lazy runners turn up in the line.

I also think we should leave a couple of other 'experienced' heads at home when we tour to give some further experience to our future. AWJ, Warburton (even though he's been out an entire season), Liam Williams & maybe a couple more should be left at home to foster the further development of Seb Davies & Hill, James Davies & Navidi, Stef & Adams.

Decent tournament for Wales considering the position we found ourselves going into last autumns tests. We used to have loads of possession but looked as blunt as a butter knife, now we have little to no ball whatsoever yet look pretty deadly with the little ball we manage upon. With the depth we have developed, if we can rejig our breakdown to ensure a little more ball retention while continuing our attacking intentions, I think Wales could go well next year... good year to go well in too.
 
Well i have been saying the 10 shirt belongs to Patchell but let's face it this is Gatland we are dealing with. He's dropped Patchell twice now for no real good reason apart from the fact he prefers anscombe (but not enough over biggar) even tho Patchell trumps both these it's ovbvious that Patchell is too creative for Gatland he's too much of an instinct player , I can see him becoming the new James hook in all honestly.
 
After all the positivity early on, I think it's been sucked out of me and looking at this game have Wales really learned anything at all? Senior players getting selected over the inform ones, Biggar unable to get quick enough ball to the back line but most confusing at all. Wales tried some sort of arm wrestle against the French pack? Wales never really looked like scoring outside of French mistakes.
 
I feel much more positive than you guys.

Starting a tough tournament with at least seven first choice players unavailable would be a challenge for any team in the world, with the possible exception of those dastardly All Blacks.

Finishing second in that tournament, by any reckoning, is a good performance.

We have blooded a new generation of players, most of whom blossomed in the most unforgiving tournament in the rugby world.

We unveiled a new style of play - obliterating a good Scotland side and an improving Italy. England away, no easy task, could really have gone either way.

We were somehow still in the game, away, against the best team in the tournament at 75 minutes. We then faced up to s huge resurgent French team and ground out a tight, brutal and close match. All brilliant experiences.

I really do think we are the most demanding fans in the world. I was watching some old matches (from before Garland took over), and the improvement in our game since then is HUGE. He has given our players a belief that was lacking beforehand ....admittedly not against the Wallabies or New Zealand.

I think he has been and continues to be the best coach our national team has had. Sure, he has his idiosyncrasies, he is very thin skinned and he shows loyalty to people who have performed for him in the past.

His results speak for themselves though. Look at our stats pre and post Gatland.
 
I feel much more positive than you guys.

Starting a tough tournament with at least seven first choice players unavailable would be a challenge for any team in the world, with the possible exception of those dastardly All Blacks.

Ireland and England had more players missing?

Finishing second in that tournament, by any reckoning, is a good performance.

Not really we just had 3 home games


We have blooded a new generation of players, most of whom blossomed in the most unforgiving tournament in the rugby world.

No we havent. we failed to give seb davies a go in 2nd row, the only other new caps were adams and jamie cubby davies both dropped after 60 minutes (davies is 27 not a kid hes waited 6 years for a chance and hes the most effective 7 in the league by miles) Hes failed to develop a back up 8 , a back up tight head and dropped our best blindside for no reason? He also decided to convert jamie roberts from a 15 to a crash ball 12 for a decade which meant the outside welsh backs had less ball than all other top 10 nations. Massive talents like shane williams and George north halfpenny liam williams jon foxy davies all starved of possession thanks to warrenball? madness

We unveiled a new style of play - obliterating a good Scotland side and an improving Italy. England away, no easy task, could really have gone either way.

Yeah great performance then gatland dismantles the team and goes back to mindless warrenball and drops patchell the playmaker etc

We were somehow still in the game, away, against the best team in the tournament at 75 minutes. We then faced up to s huge resurgent French team and ground out a tight, brutal and close match. All brilliant experiences.

Not brilliant and not really learning. Gatland ONLY CAPPED 4 new years in the 18 months after the 2015 world cup? australia capped 29?

I really do think we are the most demanding fans in the world. I was watching some old matches (from before Garland took over), and the improvement in our game since then is HUGE. He has given our players a belief that was lacking beforehand ....admittedly not against the Wallabies or New Zealand.

Not demanding at all. Its our national sport we are the best fans with the biggest home gates in the world on average (next to england) we pay a fortune millions pumped in (public money too at the regional stadiums) world class facilities at the vale too and gatland is the highest paid coach in the world. the fact hes been given a decade and 2 years off too is absurd

I think he has been and continues to be the best coach our national team has had. Sure, he has his idiosyncrasies, he is very thin skinned and he shows loyalty to people who have performed for him in the past.

He is NOT the best at all...His win record is way worse than loads of welsh coaches 51% is a very poor return

His results speak for themselves though. Look at our stats pre and post Gatland.


Before gatland we beat the aussies a few times and the boks in 99 we won a grand slam 3 years earlier too and ruddock had a 70% win record so its worse under gatland overall. He has lost 13 times in a row to aussie and has learned absolutely nothing, he still refuses to pick a playmaker who creates tries and attacks the line? Sorry hes had 101 goes and still he doesnt learn. Time to say goodbye
 
I feel much more positive than you guys.

Starting a tough tournament with at least seven first choice players unavailable would be a challenge for any team in the world, with the possible exception of those dastardly All Blacks.

Finishing second in that tournament, by any reckoning, is a good performance.

We have blooded a new generation of players, most of whom blossomed in the most unforgiving tournament in the rugby world.

We unveiled a new style of play - obliterating a good Scotland side and an improving Italy. England away, no easy task, could really have gone either way.

We were somehow still in the game, away, against the best team in the tournament at 75 minutes. We then faced up to s huge resurgent French team and ground out a tight, brutal and close match. All brilliant experiences.

I really do think we are the most demanding fans in the world. I was watching some old matches (from before Garland took over), and the improvement in our game since then is HUGE. He has given our players a belief that was lacking beforehand ....admittedly not against the Wallabies or New Zealand.

I think he has been and continues to be the best coach our national team has had. Sure, he has his idiosyncrasies, he is very thin skinned and he shows loyalty to people who have performed for him in the past.

His results speak for themselves though. Look at our stats pre and post Gatland.


I feel much more positive than you guys.

Starting a tough tournament with at least seven first choice players unavailable would be a challenge for any team in the world, with the possible exception of those dastardly All Blacks.

Ireland and England had more players missing?

Finishing second in that tournament, by any reckoning, is a good performance.

Not really we just had 3 home games


We have blooded a new generation of players, most of whom blossomed in the most unforgiving tournament in the rugby world.

No we havent. we failed to give seb davies a go in 2nd row, the only other new caps were adams and jamie cubby davies both dropped after 60 minutes (davies is 27 not a kid hes waited 6 years for a chance and hes the most effective 7 in the league by miles) Hes failed to develop a back up 8 , a back up tight head and dropped our best blindside for no reason? He also decided to convert jamie roberts from a 15 to a crash ball 12 for a decade which meant the outside welsh backs had less ball than all other top 10 nations. Massive talents like shane williams and George north halfpenny liam williams jon foxy davies all starved of possession thanks to warrenball? madness

We unveiled a new style of play - obliterating a good Scotland side and an improving Italy. England away, no easy task, could really have gone either way.

Yeah great performance then gatland dismantles the team and goes back to mindless warrenball and drops patchell the playmaker etc

We were somehow still in the game, away, against the best team in the tournament at 75 minutes. We then faced up to s huge resurgent French team and ground out a tight, brutal and close match. All brilliant experiences.

Not brilliant and not really learning. Gatland ONLY CAPPED 4 new players in the 18 months after the 2015 world cup? australia capped 29 in the same period?

I really do think we are the most demanding fans in the world. I was watching some old matches (from before Garland took over), and the improvement in our game since then is HUGE. He has given our players a belief that was lacking beforehand ....admittedly not against the Wallabies or New Zealand.

Not demanding at all. Its our national sport we are the best fans with the biggest home gates in the world on average (next to england) we pay a fortune millions pumped in (public money too at the regional stadiums) world class facilities at the vale too and gatland is the highest paid coach in the world. the fact hes been given a decade and 2 years off too is absurd

I think he has been and continues to be the best coach our national team has had. Sure, he has his idiosyncrasies, he is very thin skinned and he shows loyalty to people who have performed for him in the past.

He is NOT the best at all...His win record is way worse than loads of welsh coaches 51% is a very poor return. John Dawes had 75% win record, Ruddock 65%, Clive rowlands 62% Henry 59% Bowring 52% Alan Davies 51% etc

His results speak for themselves though. Look at our stats pre and post Gatland.

Before gatland we beat the aussies a few times and the boks in 99 we won a grand slam 3 years earlier too and ruddock had a 65% win record so its worse under gatland overall. He has lost 13 times in a row to aussie and has learned absolutely nothing, he still refuses to pick a playmaker who creates tries and attacks the line? Sorry hes had 101 goes and still he doesnt learn. Time to say goodbye
 
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BTW just found out Wales' lack of ambition and scoring a mere one try in victory helped me win the works 6 nations league. I'm glad my lack of faith in this Welsh side finally paid off ;)

God knows my faith in England really didn't.
 
The problem with Gatland has always been that he's too loyal. How many players has he blindly kept around past their sell-by dates?

- Mike Philips. Was obvious to all that his game had slowed down to a crawl a good year before Gatland even considered replacing him.
- Rhys Priestland. Again, plain to see that his confidence was completely shot, yet Gats continued to select him.
- Dan Lydiate. Was still being selected 3/4 years later based on his 2012 form, despite the fact the game had moved on.
- Scott Baldwin. Has returned to some form recently, but Owens was the better option long before forcing his way past Baldwin.
- Dan Biggar. After initially struggling to overthrow Priestland, he's now being picked based on reputation alone.
- Jamie Roberts. In his pomp, Roberts was a great 12, but rugby developed into a more attacking game and Roberts couldn't react.
- Sam Warburton. This is more of an injury issue, but he's almost always been picked ahead of Tipuric even if only 50% fit.
- Alex Cuthbert. Possibly the worst of all has been his loyalty to a player lacking form, confidence and the basic skills of modern rugby!
- Liam Williams. Very recent example, but if there was one player who deserved to be dropped after the Italy match it was Sanjay.

Then there's the coaches. Howley and McBryde should have been replaced years ago. No experience, and have been left behind whilst rugby has evolved around them.

There's obviously been other issues with the game plan & his two sabbaticals with the Lions which imo a professional coach shouldn't be doing when there's re-building work to be done with their country.
 
BTW just found out Wales' lack of ambition and scoring a mere one try in victory......

Mmmhm, Wales final game was less that satisfactory this is true. Scotland almost fluffed their lines as well. Ireland certainly didn't fluff theirs. Which leaves England - very poor. The word mediocrity springs to mind. Be funny if there was a demotion/promotion system to the 6 Nations now that's for sure. Say Italy and England in a play off. Tell you what, with the passion that Italy played with on Saturday, I wouldn't bet against them in such a game But then I wouldn't have bet on Wales getting runners up either. Happy days!
 
Mmmhm, Wales final game was less that satisfactory this is true. Scotland almost fluffed their lines as well. Ireland certainly didn't fluff theirs. Which leaves England - very poor. The word mediocrity springs to mind. Be funny if there was a demotion/promotion system to the 6 Nations now that's for sure. Say Italy and England in a play off. Tell you what, with the passion that Italy played with on Saturday, I wouldn't bet against them in such a game But then I wouldn't have bet on Wales getting runners up either. Happy days!
England have literally never lost to Italy
We played terrible and still comfortably beat them
You honestly would bet on Italy to win?
 
If you like flushing money down the toilet maybe,
We would still handily beat them, I honestly don't believe that you think otherwise.
 
If you like flushing money down the toilet maybe,
We would still handily beat them, I honestly don't believe that you think otherwise.

Mmmm well, that was slightly tongue-in-cheek - BUT I wouldn't have bet on France beating England the week before and look what happened there!
 
Mmmm well, that was slightly tongue-in-cheek - BUT I wouldn't have bet on France beating England the week before and look what happened there!
Different situation though isnt it. We rarely win in France, but WE HAVE LITERALLY NEVER LOST TO ITALY! But don't let logic get in the way of your xenophobic idiocy
 
Different situation though isnt it. We rarely win in France, but WE HAVE LITERALLY NEVER LOST TO ITALY! But don't let logic get in the way of your xenophobic idiocy

Yeah I hear that. LIke I said, it was a bit of tongue in cheek. And you know guys, for all of the forensic analysis you put in on the forum here, who predicted this end of 6 Nations table? Also, up to Saturday England hadn't lost at Twickenham under EJ and no one had scored 7 tries in the 6 Nations. These records come tumbling down. Do you think that Italy will never beat England? It would be brave to say 'yep' cause these things have a habit of coming back to haunt ya!
 
Yeah I hear that. LIke I said, it was a bit of tongue in cheek. And you know guys, for all of the forensic analysis you put in on the forum here, who predicted this end of 6 Nations table? Also, up to Saturday England hadn't lost at Twickenham under EJ and no one had scored 7 tries in the 6 Nations. These records come tumbling down. Do you think that Italy will never beat England? It would be brave to say 'yep' cause these things have a habit of coming back to haunt ya!
yep... @me when we do xx ;)
 

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