Is it just me or are wales getting a bit cocky?

[gingergenius]

Wales are getting a bit cocky, but that doesn't apply to most of the regular posters on here - it's your casual rugby fan who gets excited by all the media hype and develops a patriotic fervour around the team, especially noticeable because Wales is a small country, their ambitions are lower and you don't really hear much noise from them otherwise.

Much as it is ****ing irritating, it might be worth noticing that the same phenomenon happens every 2 years when the England football team goes to a championship, and certainly happened last season when England strung 2-3 matches together of winning and playing some decent rugby. And it happens continually with Irish provinces at club level.

Bottom line? rocky style backstory{Team that wins a couple games + some kind of heroic player or physical specimen} = much media hype and newfound interest from plebs.

 

[Mogs999]

I don't know about everyone else but welsh pundits and supporters seem to be coming over very cocky in my eyes, from my point of view wales have had a lot of luck this six nations due to a lot of decisions going their way e.g. England, Ireland and the Scotland game for that matter, a few days ago on this forum i heard a welsh fan raving about how all they have to do is turn up and they will win the grand slam now lemme stop you there you could have easily lost against Ireland and England but both went your way, i don't know i just think wales are not as good as their cracked up to be and France will show that in the final game in Cardiff.

Whats your view on this?

We didn't,we didn't,oh yes we are and oh no they won't HA!

 

[Teh Mite]

Every year its the same story for 1 team or another. Or worse, the green eyed monster kicks in - eg Ireland "celebrating" they stopped England picking up the slam last year although the trophy still went to HQ. It's particularly when the Irish, Welsh or English are playing well.

Worthless trophies such as the triple crown were introduced meaning plumbs from the home nations could engage smug mode even though the French quietly went about being the best test side in the hemisphere over the last decade.

Media hype and the football-style sensationalism have made international rugby annoying. And frankly (the all blacks notwithstanding), its always been over rated.

 

[cyRil]

Definitely. They lost to SA, France, Aus in the world cup because they couldn't close the game out, lost to Aus again in the Autumn, then are saying they can now win the 'tight games' over an aging Irish side with a coach the fans hate, and a very new, inexperienced England side who were a TMO away from a draw.

imo to say that they've improved suggests that they'll be winning those tight games against those Southern Hemisphere sides - their performances so far suggest either England and Ireland have magically raised their game, or that Wales are in the same place as they were 5 months ago.

They're in a position to say 'we'll give it a go' against anyone, but they aren't in a position to say 'we'll win' or 'we're the favourites' over many top teams.

Warbs saying at the end of the game at Twickers 'we played really badly' is the sort of cockiness that's just a bit silly - Wales have lost to England the last 3 six nations before this one, turn up against our new 'building' side that's played poorly so far, we fronted up and the Welsh managed to win, and they call it a poor performance.

C'mon, there is no way they could have played better and beating us at Twickers was a hell of a result for them - and the self expectation that a good performance considering their past form/players etc would mean a much better result than they got is a bit of a cocky joke.

1. Well, no it's not because we did. We hardly played any rugby. If we'd played well surely we would have won quite comfortably? England were brilliant, stopping us from playing our game. They forced us to play badly. How is acknowleding that cocky?

2. They beat us 26-19 last year and 30-17 the year before. The year prior to that we won 23-15 in Cardiff. If you're going to proclaim your word as gospel at least get your facts straight.

3. Bore off.

 

[Mogs999]

If you think we're cocky now! just wait til after we've won the Grand Slam HaHa

 

[jaunard06]

Whats your view on this?

Would it have been a french player saying that all anglo-saxons medias would have tuned into the usual french bashing mode and the well known those-frogs-are-so-arrogant thing.

But here it looks to me that, aprt of some stupid statements it reflects only self-confidence and realism.
There is always a part of luck in rugby, and you need it to win a Grand Slam, I cannot remember a team that overwhelmingly dominated the tournament so that nobody could say they have had their part of luck.

As would say english people, wait and see.

 

[bushytop]

Something Garland spoke of is worth remembering here. Only once on Saturday did the players execute the desired gameplan... when priestland went off and we were down to 14 the players pulled their heads from their arses nd started to look after the ball and make hard yards. If the coaches can instill this in the players mentality from the off (& when we have the full player compliment) we will win games against 'the big three' on regular occasions.

Also considering the general consensus (including my own) is that we played poorly this past weekend if you actually examine the stats (was too drunk Saturday bit saw them last night on scrum v) Wales had parity or better on each and every decisive stat.

 

[scarlets-fan]

During the RWC so many were saying it didn't matter how they played as it's all about the win. Now the same posters come out of the woodwork with "their not playing well and lucky to get the wins". Easier to just start ignoring those people.

Couldn't agree with this more, as everyone was saying to us during the world cup... 'The W is the only thing that counts' ...well we have 3. We're missing less kicks (excluding Ireland) and conceding less when we're a man down, so I am confident for the remaining two home games but not cocky. Being Welsh we know how quickly it can turn sour, so only an idiot would say all we need to do is turn up.

 

[cyRil]

Something Garland spoke of is worth remembering here.

Sooomewheeeerrre overr the raainboooow...

 

[Saintjay]

Something Garland spoke of is worth remembering here. Only once on Saturday did the players execute the desired gameplan... when priestland went off and we were down to 14 the players pulled their heads from their arses nd started to look after the ball and make hard yards. If the coaches can instill this in the players mentality from the off (& when we have the full player compliment) we will win games against 'the big three' on regular occasions.

Also considering the general consensus (including my own) is that we played poorly this past weekend if you actually examine the stats (was too drunk Saturday bit saw them last night on scrum v) Wales had parity or better on each and every decisive stat.

Ah scrum V stats the most unbiased TV show. If you go with the ESPN stats. You had parity in most areas. Not sure how you work out better. England made more passes, covered more distance with the ball. England made more tackles. Scrums were even neither team lost one against the head and lineouts were pretty even.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

They should count a penalty to the opposition as losing the scrum.
Wales had the far better scrum, no doubt about it.

 

[welsh wizard]

Nothing more than sore loser syndrome, Wales for the slam!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

 

[Scotsmanslanj]

The pundits are quite irritating, but they usually are. Jonathon Davies needs to shut the hell up and Wee Williams isn't long enough out of the side to even pretend to be objective. The players seem pretty grounded to me. SW saying they didn't play well would only offend you if you were looking to be offended. He acknowledged beating England at Twickers was a massive ask and he was frustrated his lads hadn't performed better. Why can't you just take it he was saying England prevented them playing better instead of "We were crap but England were even worse?"

As for luck - no game is going to be won without luck because the game hinges on ref decisions, what he sees / doesn't see. Bad decisions and good result in points far more than any other sport I can think of. If a different ref or TMO had been watching they might have awarded the try (which I think should have been awarded because the benefit of the doubt should always be with the attack), but if the high tackle in the 2nd half had been spotted the Scots would have had a penalty in the French half so possibly more points. No matter how good the team is, you usually still need the luck factor surely? Unless its NZ vs Scotland of course.

And without sounding like a grumpy skirt wearer (cos I usually will support England when the Scottish pub team fails to qualify), the Welsh are currently far less irritating than the English media / coverage / pundits whenever the hugely overrated collection of spoilt children known as the English football side takes to the field.

 

[sassuwunnu]

Just to clarify, I mean some certain pundits like Johnathan Davies are getting a bit arrogant. The team themselves are quite humble, and a good team.

Jiffy is welsh, and no doubt supports wales, but he calls it like he sees it in every circumstance. The charge of arrogance or complacency is wrong, and his statement shouldn't be taken out of context. He remarked that that the welsh back line would smash the English one as fielded in their opening games. Lancaster must have thought so too because he beefed up this area with Mr.T.....not arrogance to state the obvious.

There have been plenty of times when jiffy has made similar remarks about more clinical sides carving up our defense....etc....

 

[lucky number 7]

When you are that good you can be as cocky as you want.

 

[Mogs999]

Ah scrum V stats the most unbiased TV show. If you go with the ESPN stats. You had parity in most areas. Not sure how you work out better. England made more passes, covered more distance with the ball. England made more tackles. Scrums were even neither team lost one against the head and lineouts were pretty even.

And they still lost! just goes to show, stats are about as much use as ***s on a fish! init.

 

[Saintjay]

And they still lost! just goes to show, stats are about as much use as ***s on a fish! init.

Yep it all depends on how you look at them.

 

[elgringoborracho]

Would it have been a french player saying that all anglo-saxons medias would have tuned into the usual french bashing mode and the well known those-frogs-are-so-arrogant thing.

But here it looks to me that, aprt of some stupid statements it reflects only self-confidence and realism.
There is always a part of luck in rugby, and you need it to win a Grand Slam, I cannot remember a team that overwhelmingly dominated the tournament so that nobody could say they have had their part of luck.

As would say english people, wait and see.

England 2003 is quite close to that description if I remember well. But it's a special year.

IMHO, Wales are right to be confident. They haven't been that strong looking in a long time, and since it's a quite small country, it's not likely to happen very often. Although I wouldn't say they've learned to win those tight games. The WC is a cruel proof of that. We'll see in Cardiff against France, but if i were Welsh, i'd crap my pants, as France are never better than when they have an exploit to achieve or a point to prove. One of these will be the case.

Anyway, cockiness is often the losing side's way of perceiving confidence.

 

[bushytop]

Ah scrum V stats the most unbiased TV show. If you go with the ESPN stats. You had parity in most areas. Not sure how you work out better. England made more passes, covered more distance with the ball. England made more tackles. Scrums were even neither team lost one against the head and lineouts were pretty even.

Maybe I wasn't clear in what I was saying, I was attempting to point out that for a side that played poorly/wasn't allowed to play (whatever) our stats still held up. Imagine if we do play well.