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June Internationals: Japan v Wales, First Test (08/06/13)
- Thread starter Draggs
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It's an interesting situation in Japan, because they have a much better rugby infrastructure than countries like Argentina, with their own highish quality domestic league. Of course it isn't filled with top players, so it doesn't allow them to improve as much as teams like Argentina when their players are going up against the best in the world in Europe. Japan's competition would be weakened by sending player overseas, but it would increase the quality of their international team. I think the ideal situation is the Japanese playing Super Rugby - which doesn't significantly interfere with the Top League. It's great seeing Tanaka and Horie involved with the Highlanders and the Rebels, respectively, and I hope that we see more of this in the future - not to mention a potential PI/Japanese team or two.
As already mentioned by Cymro, the 2019 World Cup will be awesome, especially if the Japanese really get behind it. It might even be worth paying a visit to Japan...
As already mentioned by Cymro, the 2019 World Cup will be awesome, especially if the Japanese really get behind it. It might even be worth paying a visit to Japan...
psychic duck
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Doing decent work with Japan for sure and has started an interesting project with them. Also seems to genuinely care and invested in their cause and passionate about improving the Japanese system which he has been vocal in his criticism. On the contrary to some mercenary coaches who will quit as soon as a better job comes along such as Scott Johnson & Kingsley Jones. Johnson in particular did more harm than good in his one season with the USA where they went backwards in brief stint getting thrashed by Canada.
Wales were in discussion with Jake White post 2007 btw. He turned down because he said we sack too many coaches.
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You make a good point regarding Lloyd and Knoyle. The presentation of the ball at the ruck was atrocious. Most of the starting forwards seemed to be a yard off the pace and weren't getting to the breakdown quick enough and with enough numbers, and Japan just caused havoc there, even if sometimes illegally. Andrews I thought was a somewhat lone presence in the ruck, so praise for him there, although he was unable to do much on his own. Pretorius was the big change in that regard, with Baker also getting stuck in a bit.
As for Andrews in the scrum, I personally felt differently, but maybe I was seeing it wrongly. I was expecting the Welsh scrum to be much more dominant. It went well at times, gaining a number of penalties, but we didn't disrupt Japanese put-in that much, and we never really had a steady scrum on our own ball. There was a lot of lateral movement, which the ref penalised the Japanese looshead for a couple of times for, so maybe that was an issue. Overall, I wasn't impressed with the Welsh scrum, but maybe it was unfair to single out Andrews. Bevington was also quite poor, and whilst Gill made an impact, the scrum still didn't really dominate with him on the field.
Ultimately, the biggest problem was with the selection. Was anyone happy about the back five of the pack selected? Bradley was the only selection I agreed with there. Coombs and King would have been fine in their proper positions of lock and blindside. Playing King out of position at openside, and playing McCusker, who has been shockingly bad all season for the Scarlets, was just idiotic calls. Whilst Lou Reed was far from the worst player on the field, what did we actually learn from playing him? Coombs would have been better there, or giving Lloyd Peers a shot would have been better options imo. Spratt, who has been poor-to-ordinary for the Ospreys was another poor call ahead of Shingler.
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DuncTheDoodle
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I thought Sanjay played well and Owen Williams acquitted himself quite well, making some good tackles and doing what little he could with the limited and sloppy ball he got. I didn't have a problem with Emyr Phillips, but McCusker? Man alive. He's just awful. Lou Reed is also quickly becoming one of my most despised players. He might be the laziest, most slow-brained, turgid lump I've ever seen on a rugby pitch, and I once grounded the ball in a pile of dog muck.
Navidi next week please. And Ryan. And Barry John.
Navidi next week please. And Ryan. And Barry John.
sigesige00
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How many Wales' top players are out of this tour for Lions?
Jenkins, James, Owens, Hibbard, Rees, Jones, Mitchell, AW Jones, Evans, Charteris, Lydiate, Shingler, Tipuric, Warburton, Faletau, Phillips, Priestland, Hook, Cuthbert, North, Walker would go, Beck, Roberts, Davies, Williams, Halfpenny.
That is total players, Lions and injuries. Lions at bolded.
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Forgot Ryan. No Henson. Hasn't been named in a squad in over a year.
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He'd still be better than Spratt! But I see what you're saying. Scott Gibbs then?
Yeah, he'd be better than Shatt as well.
webbyinjapan
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As an aside,,, My son and I were at the game on Saturday. It was the best International day I have ever had! The Japanese RU are even more a bunch of old farts than the WRU, but if Saturday was anything to go by, The RWC here will be wonderful! The atmosphere around the ground was superb and the Japanese gave a great welcome to the Welsh supporters. A great day and I was very proud of my adopted home.....Taiki, my boy had a wonderful day and has started to realize what it means to be Welsh!....... Drinking too much on a hot day, falling asleep on the train home,,,,and involuntary flatulence notwithstanding!!
