I dont need to read a match thread, I was in the stadium lol there was no calling for cards, intact the booing started on minute 4, and continued throughout regardless, along with Olay olay olay olay chants from the big French, sorry I mean fijian crowd hahaha
Obviously the atmosphere is great in the stadium, but honestly it's easier to see the intricacies of the game watching on tv sometimes.
I was watching on S4C and even the Welsh commentators were amazed Wales weren't shown a yellow card earlier in the game + were calling for Liam Williams to ne shown a yellow later on. I was in disbelief when Carly failed to show us a yellow then proceeded to yellow card Fiji a few mins later too.
You're right that Wales dominated the middle half (ish) of that game. However, Fiji's comeback started far earlier than you're claiming. Wales were under the pump, hence the numerous penalties on our own line. That showed a few things imo:
1. Fiji are a bloody good side, full of brutal ball carriers. They brought Botia and Tuisova off the bench, 2 of the besy players in the world, and we struggled to cope.
2. We were knackered after making an insane amount of tackles. It was brave from the Welsh players, but making over 250 tackles in a game v's a physical side like Fiji is asking for trouble.
3. Gatland maybe thouht the game was won and substituted some key players, but as 2 shows, they were probably needed to bring fresh legs onto thr pitch.
4. Wales were (are) still mentally fragile after thr Pivac era. The lead we coughed up vs Aus in Pivac's last game in charge was similar, things like that can affect players. I'm hoping the Aus game will help to address this somewhat going forwards though.
