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- Nov 2, 2006
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There's a few areas where Pivac and co need to take responsibility. The first is the set piece, which has struggled in numerous ways this Autumn.
- Our lineout has only looked comfortable when Tipuric has been a primary jumper (he's simply world class in that regard). We struggled during the first AI because Pivac pulled Tips out of the lineout hoping to utilise his creativity as an extra back in midfield, but come the 6 nations he had to go away from that in order to secure clean ball from the lineout. We're without Tips again now, and the lineout has struggled. We only scraped by v SA by going front/middle ball which is poor to attack from, and Fiji isn't renowned for their set-piece so difficult to judge. Pivac needs to develop a system/personnel that doesn't rely on Tips and gives us ball to attack from.
- Scrum. not sure what's happening here. Some of our props are weak scrummagers, there's no denying that. Carre, Lewis & Brown are still developing and learning (being kind). But is there more wrong? I don't really know on this one. I've seen suggestions that Rowlands is a poor scrummager at lock (don't see it myself), and some article by Alex Corbisiero blaming it on how our 8 binds (never heard of the 8 having such an influence myself). Humph is adamant it's about the height of the props, which sounds more sensible. After all I remember the commentator highlighting the difference in height between the Welsh front row and SA front row, similar weight players, but Wales were all well over 6ft, SA all under.
- The last big issue for me is the ruck. Not sure what's up here, but we get beaten to the contact area so often that it prevents us from building any momentum in games. Any time we get field position and clean ball from the set-piece we give it up almost immediately at the resulting breakdown. Is Pivac asking more from his forwards, so he can attempt to keep forwards in the wide channels to add to our attack? Whatever is happening, we need to secure clean ruck ball, so if things aren't working we need to adjust it until the fitness / skills are there from the forwards. This was also an issue in Pivac's first AI, so lessons don't seem to being learnt. I applaud Pivac for trying to change the focus of the side. Under Gats defence came first, with the attack second, so he didn't really try anything different, but it feels like Pivac/Stephen Jones are trying to prioritise the attack, but a balance needs to be struck.
There's a lot of unforced errors from the players that it's difficult to blame on Pivac and the coaches too. Two from the Fiji game were from the 2 scrum halves. Hardy firing a pass into row z has nothing to do with Pivac, and nor did Tomos Williams kicking away attacking ball in the Fiji 22 whilst up at least 1 man. I also think that there seems to be some serious fitness issues with the regions atm. Dragons appear the best of the lot on that front, and it's shown with Dragons players consistently being among the better performers during the AI. At the other end, Scarlets players have struggled physically whilst playing for the region and for Wales. Very few positive performances from Scarlets boys this AI. Pivac can never address this during the international window, so the regions need to sort it out. By all accounts Peel has identified the same and has been beasting the squad in pre-season/beginning of the season, so hopefully by 6N there'll be some improvements.
Injuries may be a blessing in disguise when looking back in a few years. Lots of players being tested which should stand us in good stead. That's the hope anyway. Still need to find some more dynamic carriers, or bring those we do into the game more (Carre etc.). Watching Ireland v NZ, we can't compete with that atm. Their front row was head and shoulders above what we have from a dynamism pov.
- Our lineout has only looked comfortable when Tipuric has been a primary jumper (he's simply world class in that regard). We struggled during the first AI because Pivac pulled Tips out of the lineout hoping to utilise his creativity as an extra back in midfield, but come the 6 nations he had to go away from that in order to secure clean ball from the lineout. We're without Tips again now, and the lineout has struggled. We only scraped by v SA by going front/middle ball which is poor to attack from, and Fiji isn't renowned for their set-piece so difficult to judge. Pivac needs to develop a system/personnel that doesn't rely on Tips and gives us ball to attack from.
- Scrum. not sure what's happening here. Some of our props are weak scrummagers, there's no denying that. Carre, Lewis & Brown are still developing and learning (being kind). But is there more wrong? I don't really know on this one. I've seen suggestions that Rowlands is a poor scrummager at lock (don't see it myself), and some article by Alex Corbisiero blaming it on how our 8 binds (never heard of the 8 having such an influence myself). Humph is adamant it's about the height of the props, which sounds more sensible. After all I remember the commentator highlighting the difference in height between the Welsh front row and SA front row, similar weight players, but Wales were all well over 6ft, SA all under.
- The last big issue for me is the ruck. Not sure what's up here, but we get beaten to the contact area so often that it prevents us from building any momentum in games. Any time we get field position and clean ball from the set-piece we give it up almost immediately at the resulting breakdown. Is Pivac asking more from his forwards, so he can attempt to keep forwards in the wide channels to add to our attack? Whatever is happening, we need to secure clean ruck ball, so if things aren't working we need to adjust it until the fitness / skills are there from the forwards. This was also an issue in Pivac's first AI, so lessons don't seem to being learnt. I applaud Pivac for trying to change the focus of the side. Under Gats defence came first, with the attack second, so he didn't really try anything different, but it feels like Pivac/Stephen Jones are trying to prioritise the attack, but a balance needs to be struck.
There's a lot of unforced errors from the players that it's difficult to blame on Pivac and the coaches too. Two from the Fiji game were from the 2 scrum halves. Hardy firing a pass into row z has nothing to do with Pivac, and nor did Tomos Williams kicking away attacking ball in the Fiji 22 whilst up at least 1 man. I also think that there seems to be some serious fitness issues with the regions atm. Dragons appear the best of the lot on that front, and it's shown with Dragons players consistently being among the better performers during the AI. At the other end, Scarlets players have struggled physically whilst playing for the region and for Wales. Very few positive performances from Scarlets boys this AI. Pivac can never address this during the international window, so the regions need to sort it out. By all accounts Peel has identified the same and has been beasting the squad in pre-season/beginning of the season, so hopefully by 6N there'll be some improvements.
Injuries may be a blessing in disguise when looking back in a few years. Lots of players being tested which should stand us in good stead. That's the hope anyway. Still need to find some more dynamic carriers, or bring those we do into the game more (Carre etc.). Watching Ireland v NZ, we can't compete with that atm. Their front row was head and shoulders above what we have from a dynamism pov.
