Wales v Italy

[Deano]

I've had enough of Masi at 10 now... he is not a fly half. He is a frikking centre or wing player. He has been average in the Ireland game and possibly one of the worst in the last 2 games and so its time to take him out of the role and put him back where he is comfortable. Marcato also showed me enough in the first half to suggest he can play at 10 or I would even bring Pez back damn it. At least we were consistent with what we did. That pass of Masi has been coming all tournament. Twice he did it v England, but got away and now that was the icing on the cake.

I thought we played our best first half of the tournament. We could have even been in front if Canale didnt crop the ball, but the second half was very bad, after the poor pass of Masi it fell apart.

 

[David Gilmour]

in the second half, the sin bin to bergamasco has changed the match

 

[Sir Speedy]

What would be others Welsh team v Ireland? Mine would be:

01 Duncan Jones
02 Huw Bennett
03 Adam Jones
04 Alun-Wyn Jones
05 Ian Evans
06 Jonathan Thomas
07 Martyn Williams
08 Ryan Jones

09 Mike Phillips
10 Stephen Jones
11 Shane Williams
12 Gavin Henson
13 Tom Shanklin
14 Mark Jones
15 Lee Burne

I'll explain a couple of decisions. Went for Duncan over Gethin, I'd replace Adam with Geth 2nd half. Rees had a poor day at the linout, so Bennett back in. Thought Ian Evans had a good game, was more prominent than Gough, and Alun-Wyn is a shoe in if fit. Peel has a poor display (probably somewhat due to having a knock), Phillips looked good when he came on. Stephen Jones v Hook was tough, but I'd save Hook for the second half, to rip em to shreds lol. Mark Jones v Jamie Robert was another tough call, not much between them, but Jones put in a few big hits which just tipped it.
[/b]

I agree with that. Jamie Roberts is a big lad who may be caught off guard if a ball is chipped behind him. Peel had a crud display due to "blurred vision" and Phillips has had a better tournament so far (although if he acts as greedy as he did against Italy, Shaun will rip his face off). Byrne is Wales' man of the tournament, so he should stay at fullback and the front row you've selected is spot on in my view.

 

[danny]

I recorded the Wales game and watched it today. I have to say Wales looked quite poor first half but really played some good stuff in the second. When you think of how low they were after the Fiji game in the WC to where they are now in terms of results and performance it is quite amazing. Shane Williams for player of the tournament?

 

[gjohn85]

I recorded the Wales game and watched it today. I have to say Wales looked quite poor first half but really played some good stuff in the second. When you think of how low they were after the Fiji game in the WC to where they are now in terms of results and performance it is quite amazing. Shane Williams for player of the tournament? [/b]

Yep, Shane has been one of the best players of the tournament.
I was glad that Lee Byrne got man of the match. In all three games he has played well, for some reason he has been the unsung hero.
It will be interesting who Gatland will play against Ireland, I would like to see Phillips & Jones halfbacks and Jamie Roberts on the bench.

 

[Cymro]

I recorded the Wales game and watched it today. I have to say Wales looked quite poor first half but really played some good stuff in the second. When you think of how low they were after the Fiji game in the WC to where they are now in terms of results and performance it is quite amazing. Shane Williams for player of the tournament? [/b]

Ha

Wales only made two mistakes really in that first half and they did not play poor as you are suggesting! The Italians played the rugby and Wales held them off! That is the simple fact! When the Italians got tired we played a wider game of rugby and we did the biz!

 

[danny]

<div class='quotemain'> I recorded the Wales game and watched it today. I have to say Wales looked quite poor first half but really played some good stuff in the second. When you think of how low they were after the Fiji game in the WC to where they are now in terms of results and performance it is quite amazing. Shane Williams for player of the tournament? [/b]

Ha

Wales only made two mistakes really in that first half and they did not play poor as you are suggesting! The Italians played the rugby and Wales held them off! That is the simple fact! When the Italians got tired we played a wider game of rugby and we did the biz!
[/b][/quote]

Calm down my comments were praising the welsh performance.

 

[RC]

<div class='quotemain'>
<div class='quotemain'> I recorded the Wales game and watched it today. I have to say Wales looked quite poor first half but really played some good stuff in the second. When you think of how low they were after the Fiji game in the WC to where they are now in terms of results and performance it is quite amazing. Shane Williams for player of the tournament? [/b]

Ha

Wales only made two mistakes really in that first half and they did not play poor as you are suggesting! The Italians played the rugby and Wales held them off! That is the simple fact! When the Italians got tired we played a wider game of rugby and we did the biz!
[/b][/quote]

Calm down my comments were praising the welsh performance. [/b][/quote]

And i think you were correct as well.

Cymro, to say Wales only made two mistakes in the first half means you watched about 10 minutes in totally of that first half. We left the game with 24 errors (i believe) and we played much better in the 2nd half than the first, so i refuse to believe that after a first half of 2 errors we went through the second half making 22 other mistakes.
We were not very good in the first half, the word "clinical" was not even in our vocuabluary, let alone in our style of play.

 

[Cymro]

<div class='quotemain'> <div class='quotemain'>
<div class='quotemain'> I recorded the Wales game and watched it today. I have to say Wales looked quite poor first half but really played some good stuff in the second. When you think of how low they were after the Fiji game in the WC to where they are now in terms of results and performance it is quite amazing. Shane Williams for player of the tournament? [/b]

Ha

Wales only made two mistakes really in that first half and they did not play poor as you are suggesting! The Italians played the rugby and Wales held them off! That is the simple fact! When the Italians got tired we played a wider game of rugby and we did the biz!
[/b][/quote]

Calm down my comments were praising the welsh performance. [/b][/quote]

And i think you were correct as well.

Cymro, to say Wales only made two mistakes in the first half means you watched about 10 minutes in totally of that first half. We left the game with 24 errors (i believe) and we played much better in the 2nd half than the first, so i refuse to believe that after a first half of 2 errors we went through the second half making 22 other mistakes.
We were not very good in the first half, the word "clinical" was not even in our vocuabluary, let alone in our style of play.

[/b][/quote]

Urm ...... I was sitting in the stadium!!!

Now Wales made two / three mistakes in the first half for me and they were the clear ones! One of them being the penalties they allowed Italy to have to give them 3 easy points! The second one was the miss tackle that allowed the Italians almost to score before they dropped the ball and thirdly the poor lineout throwing that lead to an Italian try!

Now for me that are three mistakes! They were poor mistakes also! But people don't seem to realise that Italy were playing the rugby in the first half and yes they did dominate however if Wales would have been playing under Gareth Jenkins then we would be snowed under with points on the board, id have said we would have been at least 10-20 points behind! However for me we were tackling well and keeping them at bay! Bar from the dropped ball and Italian score what else did Italy actually achieve in the first half? Wales stopped them with their defense and credit must be given to Shaun Edwards for ensuring that if we are playing reasonably poor then we can still make sure they cannot score!

 

[RC]

Ok, so you don't call handling errors, forward passes and the allowance of turnovers as mistakes?

Fair enough. Then yes, we made very few mistakes...

 

[Cymro]

Ok, so you don't call handling errors, forward passes and the allowance of turnovers as mistakes?

Fair enough. Then yes, we made very few mistakes...
[/b]

You can do so but for me Wales were very good in defense Id like to see how many tackles we made and the % of tackles completed! For me Wales did the biz by holding the Italian attack, ok you can say Wales dropped ball, forward passes etc but for me at that game it was not that noticable!

 

[stormmaster1]

<div class='quotemain'> I recorded the Wales game and watched it today. I have to say Wales looked quite poor first half but really played some good stuff in the second. When you think of how low they were after the Fiji game in the WC to where they are now in terms of results and performance it is quite amazing. Shane Williams for player of the tournament? [/b]

Yep, Shane has been one of the best players of the tournament.
I was glad that Lee Byrne got man of the match. In all three games he has played well, for some reason he has been the unsung hero.
It will be interesting who Gatland will play against Ireland, I would like to see Phillips & Jones halfbacks and Jamie Roberts on the bench. [/b][/quote]



Player of the tournament will be decided in the next 2 games i think, as so far Wales have beaten the bottom 2 (maybe 3) sides in the competition, but have two huge matches to come. Whoever is the influence for whichever side winning the next 2 games will be player of the tournament imo. (although the official one is rarely relevant e.g. lat year).

 

[paridjanian]

<div class='quotemain'>
What would be others Welsh team v Ireland? Mine would be:

01 Duncan Jones
02 Huw Bennett
03 Adam Jones
04 Alun-Wyn Jones
05 Ian Evans
06 Jonathan Thomas
07 Martyn Williams
08 Ryan Jones

09 Mike Phillips
10 Stephen Jones
11 Shane Williams
12 Gavin Henson
13 Tom Shanklin
14 Mark Jones
15 Lee Burne

I'll explain a couple of decisions. Went for Duncan over Gethin, I'd replace Adam with Geth 2nd half. Rees had a poor day at the linout, so Bennett back in. Thought Ian Evans had a good game, was more prominent than Gough, and Alun-Wyn is a shoe in if fit. Peel has a poor display (probably somewhat due to having a knock), Phillips looked good when he came on. Stephen Jones v Hook was tough, but I'd save Hook for the second half, to rip em to shreds lol. Mark Jones v Jamie Robert was another tough call, not much between them, but Jones put in a few big hits which just tipped it.
[/b]

I agree with that. Jamie Roberts is a big lad who may be caught off guard if a ball is chipped behind him. Peel had a crud display due to "blurred vision" and Phillips has had a better tournament so far (although if he acts as greedy as he did against Italy, Shaun will rip his face off). Byrne is Wales' man of the tournament, so he should stay at fullback and the front row you've selected is spot on in my view.
[/b][/quote]

yeah that's almost spot on, except maybe, I'd put Gough on over Evans, and Jenkins should definately start. But you can't write Peel off yet, see how he does with the scarlets

Ok, so you don't call handling errors, forward passes and the allowance of turnovers as mistakes?

Fair enough. Then yes, we made very few mistakes...
[/b]

It was a high risk game, many offloads, exactly the type of game Ireland and England were incapable of taking to the Italians and look at the score margins then

I recorded the Wales game and watched it today. I have to say Wales looked quite poor first half but really played some good stuff in the second. When you think of how low they were after the Fiji game in the WC to where they are now in terms of results and performance it is quite amazing. Shane Williams for player of the tournament?
[/b]

I've watched it a few times now and I'll say Wales have never looked poor in any half this six nations so far, rugby has become a game of attrition these days, there's not an extreme difference in ability between teams, though the victors tend to be the ones who play longer. That's the case.