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Howley proud of Wales after fortnight of 'hurt'

By Jack Davies
Wales’ George North.

Interim head coach Rob Howley believes Wales produced the perfect response to recent criticism by beating Ireland 22-9 in the Six Nations on Friday.

Howley has taken the brunt of the flak following back-to-back defeats against England and Scotland and raised some eyebrows by naming an unchanged side for the visit of Ireland.

However, the players answered Howley’s call for a reaction, with George North – one of the players who came in for particular scrutiny after the previous loss at Murrayfield – running in two tries in a thrilling Test match.

“We knew there was going to be a reaction and against one of the best sides in world rugby you have to play like that, with and without the ball,” Howley told BBC Sport.

“There’s been a lot of hurt in the camp over the last couple of weeks and I’m just delighted and very proud of the players. 

“They deserve that. They’ve taken a lot of stick – the coaches and players alike – and we beat a very good Irish side today, and I thought we beat them emphatically as well.”

Asked whether North needed his “kick up the backside”, Howley added: “It’s our Welsh culture!

“I think when you praise them too much they sit back and become relaxed, but if you criticise them too much they might go into their shells. There’s a fine balance.

“We don’t do it easy. We always do it the hard way in Wales. But they’ll grow after today’s performance.

“They need to believe in themselves and we’ll get better.”

Captain Alun Wyn Jones said his team had to put in a strong performance for the fans and themselves.

“I think we owed it to the large proportion of Welsh people in this stadium, and secondly to ourselves,” he commented.

“We haven’t done ourselves justice in the last two games and that was the priority today. I think we did that.”

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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