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‘It’s not right for me to talk about previous games’
One endearing thing that you have to like about Mark Jones is that he doesn’t do bluff. His coaching vernacular is of the straight-shooting variety, a style honed in recent years at the Super Rugby-winning Crusaders. He is now working as interim Wales U20s head coach following his aborted spell at the financially collapsed Worcester.
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The Welsh were Six Nations age-grade wooden spoonists just a few months back under a different coaching regime and having taken charge in early May, Jones’ fingerprints are all over the general improvements witnessed in recent weeks in South Africa at the Junior World Championship.
Heading into the tournament you would have feared the Welsh could go the way of Scotland in 2019 when the event was last staged. The Scots finished 12th and were relegated, a demotion that they will only finally get the chance to rectify next week when they participate in the eight-team World Junior Trophy in Kenya.
Rather than battling relegation in Cape Town, though, a refreshed Wales have had a bit more about them, coming within a whisker of ambushing New Zealand and then showing some gas to pull away from Japan with a late flourish after some difficult early moments.
Tuesday’s pool-closing contest versus France was another level, however. The defeat wasn’t as damaging as the 67-17 battering suffered 15 weeks ago when the teams met in the Six Nations.
Wales had encouraging moments in generating multiple linebreaks but the 14-man French, who ended the group stage as the No1 ranked side out of the 12 participants, always had an extra gear to convincingly win 43-17.
Despite the reduced margin, Jones wasn’t of a mind to compare the March result under Byron Hayward in Oyonnax with what materialised in Athlone. “It’s not right for me to talk about previous games,” he told RugbyPass. “I will just focus on this performance and we were below our level in this performance in terms of our execution. I am disappointed that we didn’t take a lot more of our opportunities.
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“We showed that we are a very dangerous team. I know they were down to 14 men for a large chunk as well, but there are definitely elements of our performance that we will be disappointed with. The guys had prepared well, they were clear on what their roles were and unfortunately, under the heat of battle, the skill set in particular hasn’t quite held up.
“The positive thing is that gives us an opportunity, gives us something to focus on. We know that we can fix our own game first before we start worrying about opposition and hopefully we can turn it around and come out of the blocks flying in the next match.”
That fifth-to-eighth-place semi-final will be against Georgia in Paarl and with New Zealand facing Australia on the other side of the draw, Wales will have two more decent fixtures to finish out the campaign. “It’s been a mixed pool,” surmised Jones about their three-game Pool A adventure which harvested seven match points to leave them ranked eighth best out of the 12 teams heading into the play-offs.
“Loads of green shoots in the first two games around our set-piece in the first game and some of our strikes from set-piece, we looked really dangerous with the ball in hand and there was some pretty decent defence in there around the phase play stuff.
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“The second pool match against Japan we showed great game management, good character, dealt with the conditions really well and had some good maturity from young men in what was a tight game and we got away with it in the end. What we have learned against France is you get punished if you don’t take your opportunities. It has been a very mixed pool but the tournament is not over and we have got to make sure we carry on.
“I am happy with the chances that we created. It was definitely an element of our game that was positive; we made 10 linebreaks and they made 12. Just their conversion rate was so much better than ours and we are disappointed.
“We put a lot of work into our set-piece along with other areas of our game. Boys are working incredibly hard in those areas, but we came up against a very strong team and we couldn’t quite contain them at that set-piece and that gave them the platform for their performance.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Goode is a Prop that played Flyhalf…. Who gives a Sh@#t what he thinks anyway!
149 Go to commentsOne would hope when a player of such caliber is approached for transfer is traversed a lot more carefully. The question I ask, “is the players agent raising red flags in the first instance of contact”. By what I read assumptions are made by nzr based on player welfare provided to them. So what is that? Is it a wholistic approach where family balance is taken into account. Because thay’s what’s in the mix when players go off shore. I realize the money is a huge factor but when negotiations are initiated is nzr involved. As Lendrum says having our best players available is paramount to our success So here’s hoping they are effectively communicating.
4 Go to commentsPSTD, I salute you.
6 Go to commentsWhy don't they just give up on scrums and lineouts, cut the number of players to 13, and call the game ‘rugby league’? These idiots are determined to destroy the game as we know it, and instead of ‘attracting youngsters to the game’ as Beaumont suggests, it’ll deter a lot of the less skilled, maybe overweight kids who it is perfect for. World Rugby is detestable. And as for the 20 minute ‘red’ - why not teach the players to tackle better? (Like the current tackle height trials are supposed to do, but will probably be squashed by the NZRU as usual). I despair for the union game, I really do.
35 Go to commentsHere’s hoping the emphasis on how the tmo interfaces on game infractions is taken into account more seriously than what was adjudicated during the 23 wc. That was a shambles, plus Barnes the abs ref never contested some of the calls, something he’s known for. And then we're left with wr opologizing after the game that smith’s try was legit. I was even more pizzed. And as for the red card if the infringement is clearly intentional foul then the individual is out of the game and after 20mins the bench replacement comes on. So, there’s then the degree of seriousness taken into account within the 20min stand down.
35 Go to commentsNot sure they the article doesn’t hit on TMO this year, that’s were they were putting focus right. The fact the other areas haven’t improved shows just how poor the comp is at focusing on its direction. There should still have been further gains in both those areas this year even it if didn’t have the same focus as others. The whistle to restart time, like touch finders of 26 seconds, surely has to be a key focus area next year. Why should a side be given so much time to kick for touch? Cut that down to 5 or 10 seconds, penalties both become less of key stalling/defensive strategy, and become more ‘live’ with tap kicks becoming much more favourable quick actions. Theres absolutely no reason we have to wait over 10 secs for the preferred kicker to walk up and try and take maximum advantage, especially when half the time its just a delay tactic to give the forwards time to plan, as the kicker hardly even trys to find the corner with his kick, anyone could have kicked it straight out for the lineout.
35 Go to commentsShame. Hope something else can be arranged.
3 Go to commentsTitans of under-20s rugby …. Reporters tired verbiage akin to calling every player a “star” and any Fijian side as ”Flying”. The French English and Irish are the Titans of U20 rugby. Noone in the South is now. This tournament is however, good prep to regain titan status.
1 Go to commentsWill be humbling coming back and playing second fiddle to Dmac.
4 Go to commentsSounds like quite a bit of development has occurred regarding Mo’unga’s situation. Either NZR has stepped up their offer (big time) or RMo has had a reality check on what it will be like to be outside of the high performance environment of AB rugby. Maybe both. It reads like there are only a few remaining details to be sorted out before it is a done deal.
4 Go to commentsCurrently, a prop that has been substituted can go back on field if his original replacement gets injured. Can a red carded prop go back if his replacement gets injured, or will it be uncontested scrums?
13 Go to commentsWhat about a free kick from a scrum? Can you call another scrum? Or are they just giving straight penalties now?
35 Go to commentsLoved that comment by Andrew that the ‘water boys’ rule was changed in 2020 just to stymie the Boks!
35 Go to commentsOne of the best the Boks have ever produced. PSDT has an engine that goes non-stop for the full 80 min.
6 Go to commentsThe real deal.
6 Go to commentsIt’s been said that Nienaber will head back to SA too before next World Cup , hoarding all the amazing IP gained in Irish system … get a grip … Irish system needs to Milk the likes of Barrett . First time a leading all Black in his prime has gone to Ireland for any period of time . Enjoy it .
22 Go to comments20 min RC is the only good solution of a bunch of bad solutions. Ridiculous that it has taken this long and caused so many uneven contests. In general these are all very good changes - one is surprised that NH brokers were able to see sense at long last.
13 Go to comments“While a red card will mean a temporary team disadvantage, the replacement system will focus punishment on the offending player instead of disrupting the game itself.” This might work for amateur rugby, where players just want to be on the pitch for as long as possible, but hopefully we’ve got to a point where top level professionals care about the success of their team much more than about whether they personally are on the pitch or not.
13 Go to commentsa lot of focus on the targeting of south africa, but aspects of this are positive. The croc roll; the offside law; and time limits on set pieces are all good. calling for a mark off kick offs is baffling, but I guess we’ll see how it plays out in practice
35 Go to commentsSpeeding the game up is great, but I think we will find that the increase in viewership this year mostly comes down to the competition being more competitive…the fall of the Crusaders has been a boon for viewership. This should be at the heart of super rugby changes - how to make the comp more even
35 Go to comments