Overrated unbeaten runs, different agendas and anxious waits... the fall-out from England vs Wales
So, to make sense of it all. Twickenham on Sunday provided a compelling pre-World Cup ding-dong between two sides who daren’t fail, for risk of acute Japanese indigestion.
First blood went to England who deserved their 33-19 win. After such a reality check, Welsh fans of a nervous disposition will naturally be hovering over the panic button, but they need reminding this incident-laden contest in the home of English rugby is only half-finished because these two will go toe-to-toe again next Saturday at an intemperate, baying Principality Stadium. So what to take from the phoney war in London?
DIFFERENT AGENDAS
For a clutch of England squad members it was a case of now or never. They simply had to perform. In a classic case of handing your homework in early Eddie Jones trims his squad on Monday, weeks in advance of the official World Rugby deadline.
Whether that is the most efficient strategy, with three warm-up games to come, only time will tell. Warren Gatland was quick to scoff but as English players did a celebratory lap-of-honour in front of 81,000 fans and 007 (okay, Daniel Craig), it seemed like Jones’ roll of the dice had paid off.
Lewis Ludlum, Anthony Watson and Willi Heinz all pressed their claims. The momentum, as Alun Wyn Jones attested, was with England. For Wales, with just over three weeks to their squad announcement, the motivation was different – to come fully-loaded, claim the world No1 spot and maintain their unbeaten run.
Both dashed accolades were downplayed by Warren Gatland afterwards who didn’t look too disconsolate. End up on the wrong scoreline next weekend and the furrowed brows might be more pronounced.
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AN ANXIOUS WAIT
As a fan, family member or coach, you will spend the next month stomach knotted with a mix of trepidation and anticipation. Collisions between 120kg men are always going to come with a risk of injury and so it proved.
When Tom Curry, the great white hope of English rugby, went down nursing his shoulder to depart the whole of Twickenham held its collective breath– ‘an AC joint, nothing to worry about,” quipped Jones, almost-convincingly.
Ten minutes later, it was Gareth Anscombe, having skipped down the right flank with such alacrity from Jonathan Joseph, who had to be helped from the field by the Wales physios. He reappeared to watch the second-half on crutches and will have a scan on suspected ligament damage to his knee.
It would be a savage blow for Wales to lose a player with such natural gifts. Yes, rugby fans know economic bottoms lines have to be met in order to prop up a game not exactly overflowing with cash, but it is a human tragedy to see players who have sweated blood and tears all summer left a hospital appointment away from missing the world’s greatest tournament. All the luck in the world to the both of them.
First start ✔️
First try ✔️@1_Dickie talks @nickheathsport through a big performance for England #ENGvWAL https://t.co/tGwUzMK1Rh— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 11, 2019
WALES WERE RING RUSTY – PERIOD
Skipper Jones, who broke Wales’ all-time cap record at Twickenham, isn’t one for excuses and flatly refused to blame a lack of finesse for their torpor at the start of each half, but there was no disguising their execution was less than perfect.
Passes went astray, touch finders were missed and lineouts overthrown. It made a nonsense of the pre-match chat that a hopelessly inexperienced England side would be steamrollered by a well-oiled Welsh machine.
Within the first 15 minutes, pre-match predictions were spiked as England bolted out of the traps to score two big tries from two big men, Billy Vunipola and Joe Cokanasiga.
For periods, it was as if Wales’ Grand Slam heroics had been frozen in time and the squad had been cast back to that miserable first 40 minutes in Paris when the ball was auditioning for a Dove advert.
It was frustrating for Gatland, who could not have been blamed for snapping a few pencils. The pièce de résistance was an overthrow on the cusp of half-time when the mechanics of a lineout between two of Wales’ most dependable cogs, Jones and Ken Owens, went awry and the ball dropped into Luke Cowan-Dickie’s mitts for him to canter over the whitewash like he had won the lottery. The upside, Gatland mused, was that these were fixable mistakes.
REASONS FOR CHEER
Despite Wales’ teething troubles, there was enough promise to temper a national meltdown. There weren’t, for instance, the parallels that saw a much heralded Ireland side, dismantled by England in the first game of the Six Nations.
Wales contested and left several scores out on the field. Jonathan Davies ran with purpose and guile in midfield for 94 metres, splattering George Ford into the Twickenham turf with a trademark fend, and Gareth Davies, despite a chargedown and some errant passing, ran in one of the finest Welsh scores at Twickenham with a jet-heeled break down the blindside that left Vunipola and Elliot Daly caught in his tailwinds.
George North and Liam Williams also prospered in the backfield, running the ball back with interest. It wasn’t a noteworthy day for the front five, but in the back row, Aaron Wainwright snapped at English heels in a Dan Lydiate-esque manner with 20 tackles. It was also heartening to see Aaron Shingler return to action after a year lay-off. These were crumbs of comfort to take into their next Test week.
UNBEATEN RUNS ARE OVERRATED
There is a train of thought among Welsh pessimists – I’m a paid-up member – that Wales heading into a World Cup unbeaten on the back of 18 wins would have been ominous. After all, who can forget the squall of Dublin when Ireland arrested England’s unbeaten run in 2017?
England boss Jones once told this writer that with every win you are statistically closer to a loss, so if you want to lose a game, the World Cup warm-ups is the place to do it, not knockout rugby in Japan.
If history is anything to go by, these games tell you very little about the World Cup form book. When Wales lost 23-19 to England in 2011 at Twickenham, one side skipped all the way to the World Cup semi-finals and it wasn’t England, who departed the tournament in a dwarf-tossing pickle. Reading too much into these results is a fool’s errand.
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RANKINGS – DO THEY REALLY MATTER?
When World Rugby slip a few permutations to an expectant rugby public about how a nation can push up or down the rankings with a win at the weekend, it’s usually just a chance for WhatsApp bragging rights, but it means diddly-squat in reality – unless it’s before a World Cup draw.
Wales were the world’s best team for 24 hours, despite not beating New Zealand for 66 years, but if they are poleaxed by Fiji and Australia, that accolade would ring mighty hollow.
Gatland himself said would have been a ‘nice to be No1′ but added that the only true measure of being the best in the world was lifting the William Webb Ellis trophy on November 2 in Yokohama. It was hard to disagree. Onto Cardiff.
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Comments on RugbyPass
“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
2 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
37 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
2 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
1 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
5 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
33 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
5 Go to comments