Wales slump to another defeat but perspective needed in analysing start of the Pivac era
Two losses on the bounce and a first home defeat for Wales in the Six Nations since 2017. These are perhaps not the headlines Wayne Pivac was envisaging when taking over from Warren Gatland but a cold dose of reality often does wonders for the senses and sharpens the mind. External factors are at play too. After a near-decade of internecine bickering with the Top 14, the French juggernaut is finally in unison and the tournament is enriched for it. While Pivac has said Wales have to take defeat on the chin, the overriding emotion for the team as they undertake a post-mortem will be frustration. They weren’t outplayed. They weren’t outfought but they were outthought by a shrewd French side growing in confidence by the game.
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Let’s get some perspective
It is just Wayne Pivac’s third competitive game in charge of Wales and they lost by four points. For those with short memories, lest they forget, 1991 when France beat Wales 36-3, or 1998 when France demolished Wales 51-0 at Wembley Stadium. Then there was 2000 when Wales again were brushed aside by France losing 36-3, or 2003 where Wales were thrashed 33-5. Not enough? How about 2007 when France won at a canter, 34-7.
The no-so-subtle point I’m making is that Wales have had it easy in the last decade when France were in disarray on and off the field. Now however they have momentum, yet were it not for a kind bounce – thanks for the gift, Leigh Halfpenny. Yours Anthony Bouthier, or the slap down of pass – a little careless Monsieur Willemse – Wales would be toasting yet another narrow win over their Gallic friends.
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Wales authors of their own demise
While it’s important not to decide the end is nigh from a Welsh point of view, it’s also not wise to brush over areas where Wales were foolhardy and lacking composure. The game ended in irritation when Camille Chat, in a manner not unlike Francois Louw in the World Cup semi-final, clamped himself onto the ball thus stopping Nick Tompkins from recycling the ball but the one period that will stick in the craw came before half-time, when Wales scented French weakness at the scrum, yet try as they might, they could not blow France’s house down. For nearly seven minutes before half-time, with Wales 9-17 in arrears, they put Les Bleus under such pressure that they conceded three penalties and had a player, Gregory Aldritt, consigned to the sin-bin, yet they still came away with nul points, often spurning overlaps with hesitance and tunnel vision. In the post-match analysis, they would have to concede they blew it.
It bore similarities to their offensive failure against Australia in the 2015 World Cup pool stages, when the Wallabies were at one point down to 13-men. Sharper, more clinical, maybe more hardheaded sides would have come away some points, even if it was through the boot of Dan Biggar. As Alun Wyn Jones said afterwards, they felt they could capitalise on France’s buckling scrum but Stephen Jones, Wayne Pivac and the senior leadership group will have to put their heads together to make they learn from their mistakes.
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A new style of play is emerging but it needs time
As the players trudged in to the sheds to suck on their half-time oranges, a statistic popped up that told us, as if proof were needed, that this is a team with a different raison d’etre to Warren Gatland’s side. Wales had offloaded 14 times to France’s three. They had played with ambition, beaten more defenders and ran nearly twice and many metres as France. Now the wise-Alecs among you will point out that Wales lost the game and the brass-necked few will be the one’s openly pining for Gatland’s pragmatism where they once beat the drum for Pivac’s elan. Against France, according to rugby statistician Russ Petty, they made 19 clean breaks. Compare that to 29 in the entire 2019 Six Nations tournament, in which they won the Grand Slam. That’s a revolution, not evolution.
For those who tirelessly championed the breath of fresh air coursing through Wales’ attacking veins as an antidote to Gatland’s dour physicality, the message is writ-large – you can’t have it both ways. Pivac and Jones are at the embryonic stages of a four-year journey to France in 2023, with over 40 Tests to go before heading to France. They are finding out whether the players they’ve inherited can adapt to their style of play. If they can’t, they will be replaced and new players will be bedded in. It is early days.
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Fresh faces are a boon for Wales
At the turn of the year, when every second sentence contained, ‘Louis Rees-Zammit has to be called up for Wales’, absolutely no one was talking about Nick Tompkins and Will Rowlands. Only the gilded few knew of their Welsh links. Two months later and both players are no longer filed under ‘private WRU files’ but promising Test additions. Tompkins has made the biggest impression. He would be the first to accept he’s been far from perfect, missing eight tackles and throwing an intercept in his eagerness to set Justin Tipuric free, but he’s been Wales’ most exciting back in this tournament. He quickens the pulse with his energetic running gait and relentless positivity to turn defenders and desire to make yards. He is worth the effort.
Meanwhile Wasps second-row, Rowlands, has only played 15 minutes of Test rugby but he did enough to suggest he warrants another look in the Welsh 23, leaving Cory Hill and Jake Ball to battle it out for the other spot. He’s a massive man, at 6ft 8in and over 19st, physically similar to Ireland’s James Ryan and a break late on reminded this writer of Ian Evans, with his loping stride and ability to ship the ball on suggesting he may have more footballing skills that the doughty but limited Ball. Two positives to cling on too.
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Twickenham looks foreboding for Wales
Wales’ next opponents are England under the irascible Eddie Jones. The side fluffed their lines against France, emerged victorious in the storm up in Murrayfield but saved their best for Ireland in a performance which suggests they are still the side best-equipped to challenge South Africa and New Zealand. They were ruthless in defence, physically bullying an Ireland side who have been disassembled three times in just over a year and this without the muscle brothers, Mako and Billy Vunipola. Wales simply don’t have the personnel up front to go toe-to-toe with England’s behemoths so they will have to win through guile and flawless execution. Calls to recall Liam Williams are risky, with the player out of action since late October and there will be clamours for Josh Navidi’s return to the backrow to add brawn, with Sam Underhill and Tom Curry a duo to match any in world rugby, lying in wait.
At scrum-half too, there are decisions to make with Gareth Davies off-colour at Tomas Williams adding a perky second-half cameo. In the back-three, with George North and Josh Adams doubts, the calls for Rees-Zammit to be called up to the Wales 23 will intensity. Twelve tries in 14 appearances is making the case for the Gloucester speedster’s inclusion more and more compelling. Plenty then for Pivac to ponder in this most unforgiving of environments.
Watch: Catch up on all the action from Round 6 of the Japanese Top League.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 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
1 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments