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Zebo and Hartley dissect Wales' crisis: 'It just looks like they don't know what the plan is really out on the field'
Struggling Wales fell to their sixth successive defeat under Wayne Pivac when they were beaten by Ireland last Friday in Dublin and they are now ranked ninth in the world – a far cry from the No1 billing enjoyed heading into last year’s World Cup on the back of a Six Nations Grand Slam under Warren Gatland.
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They have been poor to watch in that run of losses and while Pivac has taken drastic action to try and rectify the decline by recently sacking his defence coach Byron Hayward, the desired improvement failed to materialise against the Irish and Wales were soundly beaten 32-9.
An Autumn Nations Cup match-up with Georgia this weekend should result in them finally snapping their losing streak, but that will unlikely be much comfort with Six Nations champions England due in Llanelli on November 28.
The return of Wales to the doldrums sparked an interesting discussion on the latest episode RugbyPass Offload between Ireland’s Simon Zebo and ex-England captain Dylan Hartley who tried to get to the nub of the reason why the performances of the Wales team under Pivac are so very different to the success enjoyed just over a year ago with Gatland at the helm.
“Ireland did what they had to do,” said Zebo, reflecting on last weekend’s Nations Cup round one encounter. “I wasn’t very impressed with Wales. I thought they were pretty poor. Ireland did what they needed to do. They controlled the game quite well.
RugbyPass Offload – Episode 7 – Corbs & Co
Great to have @AlexCorbs join us this week to chat Ireland v England, Lions Tours, Tinder dates, Giltinis and his battle to overcome cancer?
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Spotify – https://t.co/XhUN2XigYC#RPOffload pic.twitter.com/FL5bxSe8Vd— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 18, 2020
“Wales didn’t look like they were up to much in defence. Ireland seemed to be winning the collisions quite easy. It’s hard to take stuff from that game because it seemed so easy at times for Ireland and I imagine it will be a totally different game next weekend against England. But yeah, I was very disappointed with Wales. I thought they looked like a team who were five losses on the bounce and out of confidence and all that.”
Hartley responded: “This is a bit like what happened to South Africa and England in that World Cup final. People say like England underperformed and you’re saying Wales underperformed. Do you think it is because Ireland were so assertive and so dominant they dictated what happened?”
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“Yeah, maybe, but not for the whole 80 minutes, definitely not,” replied Zebo. “I thought Ireland were good without needing to be great to beat that Welsh team. Wales, their defence typically over the last few years has been such a pressure game and Ireland looked like they had loads of time on the ball.
“They could play to width if they wanted. They could attack them aerially or through the pack. They just seemed like they had way more time on the ball than normally playing against a Welsh defence, and in attack they just looked quite poor. They didn’t look like they didn’t have any threats out wide going into contact or anything. They couldn’t win collisions, they just looked very, very poor.”
Warming to the theme, Hartley asked: “Do you reckon it’s like an identity thing? For me when I think about Wales it’s everything that you have talked about. Defensively robust, really aggressive and in attack really direct and really aggressive as well. It doesn’t feel like they are doing either.
“They have got the tools, they have got the cattle to do that because they have got the same playing group effectively. It’s what they had with (Shaun) Edwards, Gatland and co.
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“I feel like Pivac is probably trying to, this is just a suggestion, maybe impose a new identity on them maybe playing a different way, going away from what they have been successful at. Is that him guilty of just trying to put his stamp on the team and evolve the team. I don’t know?”
Zebo replied: “It’s tricky. You’re right there. It seems like they are in between two different styles of play. At times they are playing to width but they are playing so deep off the line it is easy for defences to push off onto them and they are not really a threat.
“At times they will get over halfway and all of a sudden they might lose one contact and they will throw up a box kick. They are in between playing wide-wide and going through the middle and it just looks like they don’t know what they plan is really out on the field. It’s a big transitional period for them.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Did the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
1 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
4 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
16 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
16 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
4 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
16 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
16 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to comments