Rate the World Cup warm-up game between Wales and Ireland in Cardiff and leave your thoughts on the game in the comments section below.
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Rate the match: Wales vs Ireland World Cup warm-up
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Meh. Rubbish from Wales. At least Hook won’t be back. Anonymous back row. Woeful front five. Good stuff from Morgan, Amos and Walker. Anscombe looked tidy when he came on. We found out more about players to cull than keep.
For Ireland Trimble and Earls shone.
I pretty much agree with you Blighty. I’m a great admirer of Hook,but he was in Last Chance Saloon today, and probably didn’t/couldn’t do quite enough. Anscombe looked lively and positive when he came on, so could be the beneficiary. But then they might both miss out, with Priestland and Amos getting in. Wasn’t helped by the fact that both Hook and Anscombe kicked fabulous touchline conversions; remiding us of one great thing, that we are not short of fine place-kickers in Wales.
I was a bit mystified by the absence of Baker after the break. He looked pretty effective in the first 20, carried well. So either he picked up a knock, or I’m totally wrong and the coaches thought he was so awful they dragged him off! I’m also afraid the two starting props, Thomas and Jarvis, will disappear. Very disappointed with Thomas, as I know the coaches rate him; but he’s not there yet at this level. Jarvis is, for me, simply a willing work-horse, but by no means an international scrummaging prop. Andrews, who did ok when he came on, will surely get that 3rd tight-head place if Lee gets fit.
In the end, this was a very good Ireland ‘B’ against a pretty poor Wales ‘C/D’, and I agree with you that it was more about culling than selecting. I hope they persist with Moriarty though; he barely touched Zebo for that yellow card, and at one point I though Zebo was going to be carded for play-acting. Dream on – refs aren’t that brave I fear!
Ireland looking good though; Martyn Williams foresees a NZ/Ireland final. Could yet be!
Im inclined to agree with the ScrumV commentary team to be honest – in that this was a young Wales ‘B’ team (not a C or D – I didn’t know the Welsh training camp had over 70 players with which to put a ‘D’ team together with!) which was suffering a bit from having only just got into the rugby having done all the high-altitude prep first. Wales’s victory in 6N was built on furious defence and game form at their well-oiled best, so a team that has not been greased properly in a while was always going to struggle to match an Ireland ethos that prides itself on its efficiency, clinical finishing and confidence – and so will have been working furiously on those instead of intense fitness training. The Welsh fitness will help in the longer-term, hence why Dublin will be so interesting in a months time.
Ireland do benefit from very decent strength in depth Caps-wise (which was always a worry post-2009 and post-BOD given the irreplaceable nature of the ‘Golden Gen’ lineup), so its no shame on Wales in that regard. Gats was right to get some new blood out now – its good to know who you can call during the tournament to fill for inevitable injuries.
As for Zebo playacting, thats slightly selective viewing imho. Jonathan Davies (Sr.) is not always the best at containing his unquestioned patriotism to the red shirt, (not a criticism, just an observation!) but he had absolutely no question over the call and felt it fair. Moriarty is a great talent but he has been a little too ill-disciplined and feisty in the tackle more than once in the past season. If he polishes that out, he’ll go far.
Ireland looked very sharp, and if Schmidt reckons that the team yesterday hasn’t done enough to break into the WC squad at all, then that should be an ominous comment on the form the A-team is in. I’ll be intrigued to see what follows against England and Scotland!
I see your point about my ‘C/D team’ comment, VJ! However, there is more to team selection than simply the numbers available to choose from (I’m sure you know this), and the combinations that make up the different segments of the team are just as important. So I’ll meet you halfway – Ireland B v Wales C!
As to Zebo, I don’t retract my opinion on that. I watched the replay carefully, and also noted how Zebo stayed down just until the yellow card had been safely delivered, then rapidly skipped to his feet! Brian Habana had the grace to apologise for similar behaviour last year; given that a young fellow professional’s chance of World Cup participation was potentially put in jeopardy, it would have been wonderful to see the same thing in this case. But I wasn’t holding my breath…..
Anyway, this game was a bit of a phoney war; the next meeting will be the really interesting one.
I’m not sure Zebo was play acting – at least I hope he wasn’t – but agree that it shouldn’t have been a yellow card. That’s just the way the game is going though and I wouldn’t be surprised if within the next couple of years the powers-that-be decide to re-define the high tackle to make anything above the nipples a penalty!
The worrying thing for me is the apparent lack of strength in depth in the forwards (and tight five in particular). Okay, if you haven’t touched a ball for two months you’ll be a bit rusty, but that should be less of a problem for the forwards whose conditioning, you’d imagine, would be more like the donkey work they’re expected to do during a game yet they utterly failed to provide a platform. The only positive surprise, I thought, was Dom Day’s play around the park – he actually looked pretty handy, though I expect he’ll come in for some flak for the lineout (not sure how much that was his fault though).
The tighthead situation is terrifying. We’re in a situation where we might well be going to the world cup with a guy who’s crocked, a guy who’s not won a cap yet and Scott Andrews! I’m beyond hoping for a phone call to Adam Jones.