Comments on: Rugby World Cup 2015: Wales player ratings vs Australia

By: Staggy

Staggy — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 16:08:35 +0000

At least you had senior players and decision makers even if injury cruelly robbed you of them. Something England needs to develop over the next 4 years (Deja Vu).

Thought Wales did well but without me ever thinking that you we going to win after the first 15 minutes even when camped on their line. Going to be another close one with SA. It’s going to be toe to toe stuff I think.

Have to say that generally thought the Welsh players scores should be higher across the board, as they did measure up well against a good Aussie side despite a crippling injury list.

Re scrum would say that we had problems early in the game against the aussies, but weren’t mullered until later on with substitutions. Then we went backwards at a rate of knots!

By: Pablito

Pablito — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 16:08:00 +0000

All good points Brighty. Especially about the injuries – with either JD2 or Scott Williams, you perhaps would have won that game

II found it frustrating as it was such a good chance to beat a very good SH side and it was wasted – yes in part due to epic Aussie defence – but mainly due to a lack of clear leadership and thinking under pressure – its not just England that are prone to it!

By: Big Dia

Big Dia — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 16:05:51 +0000

I was there, and on leaving the stadium I thought that the better team had won. Happy that the first scrum, after the first yellow card, was the correct decision, then the lineout. What I did not, nor the vast majority of the welsh supporters, was the refusal to take the three points for the penalty for the second yellow. On the way back to the hotel, a Kiwi stopped us, and openly stated that he felt that the better team had lost. Now having had the luxury of watching the match on TV, Wales without any basis, were the better team; bold statement I know as we lost and failed to score in the eight minutes that Australia were down to 13. Only once did Australia look like crossing the white line, Wales crossed it three times. Disappoint yes, Worry about the Boks, no, worry about the amount of injuries yes, can we still win it, YES.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 15:47:50 +0000

Apparently Warburton has said that the team spoke before the game about needing a try at some point to beat the Aussies – hence the push to get it when they were down to 13 men. Certainly, it seems it was more of a planned decision than England’s late kick to the corner was 2 weeks previously…

In that context, it makes a little more sense, as it was certainly their best chance to score. It was just the execution that was lacking.

By: brighty

brighty — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 15:20:10 +0000

That is partly it Pablito – a bit more of a “what a bunch of idiots” resignation to it and some euphoria left over from just getting out of the group. Before Sat we were in the QFs, we lost to Aus, we’re still. The reality of us also getting an “easier” route through never really sunk as we were all just so focused on getting out of that group so for most people it’s not something we’ve really lost, it was more a nice bonus if we got it. Probably not the best way to think but….

That game for me also showed up the injuries – JD2 would have made much, much more of the ball in the centres, Webb would have been screaming for the 3 pts and Halfpenny would have been running in to offer himself for the kick. It’s a crap excuse but I think the lack of some of the senior players was going to tell at some point.

Warburton will get a rocket for not taking those pts – the only defence he has (and it’s not a good enough one to stop all comeback) is that he was pulling a s*** or bust approach when a win wasn’t the end of the world.

When all that pile driving was going on the guy in front of me was screaming for ball to come out wide … I said it was a bad idea cos we would screw it up if we did that … next phase we get mashed in midfield and lose the ball and that initiative.

The real loss in that game was no points from the 15 mins of total domination near the start of the first half. Not even a decent 3 (we already had that).

By: Pablito

Pablito — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 14:43:30 +0000

I’m surprised at the lack of Welsh fan irritation at their failure to beat the Aussies. There can’t have been many top level professional international rugby matches where one team has two players in the bin and yet doesn’t concede a single point in that time

Awful decision making not to take the points and come straight back at them. Far, far too predictible when attacking the Aussie line. It looked like they didn’t have a clue what to do to break down a 13 man Aussie defense, let alone a 15 man one

Can you imagine NZ, SA or Ireland not scoring in such a situation – even if its just three points? I even find it hard to think of England not managing a measly 3

Now, a failure of decision making and creativitiy means that instead of a game against Scotland which could well have seen Wales into the semi-finals, they’ve got SA instead. A big chance missed

There seems to be almost an almost fatalistic acceptance of the result. A kind of ‘Oh well, we were never going to beat Australia anyway’ attitude

A shame as I’d like to see Wales do well, but I cannot see them progressing any further

By: Doc

Doc — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 12:04:11 +0000

I’m not sure – they’re down to 13 men, you’re camped on their line, you really want to come away with a try. Particularly if you can do it quickly and get back down there again. What I really would question was the couple of decisions to go for a scrum. We’d looked good in the driving maul and extracted penalties, but struggled for parity in the scrum.

I think that 8 minutes really did show up the psychological issue Wales have with Australia. It looked like Wales tensed up and were really feeling the pressure to score, with adverse effects on their decision making.

By: stroudos

stroudos — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 11:44:29 +0000

As captain, Warburton should have points docked from his score for the decision-making while Australia were down to 13 men. Should have extracted at least three points and I would suggest six would have been a reasonable expectation.

By: Jez

Jez — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 09:10:15 +0000

George North unlucky not to score, err no. North completely butchered the opportunity. In that position there is no way one on one he shouldn’t have scored. That one moment was systematic of how poor the Welsh back division was. Other than Gareth Davies no Welsh back should have scored higher than a five.

By: brighty

brighty — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 09:03:08 +0000

Lower score for North – he wasn’t unlucky not to score, he was negligent. Should have gone for the corner and slid in. He’s 18 stone.

Have to give Lee a higher score – the scrum that monstered England was largely kept in check by the original front row. He’s not a complete enough player to contribute loads around the park yet but he kept the game tight by mostly stopping Aus from using the scrum as a weapon. As an interesting contrast Dan Cole got 4.5 for that Aus game despite being comprehensively mashed in his main role yet Lee gets 5 for a much, much better performance in the scrum.

Hugely disappointing result. There for the taking but not good enough to play around rather than through. Sterling defence by Australia.