15. Matthew Morgan: 8
Showed just what a threat he is with ball in hand, seemingly beating defenders and making ground every time he got the ball. Such a livewire, and one of the main exponents of an entertaining game.
14. Alex Cuthbert: 4
More drab fair from Cuthbert. You can see that he is not confident – on the rare occasions he went looking for the ball, his runs were mistimed and he ended up hitting rucks more often than carrying ball.
13. Tyler Morgan: 6
A solid outing for Morgan, although he was perhaps guilty of ploughing on with ball in hand when a pass may have been a better option on occasion.
12. Jamie Roberts: 5
Like his centre partner, this was a solid performance from Roberts without ever threatening to impose himself on the midfield as we know he can. You could tell he had some serious miles in his legs still from the England game.
11. George North: 7
One trademark burst in the opening minute was a joy to behold, and while it didn’t set the trend for the next 79 minutes, it would still have boosted his confidence. His most lively performance so far.
10. Dan Biggar: 7.5
Nailed everything from the tee despite quietening down his pre-kick Macarena routine. Showed gloriously quick hands in the build-up to Scott Baldwin’s try.
9. Gareth Davies: 8
Sublime again from Davies, who is rapidly becoming one of the stars of this World Cup. Once again showed his nose for the try-line with a smartly-taken try, and his service was never short of snappy.
1. Gethin Jenkins: 4
Had a torrid time in the scrum and missed the tackle that started Fiji’s stunning try. All in all a forgettable evening for the veteran.
2. Scott Baldwin: 7
Showed good awareness to quickly pick the ball up and dot down for his try – had he dithered, Fiji may have been able to stop him. Lineout was flawless.
3. Thomas Francis: 4
Became the latest victim of Campese Ma’afu’s surprisingly effective scrummaging. And if he’s not shoring up the scrum, he’s not really of any use to this team. Lee will start against Australia.
4. Bradley Davies: 5.5
A quieter outing for big Brad, who was a very, very lucky boy to not see yellow for what looked an awful lot like a neck roll in the first half.
5. Alun-Wyn Jones: 8
You could not tell that he had played one of the games of his life just four days previously. As usual, he was seemingly everywhere, carrying ball, smashing Fijian attackers and hitting rucks. A colossus.
6. Dan Lydiate: 6
Did what he does best – chopped down attackers, finishing near the top of the tackle stats (as usual). Carried a bit more ball than usual, although not really to any great effect.
7. Sam Warburton: 7
Another hugely industrious performance from the skipper. He made 14 tackles but what stood out was the physicality of them – he frequently stopped the hulking Fijians in their tracks, sapping any momentum in the attack.
8. Taulupe Faletau: 8
There can be few more difficult jobs in rugby than having to control the ball at the back of a scrum in reverse – but Faletau again made it look easy. Also finished as his side’s top tackler, another whose work rate never dipped despite the heroics of four days ago.
Replacements: 6
Justin Tipuric added a bit of dynamism, and Luke Charteris was very busy around the park, but other than that the bench didn’t really have much effect on the game. Their main job was a defensive one, as the Fijians really grew into the game in the second half.
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
Not sure where else to put this; so I’ve gone for here.
Was it just me that thought that the breakdown was refereed so poorly? It seemed like a complete lottery. Some players were allowed to hold on once they were tackled for ages, often resulting in players being penalised for fairly jackling. It was so strange to watch.
On the players themselves, thought Morgan was great, as was Gareth Davies.
No rate the match page?
Delighted with the win. Delighted to be right behind the posts to see our first two tries. Terrifying size up close those Fijian players. Worried about 60 mins in – both by the score and the clear look of knackeredness (it’s a word) on the faces and bodies of our players.
Well impressed with how many people with English accents are from Fiji and wear their Fiji shirts with pride. My block was packed with them. “Well done chaps”, as they were saying.
Sam goes under the radar again – the words say he was excellent, the score says he’s as good as Robshaw.
No injuries! Worried when Biggar was off but it was cramp – he was exhausted.
Danny Wilson is back in Wales now – need him to get involved in the Welsh setup for the scrum, his expertise has already helped the hapless Blues pack from last year become competitive, with the same players.
Gethin – what a conundrum. When fit he’s on fire around the park but two poor scrum outings in a row must be rectified, and quickly.
Must mention no BP – honestly cannot see that as a failure as it wasn’t there. Fiji well up for it, our boys knackered, the win in the bag. 3 from 3. A BP would have meant we could possibly (if Eng beat Aus) tolerate a losing BP against Aus. No BP means that (if Eng beat Aus) we have to beat Aus. So we need 8 more pts againts Aus’s score than we otherwise would have. If it comes down to that and we’re not good enough to do it, but the team we beat are good enough to beat Aus, then we don’t go through. On balance I can live with that across a series of games.
Matthew Morgan – some delightful stuff but tried to play everything and was close to losing the ball on our 5 yards at least twice. Needs some sense.
And hey, we had a game with James Hook and Rhys Priestland on the pitch and it wasn’t a loss. Small increments.
Is it just me that thinks Priestland has looked much better in his cameos so far! Seems to be playing with a level of confidence that has been missing for so long. Hard to judge maybe on the odd 20 mins he’s had here and there but I feel the signs are encouraging.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m so glad Biggar only had cramp and nothing more sinister!
I agree. Like you though I would still be worried if we needed him for a whole game but at the moment it is comforting to know he seems to be able to do a job off the bench.
Not just you! His distribution has been excellent and his decision making much better (probably linked to confidence). I didn’t sayanything unrepeatable when he came on yesterday!
No, the ref was terrible, and Wales probably did get the better of the “uh?” decisions at the breakdown. Most of the Irish reports I’ve read on it were pretty scathing/embarrassed by his showing.
As for the ratings, I’d maybe drop 0.5 or 1 point off Morgan, for as entertaining as he was in attack, I thought he was pretty suspect in defence. This may have been due to the directive, which it seems was to go high to stop the offloads, which on the whole I thought was pretty ineffective. I thought we fell off more tackles in that game yesterday than we have in the whole tournament to date. Tiredness probably a factor too, but it did allow Fiji to get away numerous times and offload at will.
I’d probably give MM another go, but I’d put him on the wing, with LW at 15 and Cuthbert dropped – who was so poor again.
Special shout out to Hook – 3 times he touched the ball, 3 times he dropped it – classic Hooky.
The wonderful and totally impartial Lacey, former Munster wing and current Munster coach development officer? IRFU employee who refs Ire v Wal Pro 12 matches where results are essential for Irish teams. Not impartial? Get away….
To be fair – there are a fair few WRU-employed referees in such games, too, but I think he was summed up last(?) season when the TMO said there’d been some foul play (a short arm ‘handoff’ to the head) by a Leinster player (later cited) and Lacey said there was nothing wrong.
Fortunately there were no such incidents last night, but some of his decisions were ‘interesting’ and there were harsh penalties given to both sides.
I actually disagree about Cuthbert – I thought he was much less of a liability than he has been recently. His mistakes in this game only undid previous good work (of his) – a decent break around the back of a lineout and nearly sneaking an interception – rather than the unenforced errors we’ve seen in his last few games which have robbed Wales of momentum.
I thought Gareth Davies had a bit of a mixed game. He kept the defence on its toes and generally looked pretty dangerous, but some of his decision making wasn’t good; notably after Morgan’s break, but also some of his kicks.
Faletau and Warburton were awesome and the former should definitely have been MOTM. Charteris also impressed when he came on and should surely start against Australia.
The front row is a worry, but hopefully Lee and James will both be fully fit. Lee to start and James to come on if Jenkins is having a wobble.
I’d have happily taken a 10 point win before kickoff, but after Baldwin’s try though we could have grabbed a bonus point, and maybe should have done so before half time with a bit more composure. The flagging in the second half was a bit worrying, particularly as the kicking was poor and played into Fiji’s hands when the running game was gaining a lot of meters. Hopefully these both just come down to tiredness.
I picked a last minute ticket to the game, and it was a lot of fun! I was a complete neutral but as Brighty said, lots of Fiji fans with English accents around. To be honest, if England don’t beat Aus then they don’t deserve to go through anyway, so relying on Fiji to beat a tired Welsh team seems a bit silly.
And Biggar didn’t seem to tone down his Biggarena to me, i remember it being in full flow.
The fijians are huge with some ferocious defence and Wales did very well to get the win. The BP may come back to bite them, and should have been on the cards in the first half before tiring in the second.
In fairness to Fiji, I thought they upped the intensity markedly in the second half. So much so, that I went from being confident on a BP at half time, to being happy with a win at full time. Kudos to Warbs for kicking for goal to stretch it to 10 points.. Fiji had a period of pressure after that which could’ve gone horribly wrong for us – especially had we been only 7 ahead.
Think scores should be higher for Warburton, Biggar (his kicking was quite something again) and AWJ
Points should be less for the props. The scrum was dreadful
Minus points should be awarded to the ref for a complete lack of consistency.
Pleased Biggar wasn’t injured as want to see him playing (even if it does make Wales much more likely to beat Aus).His partnership with Davies has the potential to be the find of the tournament
Entertaining game though. If Volavola was a better kicker and if they’d had Matawalu and Nadolo, I think it would have been even closer
Their games against Wales and Aus have made England’s opening night efforts look somewhat better in hindsight.
I have to ask as this may just be my perception, does it seem to anyone else like the squad is trying to give Cuthbert constant opportunities to solve his issues? I kept see the ball making it’s way over to him, even when the ruck was in the middle they took it over to Cuthbert as opposed to North.
North is the stronger player, even when both on form but definitely whilst Cuthbert isn’t firing right, it only took a couple of minutes to see some North magic, and regardless of who you support we can generally agree he is a world class winger, just seems he has to labour for involvement and come into the centre more, whereas Cuthbert get’s his opportunities gift wrapped.
I can’t help wonder if it is a case of, keep North safe and less involved so he wont be hurt and see if they can’t shake Cuthbert’s bogeyman.
As for Morgan’s issue he would do well on the Wing when Liam is back at FB, more opportunity for his runs with less danger if he messes up.