Gethin was looking a bit more like his old self and had a pretty decent game. When James came on Wales did seem to lose a little punch around the park. For some reason Paul James lacks a little something but you can see he is close but just not quite there. Francis and then Jarvis were a little anonymous but that also means they didn’t stand out as awful! Owens had a great game and should easily be the first choice 2. I didn’t even realise Baldwin came on. Only one lineout lost from Owens throws and that was more exceptional reading on Henderson’s part and really strong tackling and ball carrying away from the set piece from Owens. Davies did OK but was a bit quiet but that was just exemplified more with AWJ being a machine…. again 😀 Charteris looked ok but didn’t get too much time. Scrum for Wales was going forward 9 times out of 10 and only one lineout lost I think. Wales were smart at the breakdown and generally had their way with Ireland. Henderson did put in some monster clearouts though!

So, yes, Wales had the upper hand in the front 5 but it wasn’t outstanding and I think Tipperich’s performance would have stood out in almost any game- lots of individual brilliance when Wales were turned or on the back foot. MOM and a try too.

Doesn’t the Maul full of backs for the try count as a typical Welsh move? 😀 Very good point though that they pretty much dominated by being solid and unspectacular and didn’t give much away.

I wouldn’t worry. Someone like Hibbard can always come in and do a better job at 10 😯 😆 I do feel for Priestland. 4 years ago he was one of Wales’s best players and he’s had nothing but Achilles problems and intermittent, stuttering game time since then really.

Yeah, his coaching credentials speak for themselves.
Martin Johnson won a world cup as a player……

Martin Johnson won a world cup, as did jonny wilkinson, Jason Robinson etc. they all did.

Hookers: Dane Coles (Hurricanes/Wellington), Keven Mealamu (Blues/Auckland), Codie Taylor (Crusaders/Canterbury).

Props: Wyatt Crockett (Crusaders/Canterbury), Charlie Faumuina (Blues/Auckland), Ben Franks (Hurricanes/Hawke’s Bay), Owen Franks (Crusaders/Canterbury), Tony Woodcock (Blues/North Harbour).

Locks: Brodie Retallick (Chiefs/Bay of Plenty), Luke Romano (Crusaders/Canterbury), Samuel Whitelock (Crusaders/Canterbury).

Loose forwards: Sam Cane (Chiefs/Bay of Plenty), Jerome Kaino (Blues/Auckland), Richie McCaw – captain (Crusaders/Canterbury), Liam Messam (Chiefs/Waikato), Kieran Read (Crusaders/Canterbury), Victor Vito (Hurricanes/Wellington).

Halfbacks: Tawera Kerr-Barlow (Chiefs/Waikato), TJ Perenara (Hurricanes/Wellington), Aaron Smith (Highlanders/Manawatu).

First five-eighths: Beauden Barrett (Hurricanes/Taranaki), Daniel Carter (Crusaders/Canterbury), Colin Slade (Crusaders/Canterbury).

Midfielders: Malakai Fekitoa (Highlanders/Auckland), Ma’a Nonu (Hurricanes/Wellington), Conrad Smith (Hurricanes/Wellington), Sonny Bill Williams (Chiefs/Counties Manukau).

Outside backs: Nehe Milner-Skudder (Hurricanes/Manawatu), Julian Savea (Hurricanes/Wellington), Ben Smith (Highlanders/Otago), Waisake Naholo (Highlanders/Taranaki).

Naholo the slightly surprise inclusion having relied on traditional Fijian medicine to heal his broken leg. Piutau, Sopoaga, Dagg and Jane all miss out.

Crazy the amount of depth they have. You could almost roll a dice to pick the team and be pretty certain of being stronger on paper than anyone else. They just have to wake up a bit sometimes rather than relying on cruise control to take them through.

Not much room for injury in these squads. Milner-Skudder, lovely player that he is, injures himself in every game he plays. That leaves Smith, Savea and Naholo (plus Fekitoa?) to fill the back 3.

Sprinklers Stopped Play !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/34096805

And yet in this case; clearly wrong.
You’d have to be stark mental to play ford, eastmond and Joseph in a rugby World Cup. They won naff all last season and were embarrassed by Glasgow.

Bare cupboards though. Saints and Saracens were both better teams.

I doubt any would.

Farrell is a guaranteed starter*

*Assuming daddy is coaching in NZ too

Glad Scotland got the win worried about a growing reliance on interceptions for scores. Oppositions will be watching, throw a dummy or pop pass instead of the long one and we have a dog leg whole in the defensive line.

Well the interceptions certainly flattered the scoreline but Scotland still played well.

I seem to remember Italy gettting a few interceptions at Murrayfield once upon a time!

Nel gave Castro a hard time at the scrum it seemed.

What’s happened to Sean Maitland? Is he injured?

I didn’t see that game but watched Barbars v Samoa. 16 minutes in the Samoan 5 knocks Faingaa, Barbars hooker, over with a roundhouse punch. Obvious red. (Faingaa got yellow for causing the incident basically.) Both walked off shaking hands, chatting, no ill feelings, nobody hurt.

I have mixed feelings about this. Barbars games have always been exhibition games, not really serious, and I’m not sure how I’d have felt about paying for a ticket for a meaningless game which becomes even more meaningless because of an unsympathetic ref.

Cards, especially red, have become an exercise in ticking boxes, not applying common sense.

Maitland played last week didn’t he? So just a rotation of players?

The interception tries were more due to Italy being very static and running out of ideas. I think Scotland would have done just fine without them. They actually looked half decent 🙂 false sense of hope maybe 😉

Looked like a bit of both from the highlights. Italy didn’t look too hot and most things went Scotland’s way (besides a softish early try). Scotland did seem to play well though and deserved the score line (again as far as I can tell from the highlights)

There’s a good XV in that squad. Just the depth isn’t strong. Francis could do with being a bit fitter but he seemed to go OK against Ireland.

You’ve got to play both your 7s against England – surely?

Now Wales are ranked above England too – so you’re favourites.

That squad is two extremes. Half have all the experience you could wish for and the other half have virtually no experience. Unlike England though the talent isn’t there to compensate for the inexperience beyond the choice 15.

Anscombe isn’t in a_a, the squad is:
Props: Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs), Paul James (Ospreys), Aaron Jarvis (Ospreys), Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Samson Lee (Scarlets).
Hookers: Scott Baldwin (Ospreys), Ken Owens (Scarlets).
Locks: Jake Ball (Scarlets), Luke Charteris (Racing 92), Dominic Day (Bath), Bradley Davies (Wasps), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys).
Back-rows: Taulupe Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons), James King (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Ospreys), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Sam Warburton (Cardiff Blues, capt).
Scrum-halves: Gareth Davies (Scarlets), Rhys Webb (Ospreys), Lloyd Williams (Cardiff Blues).
Fly-halves: Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Matthew Morgan (Bristol), Rhys Priestland (Bath).
Centres: Cory Allen (Cardiff Blues), Jamie Roberts (Harlequins), Scott Williams (Scarlets).
Wings: Hallam Amos (Newport Gwent Dragons), Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), George North (Northampton Saints).
Full-backs: Leigh Halfpenny (Toulon), Liam Williams (Scarlets).

How does Rhys Preistland keep getting into the squad?