Wales-Fiji match thread

Losty Dublin

Live on BBC1/HD right now.

Running rugby will be the winner here

Minjor

Good game so far. Fiji just blew a try there, a 3 on 1.

Losty Dublin

It's a good game but it's not one for the purists. Fiji have a lot of good players but as a 15 man unit they are not a good team at all; given a more savvy coach they could be doing a lot better than they are in general.

Pretty strange to see a Welsh pack utilising and dominating with their rolling maul today. Keep it up and they should run away with this in the second half.

CatFromHue

Minjor wrote: »

Good game so far. Fiji just blew a try there, a 3 on 1.

I think it was a 4 on 1 :eek:

Awkward Badger

Scrappy game, Fiji and Wales both very poor. Fiji blowing that 4 on 1 was crazy. Wales scuffed a few chances of their own though. Lydiate crawling along the ground giving away a penalty on the Fiji try line, scuffing an attack against a 13 man Fiji defence, the knock ons, bad passes and forward passes etc.

Losty Dublin

The cliched red card has arrived for the visitors.

Awkward Badger

Mindless play by the Fiji prop. Just out of the bin and he goes and gets himself another yellow card.

CatFromHue

Second yellow for a Fijian for taking a Welsh jumper in lineout's legs out so he's off.

Wales go for a lineout from that penalty and throw it in crooked.

Fiji then have a clearance kicked blocked down from their penalty from the crooked throw giving Wales a lineout in the same position where your man got his second yellow card.......

Losty Dublin

CatFromHue wrote: »

Second yellow for a Fijian for taking a Welsh jumper in lineout's legs out so he's off.

Wales go for a lineout from that penalty and throw it in crooked.

Fiji then have a clearance kicked blocked down from their penalty from the crooked throw giving Wales a lineout in the same position where your man got his second yellow card.......

It's actually funny now when you see it written down

Sangre

Wales are really poor, should be putting Fiji to sword.

Awkward Badger

Looked like Williams knocked that on.

Sangre

'Its hit Gethin Jenkins in the head and he's gone down with a hamstring'. LOL

Awkward Badger

Ref checking if he released it in tackle. But its a clear knock on, hit the ground and went forward.

Awkward Badger

Jesus. Tackle completed, ball not released. No try.

Losty Dublin

Awkward Badger wrote: »

Ref checking if he released it in tackle. But its a clear knock on, hit the ground and went forward.

Technically he was right by a hairs breath. Jonathan Davies is going mad in the commentary box saying that the wait is killing the game. The truth is that Wales are making a good enough effort of doing it by themselves.

CatFromHue

It looked to me that he was thrown to the ground so I would have let it go myself.

Awkward Badger

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Technically he was right by a hairs breath. Jonathan Davies is going mad in the commentary box saying that the wait is killing the game. The truth is that Wales are making a good enough effort of doing it by themselves.

Was it right ? He didn't look held in the tackle to me.

But yeah Wales have made an absolute mess of this game. I wouldn't be too confident looking forward to the world cup when they are currently struggling against the third best team they will be facing in the group stages that have been poor and played a man down for half the game.

Losty Dublin

He threw a ball at me, ref!!!

Inspector Coptoor

Fiji would be away with this if they could finish.
I'm glad they got a try.

Awkward Badger

Ref told Fiji to stop and wait until the Welsh defence was set before allowing them to take the tap.

Ends up an intercept Wales run the length of the pitch, throw an intercept and Fiji run back to score the try.

Losty Dublin

Fiji try that's come off an intercepted Welsh attack inside their 22 that indeed came off a 22 intercept off a Fijian attack. Interesting last 2 minutes.

matthew8

How can you possibly throw an intercept in that situation. It is quite literally the only possible way you let the other team back into the game.

Inspector Coptoor

Jonathan Davies is an annoying commentator

Awkward Badger

Priestland kicks the ball out to scrape past a poor 14 man Fiji 17-13.

LuckyGent88

This game sounds hilarious

Bridge93

Think Gatland may have run his course. Wales look badly out of sorts.

molloyjh

So let me get this straight. Fiji butchered a try, were down to 14 men for 40 minutes and could still have won it in the end? Jaysus Wales....

aimee1

Bridge93 wrote: »

Think Gatland may have run his course. Wales look badly out of sorts.

the problem wales have is its all one way. They have no imagination or creativity about the game. Lineout down to 9 out to 10 out to roberts crash ball. Rinse and repeat.

Officiating was woeful which helped Fiji but Wales were awful.

Awkward Badger

molloyjh wrote: »

So let me get this straight. Fiji butchered a try, were down to 14 men for 40 minutes and could still have won it in the end? Jaysus Wales....

And missed two of their 4 kicks at goal.

aimee1

molloyjh wrote: »

So let me get this straight. Fiji butchered a try, were down to 14 men for 40 minutes and could still have won it in the end? Jaysus Wales....

Some weak ref decisions helped Fiji but basically yeah.

molloyjh

NH teams not doing themselves many favours at the moment so. Ourselves and Scotland excepted....

Swiwi.

molloyjh wrote: »

NH teams not doing themselves many favours at the moment so. Ourselves and Scotland excepted....

Let's talk again in 2.5 hours.

Hopefully it won't be with large dollops of egg on my face

iroced

Ah it's always the same with Wales. When the games really matter they'll be there.

Swiwi.

iroced wrote: »

Ah it's always the same with Wales. When the games really matter they'll be there.

When did they last beat a SANZAR team?

Awkward Badger

Swiwi. wrote: »

When did they last beat a SANZAR team?

They have lost the last 22 games vs Sanzar teams. Which by my reckoning makes it November 2008 against Australia.

twinytwo

Bridge93 wrote: »

Think Gatland may have run his course. Wales look badly out of sorts.

Gatty ball went old years ago, if it wasnt for the likes of 1/2p and north wales wouldnt get anywhere

molloyjh

Awkward Badger wrote: »

They have lost the last 22 games vs Sanzar teams. Which by my reckoning makes it November 2008 against Australia.

That's insane.

Richard Hillman

It wasn't too long ago where Wales had 10 players in the 3rd Lions test team and a lot of us feared that Wales would dominate the 6 nations for a few years and possible WC contenders. They have gone backwards since.

Fireball07

Poor half-backs is a problem for them, need to get Patchell in there. Also a pretty negative style of rugby... and their pack isn't as good as Ireland's or England's either, wouldn't have as much depth either.

iroced

Swiwi. wrote: »

When did they last beat a SANZAR team?

What's the link

For the current generation of Wales, despite getting overall bad to dreadful results during the Autumn and Summer Tours, they won 2 of the last 3 6N (1 being a Grand Slam) and they made the last WC 1/2f and well we all know how the French were lucky to win that game in the end. So yeah when it really matters they're here.

Neil3030

Watching that in a pub in North Wales was a bit uncomfortable. Wales were dire.

Neil3030

iroced wrote: »

What's the link

For the current generation of Wales, despite getting overall bad to dreadful results during the Autumn and Summer Tours, they won 2 of the last 3 6N (1 being a Grand Slam) and they made the last WC 1/2f and well we all know how the French were lucky to win that game in the end. So yeah when it really matters they're here.

This mentality is not helpful. Wales were shocking today. No idea how to play against this Fijian side once their crash inside ball didn't work, which leaves me wondering if Gatland actually bothered his arse preparing the team. Wales actually tried to play like Fiji, which shows how ill prepared they were. Mike Phillips said after the game that too many individuals tried to look good today and they didn't play as a team, and he is right to some extent, but the fault lies more with the management imo.

iroced

Neil3030 wrote: »

This mentality is not helpful. Wales were shocking today. No idea how to play against this Fijian side once their crash inside ball didn't work, which leaves me wondering if Gatland actually bothered his arse preparing the team. Wales actually tried to play like Fiji, which shows how ill prepared they were. Mike Phillips said after the game that too many individuals tried to look good today and they didn't play as a team, and he is right to some extent, but the fault lies more with the management imo.

I'm not saying this is a good attitude. I was just stating the fact that for a number of years now Wales are always competitive and often pretty good in official tournaments and dire for the Autumn and Summer Tests. I have no idea why... and I don't really care (I'm not Welsh :pac:) but I feel there's no real conclusions to be taken from these games because of that.

Neil3030

iroced wrote: »

I'm not saying this is a good attitude. I was just stating the fact that for a number of years now Wales are always competitive and often pretty good in official tournaments and dire for the Autumn and Summer Tests. I have no idea why... and I don't really care (I'm not Welsh :pac:) but I feel there's no real conclusions to be taken from these games because of that.

Apologies I misunderstood your position. Over here your point is trotted a lot to condone their poor performances, as in, "well, at least we turn it on when it matters".

shuffol

iroced wrote: »

I'm not saying this is a good attitude. I was just stating the fact that for a number of years now Wales are always competitive and often pretty good in official tournaments and dire for the Autumn and Summer Tests. I have no idea why... and I don't really care (I'm not Welsh :pac:) but I feel there's no real conclusions to be taken from these games because of that.

Their also often pretty dire in official tournaments too, every other 6N they're generally awful and failed to get out of their group in RWC 2007. I think this is a fairly poor Welsh side. Their pack is average and Roberts has been in the main a spent force for the last few years, their midfield is very one dimensional.

iroced

shuffol wrote: »

Their also often pretty dire in official tournaments too, every other 6N they're generally awful and failed to get out of their group in RWC 2007. I think this is a fairly poor Welsh side. Their pack is average and Roberts has been in the main a spent force for the last few years, their midfield is very one dimensional.

Well I haven't seen today's game. But was making a general comment on the current generation (let's say from the last WC though I think it started before).
I feel down here in France we don't take Wales seriously enough in my opinion. There is this everlasting cliché of a team playing an attacking and enthusiastic rugby style but failing to beat the efficient teams like we would like to think we are for example.
But I noticed that this current Welsh team is always competitive despite being awful in tests. Was it not 2 years ago that they started the 6N with a record amount of defeats, they lost home to Ireland and then we were hosting them. We lost and Wales won the Tournament.


- edit -

Off topic but what a try from Thomas !

Very unimpressed with Wales today as I was last week too. Australia fell behind late on last week but always had them at arms length. In between the defeat to Australia and the game against New Zealand it was always going to be a bit of a flat game but they made awfully hard work out of it even against 14 men for the guts of 40 minutes. Really Fiji can have some regrets from this one. A couple of handy kicks missed, a certain try butchered (compounded by missing the resulting penalty) and 1 or 2 others where they had Wales scrambling.

Wales never looked in danger of losing but on top of their general slopiness their set pieces gradually disintegrated and with it went whatever small amount of structure they had. Even against a 7 man Fiji scrum they weren't exactly convincing. I'm always wary of Wales as when they get a few good results and a bit of cohesiveness together they are a different outfit but for the last couple of years they have been in the main pretty average.

Themselves and England on the opening night of the 6 nations looks a big one. If they lose that the road ahead in the 6 nations doesn't look too appealing.

former legend

When all else fails, blame the ref.

http://m.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/30069276

I'm sick of Gatland at this stage now. They should have beaten Fiji off the park and he can't accept his own team's failings.

He's contracted for another five years but I think he's brought Wales as far as he can.

sydthebeat

former legend wrote: »

When all else fails, blame the ref.

http://m.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/30069276

I'm sick of Gatland at this stage now. They should have beaten Fiji off the park and he can't accept his own team's failings.

He's contracted for another five years but I think he's brought Wales as far as he can.

Completely agree.
He's more of a hindrance to Wales i think at this stage. His game plan was always to bully with strength regardless of how the opposition played, and now he's finding that (a) teams have found ways to negate the power plays and (b) some of his big hitters are older or waning in form ie doc and philips.

He needs to start again and i dont think he's capable.

rrpc

sydthebeat wrote: »

Completely agree.
He's more of a hindrance to Wales i think at this stage. His game plan was always to bully with strength regardless of how the opposition played, and now he's finding that (a) teams have found ways to negate the power plays and (b) some of his big hitters are older or waning in form ie doc and philips.

He needs to start again and i dont think he's capable.

I think it's more a case of willingness rather than capability. To make his task harder there is the mass exodus of Welsh players to pastures greener and a big gap to the next level of upcoming players. The fractured nature of Welsh rugby isn't helping either.

I'd say you'd get tired of pushing that boulder up the hill.

Losty Dublin

Awkward Badger wrote: »

Was it right ? He didn't look held in the tackle to me.

Forgot to get back to you yesterday. He was correct as the tackler brought the tackled player to ground and held, albeit held for a very short time; this is what Laws says is a tackle completed; the tackled player must then release the ball.

Highlights are

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4Pct1mvAEc

and a good view of the last try for those who are interested

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nORDO2Zv1g

.