RugbyRebels

29 nil at half time.

Far easier than I thought. Need to keep the scoreboard ticking over and introduce the finishers earlier.

A good workout for Sunday.

Wales running lines are a little too sophisticated for Georgia to defend.

canta_brian wrote:Wales running lines are a little too sophisticated for Georgia to defend.

The Georgian fitness will be interesting come the 60 minute point.

So far, so very good.

Loved the tries although not much of that stuff will work against a team with a 1st phase defense.

What I like most is how we responded when the inevtiable lull came, and Georgia got a bit of control in our half and slowed things up. We shut them out, stayed patient, then went back down to their end and scored again. Lovely.

Gareth Davies is very lucky. It was a clear deliberate knock-on which by random chance happened to bounce backwards. If a pass that goes forwards is legal if it's PLAYED backwards, then surely a slap that goes backwards should be illegal if PLAYED forwards? I'd be very annoyed if an Australian got away with that against us.

Georgian try from rolling maul.

We have definitely gone off the boil a bit. Credit to Georgia but we need to up the ante on this game again soon.

Looks like they have given the backs the afternoon off. Maybe they don’t want to show too much of the good stuff now they have the bonus point.

After some frustrating play, a try from Tomos Williams.

Georgia competing strongly at breakdown and causing all sorts of problems.

canta_brian wrote:Looks like they have given the backs the afternoon off. Maybe they don’t want to show too much of the good stuff now they have the bonus point.

We have a habit of declaring early in games like this.

Our reserve front row need scrummaging practice.

Good try from Georgia following a huge scrum.

Try North.

It’s got really scrappy now, I don’t think Gatland will be happy with this second half performance.

And it’s over.

BP win and some great patches, but a bit worrying how the scrum went awry and how we seemed bereft of ideas when the Georgians started to impose themselves.

Sandydragon wrote:And it’s over.

BP win and some great patches, but a bit worrying how the scrum went awry and how we seemed bereft of ideas when the Georgians started to impose themselves.

I'm not too bothered about the scrum, Georgia have the best scrum around.

It's nice to see all but one of the tries come from the backs, we did miss a couple of chances, notably when Tomos Williams kicked it instead of keeping the ball in hand.

When the BP arrived before the break it was always likely that we'd step it down, it's frustrating to watch but it's how Gatland's Wales have always played. Granted some of it was due to Georgia improving masively in the 2nd half, but we seemed happy to simply contain that rather than stomping on it, which we surely could have done? I can see all the good reasons for it, it's just a shame to let that early buzz go so flat.

We achieved a good outcome - bonus point win and crucially no serious injuries although there are probably quite a few battered bodies in the dressing room.

What did we learn?

1) Our front five go well from the off but our prop finishers need to step up quite a bit if it’s a tight second half game against Oz. Australia’s scrum has improved vastly from days of yore.

2) Our backrow today looked good and balanced with all three contributing at the breakdown. Tipuric was just outstanding. Moriarty still looks off the pace and when Hill and Beard come back into contention for the second row I could see Shingler being on the replacement bench.

3) Davies and Biggar had one of their bettter days although taking a casual conversion kick after the first try will get him heavily fined by the rest of the squad and earn the ire of Gatland and Edwards. Patchell looked off the pace after coming back from concussion but he will come good at some stage. Vital we keep Biggar free from injury in the next six games!!

Parkes and Davies had a solid enough game but they will really have to step up next weekend.

4) Liam didn’t have the best of outings today and Halfpenny looked lost at times. Hopefully both will play themselves into top form over the next few weeks.

North took his try well at the end but had a really quiet day and couldn’t get into the game with most of the wide ball going to Adams who seemed on the money all match.

Probably Gatland will give the squad a pat on the back for a bonus point win and a kick in the backside for lapses in concentration and occasional sloppiness.

Job done I suppose, but alarming slackness at times in the second half.

.

normanski wrote:
What did we learn?

I definitely agree with your concerns regarding some of our returnees. ½p, Moriarty and Patch all looked well below-par. To see ½p scrambling to cover that late kick was alarming; we're just so used to seeing him magically appear in the right place. I can't recall a Moriarty carry where he wasn't stopped on the gainline or driven back over it. Patch at least has the excuse that he had very few opportunities to influence play.

But just as there are big caveats on praising the 1st half attack, there must be similar on criticizing the team for obviously having one eye on the Aus game, when they had this one in the bag in the 1st 20. Running Georgia ragged would have been a valuable morale-boost, but was really not worth paying any sort of price for. If we'd won 77-0 but lost a player, we'd be much worse off than we are now.

On reflection.

I’m not too bothered about the second half. Yes work to do but we go into the Aussie game knowing that we aren’t the finished article and the players will get a kick up the arse.

Moriarty offered little, although he was well marshalled during his time on the pitch.

Halfpennys poor positioning at times was really concerning. Goal kicking aside, if he is off the pace then he offers little and I’d prefer someone else on the bench who can offer something different.

Adams was on the hall today. North was frustrated but took his try well.

Barring the return to form of Faletau, I really like our starting back row. Shingler looked productive when he came on as well.

As a team we looked sharper than we did in the warmups. Thankfully.

That starting 15 will start against Aus

Lineout was very good, scrum solid enough against what we are lead to believe is a very strong scrum.

Agree our replacement props need to up their set piece work, Im happy with Dee though

Hill looks to be out of the tournament and Beard wont be available, so Im assuming Pack and Pack Bench will remain unaltered.


In the backs Parkes was again hit and miss, but I wouldnt replace him.

My only personal change would be to have Amos on the bench instead of 1/2p, I think he offers more of a threat that halfpenny and covesr the Back 3 and Centre.

I liked our attacking shape and running lines, that was good to see, whether that works against Aus is another thing, but at least we looked threatening.

Im not too worried about the second half, the intensity wont drop against the bigger teams.

Is that Aussie winger banned for our game?

Not seen anything yet on the Aussie winger, other than the citing commissioner was looking at it. They have some depth there so his loss shouldn’t hurt them too much.

Hill being out is a big hit. Hopefully we can fly a replacement out ASAP. Beard has apparently lost weight after his appendicitis operation so he shouldn’t be playing for a few weeks yet.

BP win - job done. Shame about the foot off the gas thing that happened for most of the second half, but much more importantly we started the game exactly as we'd have wanted - quickly quickly outclassing them and putting the it out of reach.

Would have liked to have seen more of Patchell. I didn't see a whole lot of point in tiring Biggar out unnecessarily when the game was well won and Patchell was the one needing game time. Would also have liked to see AWJ taken off early for the same reason.

But - I think - no injuries (Ken hopefully ok?), couldn't have gone a lot better. It was certainly a workout, and they kept us honest for 40 minutes.

About to watch the game. Listened to the Brian Moore podcast this evening. Had Lee Byrne on and Lee was pretty pessimistic over Wales' prospects. Didn't seem to give us much chance against Australia. I may be in the minority but aus didn't impress me against fiji.

Hooky wrote:About to watch the game. Listened to the Brian Moore podcast this evening. Had Lee Byrne on and Lee was pretty pessimistic over Wales' prospects. Didn't seem to give us much chance against Australia. I may be in the minority but aus didn't impress me against fiji.

Me neither. They won comfortably on the scoreboard but that game was closer than it looked and there really should have been a red card.

Interesting game, but we didn't learn too much.
The starting XV is pretty much nailed on, all the talk of Moriarty having a bit point to prove was shown up with his showing off the bench. (What's happened to him?)
Navidi & Tipuric were very impressive.
Our depth in the front five is worrying though, Shingler cannot be a lock replacement. If we lost AWJ or Ball early we'd be f****d.
Make a decision about Hill & quickly, we can't have our starting locks fronting up in every match. Who do you replace him with though ? Bradley looked out of sorts in the warm ups. Do you go outside the squad for Seb Davies who adds more mobility and versatility?

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