Out with a Whimper

So the Welsh rugby season finally staggers to a close. It went out with more a whimper than a roar as the Welsh team suffered a heavy defeat by New Zealand in the final test in Dunedin. Since August last year, Wales have played an incredible nineteen matches – small wonder some of the players looked as if they were running on empty yesterday. A small nation like Wales with its limited resources is always going to struggle with this kind of work load.

On the other hand, England started with a whimper and have finished the season with a tremendous roar. They finally seem to have found a winning formula under Eddie Jones. For years the smaller nations in Europe have relied on the managerial incompetence, club self-interest and in-fighting in England and France to give us a chance of being competitive. Now it looks as if this is disappearing in England at least. It doesn’t bode well.

Back to yesterday’s game and the All Blacks seem to have put even more pace into their game as the test series against Wales progressed. Wales were left floundering at times by Barrett, Dagg and co. Whilst Wales never stopped trying their hearts out they were only really competitive for the first quarter of the third test which is a step backwards. Six tries to none is a pretty comprehensive defeat.

Has any good come out of this tour? Well it seems that we are at least trying to change our game plan and adopt a more open style. I don’t really think we currently have the right personnel for this but it was encouraging at times. It does seem to rely very much on the presence of Liam Williams at the moment who has had a marvellous series. In combination with North and a rejuvenated Halfpenny, we should have a decent back three. The other standout player for Wales has been Faletau who is a remarkable athlete and could fit quite comfortably into an All Blacks team. A special mention for Tomas Francis who must have been on a starvation diet on tour as he looks much more like an athlete and is contributing more outside the scrum.

On reflection, my two high points of the season both came early on – the unlikely Wales victory over England in the RWC and Pontypool’s stunning victory away at Merthyr. Unfortunately neither ultimately led to success but at least we could dream for a while. As the season progressed, the dreams disappeared and we are now left looking forward, no doubt, to more ups and downs next season. Such is the lot of a Pontypool and Wales supporter.

It is not all bad for the Welsh as we have our football team performing heroics in France, Yesterday’s rather scrappy victory against Northern Ireland has put Wales in the quarter finals of Euro 2016. Wow!

Let’s try and forget the rugby for a while.

Come on Wales

Déjà Déjà Déjà Vu

After last Tuesday’s embarrassment in Waikato where a Wales “seconds”  were humbled by Waikato “seconds”, I was more than concerned about the senior Wales team’s prospects against the All Blacks in Wellington yesterday. You have to watch though….just in case.

The first half, as ever, was close and hard fought with Wales matching the All Blacks for intensity and spirit. Wales managed to score a good try when Wyn Jones popped up on the wing to cross in the corner to level the scores to 10-10 at half time. For all their undoubted passion, there were still worrying signs for wales as the home ball carriers almost always managed to evade the first tackle to make extra yards. It is noticeable that both backs and forwards have the ability to step sideways just before contact to avoid the full force of the intended hit. For Wales only Faletau and Liam Williams seem to possess this skill.

The second half suddenly erupted after about 50 minutes or so as the All Blacks, bolstered by a substitute or two, cut loose. They turned up the pace and power a notch or three and in the space of twelve minutes any Welsh hopes of a victory evaporated. How do the All Blacks do this? It is as if Hansen flicks a switch that gives them all an electric shock. I do note that the All Blacks seem to bring their replacements one by one with a five minute gap between them from the fiftieth minute onwards. Wales seem to bring them on en masse usually after the horse has bolted. A rout was very definitely on the cards and I was thinking of taking refuge behind the sofa.

To their great credit, Wales refused to buckle and even had the temerity to score a couple of decent tries as the All Blacks seemed to throttle back. The final score of 36-22 is a fairer reflection of the tremendous effort and no little skill that Wales demonstrated. Wales were yet again gallant losers and the wait for a victory goes on.

So to matters parochial and Pontypool’s prospects for next season. I was delighted to see that we seem to have retained the majority of last season’s squad. Hopefully the team will continue to develop and have a really good season. It is a shame that there is no promotion as a carrot but all we can do is keep playing good rugby.

I am amazed that the Championship is now reduced to just twelve teams – twenty two games is not enough to fill a season. With fourteen teams there were big gaps in the fixture list in the autumn and spring this will only make matters worse. The lack of depth in Welsh rugby was cruelly exposed by the Waikato Chiefs – we need more grass roots rugby rather than less.  Maybe there is going to be some exotic cup competition where we get to play teams from Georgia and Romania.

I guess I will have to turn on the TV again next Saturday morning…. just in case!

By the way England beat Australia again in case you haven’t heard.

Déjà déjà vu

I duly switched on the TV at 8.15 am yesterday to watch Wales take on the mighty All Blacks in Auckland. I must confess I did not feel any real sense of optimism. Whilst I can at least say that I was alive when Wales last beat New Zealand, I was only one at the time so cannot claim that “I was there”.

After a ropy start, Wales really took it to the All Blacks in the first half and even had the temerity to go into the interval with a narrow lead. True the home side only played like world champions in fits and starts and had an error count that wouldn’t look out of place in the Welsh Championship, but Wales certainly played with more verve than we have seen for a long time. Two good tries by Faletau and Webb gave Wales the edge but there was an ever present threat from the All Blacks when they gained any sort of momentum.

You don’t need to be a psychic to know what to expect in the second half. This story has been told many times before. Around the hour mark, as the major substitutions start, New Zealand inexorably gain control. The rest, as they, say is history. The All Blacks seem to get stronger as the replacements’ bench is emptied while Wales find it disruptive and then of course there is only one winner. Wales wilted under the pressure and the All Blacks ran out comfortable winners 39-21. I guess that it reveals something of the All Blacks champion’s mentality that leading 32-21 as the last play of the game arrived they still had the presence of mind to attack the Welsh right wing where North was clearly struggling with a leg injury to score a final try. Most other teams would have been content to kick the ball into touch to kill the game.

So Wales finish gallant losers again and we are left to think about what might have been. Plenty of good, committed performances but in the end we were not quite good enough to beat a New Zealand team that was certainly not firing on all cylinders. We have two more attempts to beat them but I fear that they will get stronger and our inevitable injury toll will weaken us …. but you never know. Well perhaps we do really.

In the evening we went to see Rod Stewart in concert in Cardiff. We parked up and watched the Wales v Slovakia football match on the TV in Canton Rugby Club. There was a great atmosphere and it was nice to be in a traditional old style rugby club with pictures and jerseys on the wall and few airs and graces. What is more we were able to celebrate a brilliant Welsh victory. Unfortunately it sounds as if we might have to invoke the Rorke’s Drift spirit when we play Russia if the news headlines about the hooliganism are anything to go by. Rod Stewart was great by the way and we should check if he has any Welsh ancestry as he certainly looked pretty useful when he kicked some rugby balls into the crowd.

On a sad note, I was really sorry to hear about the passing of Cae Trayhern - a real Pooler stalwart. He was a fine combative player who always looked more than prepared to take on the whole opposition pack by himself. My condolences to his family.

I am led to believe that England beat Australia – I wonder if there will be anything about it in the papers?