Argentina v Wales

[dirty harry]

Scrum again...

Argys pop up.... reset

 

[dirty harry]

Another....

Argentina actually dominate that one and wales get the pen for som reason

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Crowd looks pretty small.

 

[ChicagoKid]

Crowd looks pretty small.

Would you pay money for this test?

 

[dirty harry]

Awfull decision by the ref, tackler never released, never held hisnown body weight...

But we never saw a replay, just like France and NZ tv replay management

 

[dirty harry]

Knock on by argy.... scrum argentina

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Would you pay money for this test?

I’m English. I’d always pay to see Wales to lose.

But now off to the Wendyball.

 

[ChicagoKid]

Rees taking out off the ball, Paul Williams says carry on.

Rough game.

 

[dirty harry]

What a shite game...

Argentina probably deserved the win, bit a lot of dog shite decisions against wales.

Too many wales players are dog ****, let alone professionals, Botham, costelow, Murray, LRZ, are all semi pro

 

[wombles]

Argentina well off the levels we know they are capable of but never looked uncomfortable in this test match....inaccurate? yes, but not at a level they can achieve. England need to be wary, because this test & the Scotland test was not a demonstration of what they can do. Wales were well beaten despite this though.

 

[ChicagoKid]

Argentina well off the levels we know they are capable of but never looked uncomfortable in this test match....inaccurate? yes, but not at a level they can achieve. England need to be wary, because this test & the Scotland test was not a demonstration of what they can do. Wales were well beaten despite this though.

Argentina gets better the longer they are together. It’s impassible to have any semblance of cohesion when you are spread throughout the globe.

 

[dullonien]

Arg easily the better side. They were too physical for us throughout really. I'll take some positives from how we finished, I think we deserved the 4th try, but ref just didn't give us a single decision.

I found the ref's performance really frustrating. Harry's commentary above summs it up, just so many decisions ignored. At one point there was a blatant push on Adams when he was tracking back for high ball, just completely ignored. Tomos' hand brushes the neck of an Arg player, instant penalty. Murray is tackles in a headlock, play on. Jack over the ball in the lead up to Arg second try, Arg player blatantly holds on, ref says Jack missed the ball! Just such a poor showing.

 

[ChicagoKid]

What a shite game...

Argentina probably deserved the win, bit a lot of dog shite decisions against wales.

Too many wales players are dog ****, let alone professionals, Botham, costelow, Murray, LRZ, are all semi pro

Wales feel like a team that might peak again at RWC35.

They basically need a completely new 23.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Can’t be bothered to say much as a lot of has already been said by Harry and others but one thing I will say, Adam Beard actually played alright.

 

[dirty harry]

Can’t be bothered to say much as a lot of has already been said by Harry and others but one thing I will say, Adam Beard actually played alright.

He was ok, Botham was awful, Kan James came on and was not welsh prem level

 

[dullonien]

Can’t be bothered to say much as a lot of has already been said by Harry and others but one thing I will say, Adam Beard actually played alright.

He was OK, but once again he's so bloody passive. We were bullied up front for large parts, and that's not all on Beard, as many of the other forwards missed tackles too, but the tackles he does make he's dragged 5m by the opposition player hanging onto their ankles like some 9st kid! He was also guilty for a few early pens.

But there were worse performances today. Carre took his try well, but his defense was shocking. Centres really struggled. Costellow poor. Botham meh. Wainwright smashed back every carry.

We looked better when Teddy Williams came on, as I thought his soft hands really helped us target shofter shoulders. Elias also had a really positive impact.

Oddly, it was out tightheads I was most impressed by. Should have been rewarded more in the scrum. Lewis had good success at the breakdown. Warren scored a decent try! What's going on?

 

[wombles]

There were some good moments for Wales to take from this test. Some good scores, a few good defensive sets & some scramble D.
But in all honesty, I think the game is simply another example of where Wales are & their future is.
Defeating top 6 teams Is not a realistic goal & away to Argentina is a tough assignment for anyone. I think they can be competitive on occasion & may get the odd giant killing, but given the players available (& I include a couple of talents coming through the U20’s) Wales cannot compete for silverware anymore, akin to Italy post joining the old 5 nations & Scotland post 1999.
They have a good team, Jac is probably the only world class player on there, & his presence lifts that whole squad by 5-10%. But when you look at the metrics in all the tests over the last few seasons (defenders beaten, metres made, tackle stats, set piece conversion rate) you can see that their ceiling is very different to teams from 1st to 7th in the world rankings. If Wales can get to 8th in the world I would say they are doing well. Their competition is now the likes of Fiji, Italy, Japan & I think they can be very competitive here (& these teams are also useful outfits themselves). Yesterday was another demonstration of such IMHO.