June International Tests: Tonga vs. Wales (16/06/2017)

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

McBryde is not much better. I saw on Reddit, a guy got odds of 10/1 for tonga which is rather good odds.

True.

Saying that i wouldn't want to bet against Owen really.

 

[MikeTheNative]

Win and or lose I'm happy now....... please don't be a draw.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Wales are favourites but 10/1 or even 7/1 is absurd! Tonga were sharp in November and I'd put them ahead of the likes of Samoa, Romania, Georgia and Italy at this moment in time.

 

[MikeTheNative]

The Wales anthem being sung with a NZ accent sounds odd.

 

[MikeTheNative]

What the **** is this? Forwards passing out the back to the 10, going through the hands? 10 taking the ball to the gain line? I don't like this postive rugby.

 

[MikeTheNative]

Nobody else get up to watch this? Sam Davies and Steffen Evans try to counter attack a missed kick from thier own 22. I'm so confused how to feel right now.

 

[Brigantine]

Are they *trying* to hit the posts or something?

Not that I'd hold it against them. The Blues got 7 points off the post vs B&I Lions and won by 6. Same stadium even.

 

[MikeTheNative]

Cuthbert just scored with a fantastic finish, what year is it?

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Cuthbert just scored with a fantastic finish, what year is it?

In fairness he had botched a grounding of that lovely cross kick. Had to bail on this match but Wales looking good value. Tonga are solid at almost all facets of the game but I think if you can ease out the scoreboard against them they will struggle to get back.

Live stream in Welsh. Will catch up with this tonight.

http://www.s4c.cymru/clic/e_live.shtml

 

[MikeTheNative]

That went a lot better than expected. scrum was getting destroyed but it's gone the other way the last few times. Sam Davies kicking is well off today which is a shame as he is usually pretty good. Steffen Evan needs to stop trying to force it as well.

 

[Bluemoon]

Unfortunately Sam Davies has had a very poor game all-around. He's been caught out of position, poorly kicking out of hand, poor passing and he hasn't covered three kicks, at least one of which was a kickable pen. No excuses for it either as he's had more than a stable platform from the forwards and plenty of ball. Im surprised the welsh management haven't switched Owen Williams to 10, rather putting Owen at 13, as Sam needs to put this one behind him.

Very good defence by Wales has really been the difference in the game. I worry when the younger members of Welsh front row bench enter the game, as Tonga have put the pressure on the more experienced front row.

 

[dullonien]

not a great game to watch, partly spoilt by the conditions after the first quarter.

wales seemed in control for the majority, but the mistakes that have blighted our game for a while were all too obvious. some very aimless kicking from both Davies', and some poor handling kept handing the ball back to Tonga. Tonga were terrible though, so couldn't capitalise.

Sam Davies' drop in form is worrying. He's gone from looking like the best all round 10 in the Pro12, to an error ridden pretender in just a couple of months! Still showed a few nice touches, but he seems to have lost all the calm control from his game, both with his kicking and ball in hand. Ansconbe went well at fullback, he or Patchell may be a better shout vs Samoa.

 

[MikeTheNative]

What the **** is this? Forwards passing out the back to the 10, going through the hands? 10 taking the ball to the gain line? I don't like this postive rugby.

It seems that Wales' plan was to lull Tonga into thinking they are going to play at open attacking game but then switched to one up runners. Not many positives at all to take from that ,2nd row were ok and I thought Dacy played quite well. Back row a clear position of strength for Wales but the front five don't give them the platform to really do anything. Scott Williams had an absolute shocker today and there is literally no point playing Robert's he doesn't even really break tackles anymore or even commit defenders, can't kick and can't run. I don't understand why they didn't put Tyler Morgan at 13 or Owen Williams at 12 and Scot att 13.

 

[Bluemoon]

not a great game to watch, partly spoilt by the conditions after the first quarter.

wales seemed in control for the majority, but the mistakes that have blighted our game for a while were all too obvious. some very aimless kicking from both Davies', and some poor handling kept handing the ball back to Tonga. Tonga were terrible though, so couldn't capitalise.

Sam Davies' drop in form is worrying. He's gone from looking like the best all round 10 in the Pro12, to an error ridden pretender in just a couple of months! Still showed a few nice touches, but he seems to have lost all the calm control from his game, both with his kicking and ball in hand. Ansconbe went well at fullback, he or Patchell may be a better shout vs Samoa.

Yes have to agree with this. It could be argued that Patchell is actually our form 10 at the moment, following his run in with the Scarlets.

Some positives were I thought the backrow looked strong for most of the game. Good to see Shingler out there being his usual pesky self. Felt a bit for SW as JR wanted to take the big contact quite a lot and it starved him of ball.

Seb Davies is a player I have a lot of time for. He was only playing for the RFC at the beginning of the season, I see a big future for him. I thought he went OK pretty solid for a first game out with very little first team club experience.

 

[MikeTheNative]

Seb Davies didn't have a particularly good game but he didn't look out of place against a powerful tight 5. Serious issues at prop though, Nicky Smith is good around the park but he can't scrummage and will always be a weak point against a good front row. Also I don't see the point of Francis, he isn't that good of a scrummager and is borderline useless around the park, I was quite disappointed that Dillon Lewis only got 2 minutes at the end.

 

[Bluemoon]

Seb Davies didn't have a particularly good game but he didn't look out of place against a powerful tight 5. Serious issues at prop though, Nicky Smith is good around the park but he can't scrummage and will always be a weak point against a good front row. Also I don't see the point of Francis, he isn't that good of a scrummager and is borderline useless around the park, I was quite disappointed that Dillon Lewis only got 2 minutes at the end.

Yes true, but Seb is only 21, played a full game and held his own against a pretty big pack. He's not had many starts at lock for Cardiff either. Nowhere finished article, but it's good to see a player stepping up this early. And agree with you on Dillion, but a front row change would have been really risky considering the pressure Tonga were putting on the scrum in a tight game. Samoa will be a much bigger test all round for that team.

 

[MikeTheNative]

Yeah and if they play like that again i don't see them overcoming a decent somoa team, not sure what players they actually have available though. Defence was solid all though there were too many way too long kicks down field, again I'm not even sure if that was a tactics or poor kicks. The attack started out so promising I have no idea what happened. I don't know how many variations of give it to Roberts to run straight you can have but I'm sure I saw at least 6,I don't think they used him as a dummy runner once. The more I see of Wales the more i think they just need a new staff all round. Things aren't getting better and I don't know what result the WRU needs to see sense, last in the 6 nations and losing all the AIs? I really feel we might have a generation of wasted talent the way we are going, not caring about speed, footwork or the ability of putting players into space over just raw power. How Giles still hasn't even got 5 minutes at the end of a game is beyond me.

 

[Tautahi]

Wales were keen from the get go. What Tonga lacked, was basic cohesion only coming together for a week explains how individually they played. Wales defense was on point and credit to them, our discipline also gave us no chances at playing.We have to make major improvements if we are looking to do ourselves justices in upcoming tests.Hats off to Wales.

 

[MikeTheNative]

Tonga looked like a barbarian side sometimes where it seemed they didn't know what each other was doing. I'm surprised they didn't take Wales on up front with a pick and go game as I think they definitely had the personnel advantage there. Also need to get 15 on the ball as much as possible, he only really got the ball when Wales kicked, he hits pretty hard!

 

[Tautahi]

Tigers being linked to Mapapalangi form what I gather he is on trial with us and a lot could depend on his Tongan Perfomances.

Hopefully he will be like another Mafi for us if he gets signed.

Mapapalangi was one of our top perfomers tonight.He still raw I'm sure a setup like tigers can make him into a good player if he gets signed