[RWC2019][Semi-Final 2] Wales vs. South Africa (27/10/2019)

[Oliver Madden]

must admit that was a grind of a game to watch. thought both teams looked pretty poor in attack but both defences were excellent. I think Wales will definitely rue the try that SA scored. it was very soft. De Allende should've never scored that. I thought Wales were going to sneak it when it got back to 16-16 but credit to SA they kept their composure. Wales will be gutted though. I honestly think that might have been their best chance of winning the WC. they would've fancied themselves to beat England in the final. speaking of which I don't know why England are such hot favourites against SA. the Boks always step up against us. I'm actually more nervous about this game than the All Blacks game. I don't think we'll get the dominance up front that we had against NZ and In the last couple of years when we haven't got go forward we've looked slow and uninventive.

 

[Kapa O Pango]

One thing about South Africa is they aren't afraid to play boring rugby to win. They have the physicality to match England, but I can't see them winning with running rugby. I think South Africa could potentially kick their way to a 3rd RWC ***le. This coming game will come down to positional kicking and set piece execution. We could be in for a barn stormer of a game or the most boring RWC final ever.

Attacking rugby is so dull and boring. That's the reason Wallabies and All Blacks are out.

 

[The_Wol]

Attacking rugby is so dull and boring. That's the reason Wallabies and All Blacks are out.

Wallabies, All Blacks, Japan all got bumped and they played exciting attacking rugby. You may have just uncovered the conspiracy.

 

[Hydraulxx]

yeah pretty close for me too, let's hope we have had our share of disallowed try's against NZ and we don't have a repeat of the Cueto incident.

I also don't want any poor decisions, however i think that was a great one and wasn't a try

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I don't see you as underdogs despite that performance, 50-50 game for me.

Anything can happen on the day but judging by the two semi's one can forgive the media and general public in handing England the favorites tag.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Anything can happen on the day but judging by the two semi's one can forgive the media and general public in handing England the favorites tag.

We are clearly the underdogs. Purely because we lost to NZ in the WC and they've beaten them. The bookies, the media, even the Keyboard Warriors are saying England are the favourites.

But in the words of Naas Botha "Never underestimate a wounded springbok"...

Anyways, @Goodey , The Final threads are up, so have at it.

 

[ncurd]

Has there ever been an English sporting success without an asterisk?

2003* too good even ref couldn't steal it from them.

 

[dullonien]

I expected to be more gutted than I was/am, however we heven't played well enough this WC to deserve a spot in the final. If we had progressed there was every chance of a 30-40 point hammering v England in the final given a gulf in class between the two squads. That would have been humiliating and worse than this imo.

Gats has been great for us, our best ever coach, but he has been unable to solve our attacking issues which have been obvious since 2013? It cost us yesyerday against a Boks side we were never going to beat in an arm wrestle. This was probably compounded by selection in the front row. Leaving Rob Evans and Samson Lee, 2 props who can actually scrummage, at home was a big mistake. Carre and Lewis will hopefully come good, but this was a WC, not a summer tour.

Congrats to SA. Both sides were poor imo, but I think the Boks have the ability to up their game v England in the final, more so than Wales.

 

[MikeTheNative]

I expected to be more gutted than I was/am, however we heven't played well enough this WC to deserve a spot in the final. If we had progressed there was every chance of a 30-40 point hammering v England in the final given a gulf in class between the two squads. That would have been humiliating and worse than this imo.

Gats has been great for us, our best ever coach, but he has been unable to solve our attacking issues which have been obvious since 2013? It cost us yesyerday against a Boks side we were never going to beat in an arm wrestle. This was probably compounded by selection in the front row. Leaving Rob Evans and Samson Lee, 2 props who can actually scrummage, at home was a big mistake. Carre and Lewis will hopefully come good, but this was a WC, not a summer tour.

Congrats to SA. Both sides were poor imo, but I think the Boks have the ability to up their game v England in the final, more so than Wales.

Sums up my feelings pretty well. Yes ,Wales did have a few injuries but the inability to create much of anything really hurt them. With the way Wales play, every game is probably going to be a tight one and then you run the risk of one same mistake (De Allende try) being the deciding factor.

 

[Derpus]

Wallabies, All Blacks, Japan all got bumped and they played exciting attacking rugby. You may have just uncovered the conspiracy.

Pfft if you want to watch exciting running rugby you are watching the wrong code buddy.

 

[VusoRSA]

Haha. Yes, some tjop back in this thread was saying he was hoping for a spectacle of a final. Has there ever been exhibition rugby played in a RWC final? Its a game for the purist. the rest can go fish.

Haha, it'll be the longest 80 minutes of our lives, since 07, they can really go fish. Playing to our strenghts will be just fine.

 

[Goodey]

1987, 1999 and 2015 had lots of high scoring rugby, and it was only like that because they were one-sided matches that no one really cares about long term.

1995, 2003, 2007 and 2011 were outwardly awful, but close and nervous stuff like that is what people remember.

 

[Chief Pete]

Leaving Rob Evans and Samson Lee, 2 props who can actually scrummage, at home was a big mistake. Carre and Lewis will hopefully come good, but this was a WC, not a summer tour.

Thought leaving Evans out was one of the biggest calls made by any coach this RWC, Lee also but to a lesser extent, always thought Evans was your best LH by a mile..

 

[Dai Yorkshire]

I expected to be more gutted than I was/am, however we heven't played well enough this WC to deserve a spot in the final. If we had progressed there was every chance of a 30-40 point hammering v England in the final given a gulf in class between the two squads. That would have been humiliating and worse than this imo.

Gats has been great for us, our best ever coach, but he has been unable to solve our attacking issues which have been obvious since 2013? It cost us yesyerday against a Boks side we were never going to beat in an arm wrestle. This was probably compounded by selection in the front row. Leaving Rob Evans and Samson Lee, 2 props who can actually scrummage, at home was a big mistake. Carre and Lewis will hopefully come good, but this was a WC, not a summer tour.

Congrats to SA. Both sides were poor imo, but I think the Boks have the ability to up their game v England in the final, more so than Wales.

Gats knows just one way to play, and the offload is not part of that, the offload is so difficult to defend against and must be in your tool box we were limited and to take on SA in an arm wrestle was asking for trouble. Lets hope the next lot of coaches will not look for the floor so much and try and play rugby.

 

[Taff]

Having lost the creativity of Williams at full back I would have started Patchel, which is what I said originally, probably still have HP at FB I was simply saying loosing to creative players is huge by putting Patchel in some of that is negated and you still keep the solidity of HP at the back.

kinda agree we could have gone for Patch at 10 but biggar has his own strengths and didn't deserve to be dropped. I really like patch as well even since his Cardiff blues day, nice intelligent fella to when I met him. anscombe was missed more than we thought though. We stayed cagey due to our personnel with all our big hitters playing I would of hoped that gats would have been more expansive

 

[ThebigARena]

must admit that was a grind of a game to watch. thought both teams looked pretty poor in attack but both defences were excellent. I think Wales will definitely rue the try that SA scored. it was very soft. De Allende should've never scored that. I thought Wales were going to sneak it when it got back to 16-16 but credit to SA they kept their composure. Wales will be gutted though. I honestly think that might have been their best chance of winning the WC. they would've fancied themselves to beat England in the final. speaking of which I don't know why England are such hot favourites against SA. the Boks always step up against us. I'm actually more nervous about this game than the All Blacks game. I don't think we'll get the dominance up front that we had against NZ and In the last couple of years when we haven't got go forward we've looked slow and uninventive.

I agree with the sentiment but I still believe our best chance of winning the WC was 2011 , that team was stronger in all areas than this 2019 team and I'd take all the starting 15 that day over the ones that took the field yesterday with north , halfpenny, JD2 and AWJ the only survivors from that team but they were in their prime back then. It was only due to a (harsh for back then) red card that we didn't make the final. We also saw how poor NZ were in that 2011 final so Wales would of had a real chance of beating them that year Imo.

 

[ThebigARena]

There was never a more damning assessment of how much we lack creatively in attack than that group game against Uruguay.

 

[ThebigARena]

Gats knows just one way to play, and the offload is not part of that, the offload is so difficult to defend against and must be in your tool box we were limited and to take on SA in an arm wrestle was asking for trouble. Lets hope the next lot of coaches will not look for the floor so much and try and play rugby.

We almost did win that arm wrestle though ..

Tbh we don't know how to play any different , we play the gatland way and 95 percent of times we would come out winners in games like that on Sunday , we didn't get the bounce of thea ball had a few unlucky moments (north pulling up ) could of been in with a try imo , and a lapse in defence for dallende try but considering the much vaunted power of boks pack it was still close and on another day we could of won. the

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Interesting stat, Wales averaged 1.6m per carry, the lowest ever recorded by any side in world cup history. That is a pretty damning statistic as it means even tier 3 teams have managed to clock up more metres per carry in their games than Wales managed against South Africa. Gatland did well with Wales but the side is utterly devoid of creativity, relying entirely on a solid defence and contesting kicks to win.

 

[ThebigARena]

Interesting stat, Wales averaged 1.6m per carry, the lowest ever recorded by any side in world cup history. That is a pretty damning statistic as it means even tier 3 teams have managed to clock up more metres per carry in their games than Wales managed against South Africa. Gatland did well with Wales but the side is utterly devoid of creativity, relying entirely on a solid defence and contesting kicks to win.

We do lack a powerful ball carrier , as much as I moaned about jamie roberts was a beast carrier for a centre , jake ball is a decent carrier but against the top elite hes found wanting a bit.

George used to be able to carry but Ive not seen much from him this WC dont think hes been the same since getting that concussion .