Wales - RWC Squad

[Welsh Exile]

Wales - forwards (19): Taine Basham, Adam Beard, Elliot Dee, Corey Domachowski, Ryan Elias, Taulupe Faletau, Tomas Francis, Dafydd Jenkins, Dewi Lake, Dillon Lewis, Dan Lydiate, Jac Morgan, Tommy Reffell, Will Rowlands, Nicky Smith, Gareth Thomas, Henry Thomas, Christ Tshiunza, Aaron Wainwright.

Backs (14): Josh Adams, Gareth Anscombe, Dan Biggar, Sam Costelow, Gareth Davies, Rio Dyer, Mason Grady, Leigh Halfpenny, George North, Louis Rees-Zammit, Nick Tompkins, Johnny Williams, Liam Williams, Tomos Williams

 

[Welsh Exile]

Yey Basham Boo no Kieran Williams.

Tshiunza down as a lock? Would be good if so. Didn’t expect all of Lydiate, Tshiunza,
Reffell, Basham and Morgan to be selected.

 

[dirty harry]

Shocked Lydiate got a call up, but given Tsiunza is in as lock cover he is a luxury for experience against maybe Portugal and Georgia.carter looked underpowered still.

Costelow is lucky all real 10 options are unavailable through a number of reasons, in the 2nd minute watching an international player throw himself to the ground to avoid contact screamed Welsh prem.

Aside from that as expected, not a quality squad though. Wales RWC final really will be Fiji, win that and qualifying and a shot at a semi final is on the cards, lose it and the group is wide open.

I hope Gatland doesnt make wholesale changes between games 1/2 and 2/3 though, and hamper momentum

 

[Welsh Exile]

Shocked Lydiate got a call up, but given Tsiunza is in as lock cover he is a luxury for experience against maybe Portugal and Georgia.carter looked underpowered still.

Costelow is lucky all real 10 options are unavailable through a number of reasons, in the 2nd minute watching an international player throw himself to the ground to avoid contact screamed Welsh prem.

Aside from that as expected, not a quality squad though. Wales RWC final really will be Fiji, win that and qualifying and a shot at a semi final is on the cards, lose it and the group is wide open.

I hope Gatland doesnt make wholesale changes between games 1/2 and 2/3 though, and hamper momentum

Priestland and Patchell being the unavailable 10s you mentioned? I think Anscombe is the lucky one to be honest. Tompkins as well but I see what you’re saying. Really it will, and always was about, wrapping Biggar up in cotton wool. Post WC I don’t know what the plan moving forward will be.

 

[dirty harry]

Priestland and Patchell being the unavailable 10s you mentioned? I think Anscombe is the lucky one to be honest. Tompkins as well but I see what you’re saying. Really it will, and always was about, wrapping Biggar up in cotton wool. Post WC I don’t know what the plan moving forward will be.

I think Costelow is the plan going forward.

I agree with Anscombe, although at least he can cope with the physicality of international rugby, Costelow clearly cant. I'd prefer to see Owen William's. I rate Costelow as I do Ben Thomas.

I'm still stunned Cuthbert and Lydiate made the 48 with Lane and Youngs left out. Both excelling for Cardiff this season, and young enough to really benefit from camp. Lane would certainly have given a better show against SA than Roger's did, that was embarrassingly poor.

 

[Tooting Carmen]

Lydiate still resembles Popeye and Biggar is bolshy and experienced. They do have their uses.

 

[dullonien]

Probably as expected really. There are some real issues with this squad though.

Our tighthead options are frankly terrible. I was really hoping Asseratti could show some promise ib the warm-ups as we despirately needed another option. Henry Thomas looked meh v SA.

Lydiate is past it. Really surprised he made the final squad after those poor showings v England and SA where he gave away offside penalties and missed tackles. All of Jim Botham, Morgan Morris and Thomas Young should be there ahead of him, although Young maybe ahead of Reffell who struggled v Eng.

Centres are looking very weak imo. Johnny Williams was poor v SA. Grady is inconsistent. North, whilst good defensively, has been ordinary at best. Tompkins flatters to decieve. Imo Joe Roberts is our most rounded option at 13 and was one of the few positives in that second England game. Crying shame that Kieran Williams wasn't given enough time to prove himself.

Faletau and Anscombe's inclusions are a sign of a lack of depth in certain positions. Huge gamble to take them when there's only 2 scrum halves in the squad!

Oh and Beard can do one!

 

[Welsh Exile]

I think Costelow is the plan going forward.

I agree with Anscombe, although at least he can cope with the physicality of international rugby, Costelow clearly cant. I'd prefer to see Owen William's. I rate Costelow as I do Ben Thomas.

I'm still stunned Cuthbert and Lydiate made the 48 with Lane and Youngs left out. Both excelling for Cardiff this season, and young enough to really benefit from camp. Lane would certainly have given a better show against SA than Roger's did, that was embarrassingly poor.

Can Anscombe cope physically? I know in the sense you mean but he’s done noting at even regional level to suggest he’s what he was. I think you’re being a tad harsh on Costelow though not completely unwarranted.

I agree on Lane and I think Gatland was at least a fan but to be fair he’s been injured quite a lot this season and i guess we’ve already got the big, fast lump in the midfield in Grady. He could’ve taken him as a wing option over Dyer but I’m a bit meh on that. I actually think Rogers did ok all things considered and I would take him as a full back option over Halfpenny to be honest. Surprised Lane he wasn’t at least in the training squad, though as he’s versatile. But as I say I think injuries maybe held him back this year.

The argument used against Youngs inclusion (which I think is a fair one) is that he wasn’t in competition with Lydiate but Basham, Reffell and Morgan. Gatland wants a big lump at 6. I think not having a look at Botham was more of a mistake than Youngs even though I rate Youngs a lot it’s just we have good depth there unfortunately for him.

 

[dirty harry]

Can Anscombe cope physically? I know in the sense you mean but he’s done noting at even regional level to suggest he’s what he was. I think you’re being a tad harsh on Costelow though not completely unwarranted.

I agree on Lane and I think Gatland was at least a fan but to be fair he’s been injured quite a lot this season and i guess we’ve already got the big, fast lump in the midfield in Grady. He could’ve taken him as a wing option over Dyer but I’m a bit meh on that. I actually think Rogers did ok all things considered and I would take him as a full back option over Halfpenny to be honest. Surprised Lane he wasn’t at least in the training squad, though as he’s versatile. But as I say I think injuries maybe held him back this year.

The argument used against Youngs inclusion (which I think is a fair one) is that he wasn’t in competition with Lydiate but Basham, Reffell and Morgan. Gatland wants a big lump at 6. I think not having a look at Botham was more of a mistake than Youngs even though I rate Youngs a lot it’s just we have good depth there unfortunately for him.

Having watches the first 2 games now I think you are right on Anscombe, what a shambles he was against Portugal.

I was in the stadium and I genuinely thought Dillon Lewis chipped, chased and was beaten to the ball by the loose head.

Still dislike Costello, hes so small and clearly intimidated by contact.

Grady showed how unready he is, big physical and fast but lacking all skills needed, maybe you were right and Grady is the final wing option

 

[Welsh Exile]

Having watches the first 2 games now I think you are right on Anscombe, what a shambles he was against Portugal.

I was in the stadium and I genuinely thought Dillon Lewis chipped, chased and was beaten to the ball by the loose head.

Still dislike Costello, hes so small and clearly intimidated by contact.

Grady showed how unready he is, big physical and fast but lacking all skills needed, maybe you were right and Grady is the final wing option

I think Costelow is a gutsy little player which you saw when he came on against Fiji. He put his body on the line on a couple of occasions so disagree with you there but yes, naturally, I was right about Anscombe. Was very lucky to be selected. Personally I think if you payed no mins in the warm ups then you shouldn’t go with the exception of Faletau.

 

[Welsh Exile]

I’m still really annoyed how we’ve handled Jarrod Evans and I also would’ve selected Ioan Lloyd all day everyday in this squad even though he’s another one where this would’ve been a WC too soon but still, one for the future but is yet another player we’ve handled poorly.

 

[dullonien]

Gats made a number of errors with the squad imo, some of which were clear from recent regional form, performances during the warm ups, or a complete lack of gametime due to injury.

Lydiate is passed it, not helped by a string of injuries running back years. The bloke has barely played! Botham or Morgan Morris should have been included in the squad instead.

Anscombe in another player who's barely played in 4 years! After missing all the warm ups and both training camps it was madness to think he could cope with the rigours and pace of international rugby at a WC! Options are more limited here, but I too agree that the handling of Jarrod Evans was criminal. Owen Williams, Patchell or Sheedy all would have been better options as well.

It's clear that Grady isn't ready for this level either. I think Gats was swayed by his size here which was a mistake imo. I thought Joe Roberts was very unlucky not to make the cut. He's a far more rounded and intelligent player who has also proven his quality over a longer period at the Scarlets. He would offer something different to North, whearas Grady is much of a muchness. I would like to promote Kieran Williams here as well, however I can understand Gatland's decision to select Johnny Williams at 12, whilst Tompkins really proved many wrong with his display v Fiji.