How can you say Phillips played well? His passing was poor. The amount of balls Stephen Jones had to take above his head and pick of his toes was amazing. The fact also he never looked up and was not aware of his surroundings. You can blame the SA for not rolling away but at times the ball was there and available and ready for the Welsh backs but instead slowed the game right down. Also making sniping runs is all well and good when they are useful but yesterday majority were not. Also is box kicking was woeful, the entire point from them is to go high. When you say easily get to Phillips ... that was only because he took so much time to get rid of the ball the ruck became a mess. Was also not helped by Alan Lewis failing to referee the ruck area correctly.
Probably gonna have to agree to disagree. His passing wasn't as good as normal, but I can honestly only remember two bad passes, one above Steve Jones' head and one behind Stephen Jones. The first bad pass is at ~56.40 on the iPlayer recording, the second at ~ 2.07.40. That's two to many, but every scrum half has off days with their passing. He's improved his passing no end over the last few years. Quick ball was got out as quick as possible all game by Phillips (re-watching the game now), it's just slow ball where the forwards were re-organising where Phillips didn't get it out straght away, nothing wrong with that imo.
As for box kicking, I'm not a massive fan of it, but he get's good distance (better than what Stev Jones get's from a further 15m back), and one of his almost resulted in a try for Warberton midway through the first half. Halfpenny was generally contesting for quite a few, but the Boks dealt with them well. I'm not sure why Wales have stopped using Byrne as a relieving kicker, pretty sure he only kicked once and it went a mile!
Still think Phillips had an excellent game on second viewing. He put two massive hits in. One of van Niekerk and another of Pontriger. I also haven't seen anything wrong with his sniping, generally made ground and it always keeps the defense honest as I said before, stopping them from automatically drifting out onto the ten. Still only the one bad pass in 65mins, and I've been specifically watching. 2hours 4 for an example of Phillips having to go into the ruck to secure the ball, meaning he couldn't be there to get the ball out.
Wow ... his kicking was pretty spot on he ran the Welsh defence and his kicking bar one or two was pretty spot on. He had to take a lot of ball on and he did it and did it correctly. You could argue he could have passed it out once but instead he took the ball into contact but the decision was correct. You can argue the point with me but from a coaching point of view and the many fans around yesterday we were pretty much in agreement that he did the right thing.
I'm at 67min of re-watching the game on iplayer. So far his kicking to post has been excellent, and continued being so for the entire match, just missed a conversion from the touchline. But he was the cause of that try I mentioned before, and one of his up and unders actually went backwards. I'm a big fan of Steve Jones, but gatland hasn't given any gametime to a backup 10 since Samoa in the Autumn. Biggar has improved hugely sinse then and I think can offer something to this team. Very little wrong with his performance in attack, took ball on when he needed and distributed well. Tackling was also good.
Sorry he did not have a poor game. Being a hooker myself I would have loved to have been so good as him yesterday. His throwing was good, his jumpers were the ones being it jumped. Go back and watch it, it was not Rees's fault. Wales became predictable in the calling of lineouts. People tend to blame the hooker constantly but im afraid you can't. Deiniol may have been calling but the lineout captain is JT!
Lineout wie. I do agree with you. The lineout calling was poor, as they continued going front or middle ball even though Matfield was just standing there ready to disrupt. I've seen Warberton used as an effective jumper for the Blues, and Ryan Jones used to be a good option at the tail, but I don't think either were used! But I'm always a little weary to blame one person for a poor lineout, overall as a unit it is just not working, so I'll include Mathew Rees in that. Afterall he must have some input into what happens and can offer his input during the match. Technically we had five capable jumpers on the field yesterday in Bradley, Deiniol, Jon Thomas, Warberton and Ryan. However they continually went to Bradley at the front even though Matfield was just standing there waiting.
No sorry, Jones did a job on CJ VdL. He turned him everyway possible. Also a little note for you, playing at tighthead you are always under pressure because thats where all the pressure is in the scrum. I wonder if you watched the same game, he did an amazing job and you could see the relief that SA had when he came off.
I feel Adam Jones is nowhere neer where he was before injury, and I'm just a little worried he's being played even though he's obviously got an ongoing problem with his ankle. he's the most important player in the Welsh game, and I don't want to see him risked if he's not properly fit. He hasn't recovered his fitness quite either, as he was definitely starting to walk around the pitch in the second half before going off. Gametime will only help with that though.
Id play Warburton at 7 and McCusker at 6. If it fails then id go with Warburton at 6 and GT at 7.
Yeh, I'd go with that. Gonna be a big ask for McCusker to get his first real taste of international rugby against NZ though. Worried we'll get out muscled at the breakdown again with a lightweight 6. However, McCusker is rapid, so he may well be able to get himself around the pitch and to the breakdowns quickly. Just hope Gatland well try someone other than Jonathan Thomas who's probably better suited to second row now or nothing atall.
