As ranted to Dan:
If Jones had been up to his normal standard and kicked any of the penalties or conversions in the first 70 mins, we would have taken the penalty in the dying minutes and won the game.
If Martyn Williams had gone behind the posts for his breakaway try the conversion would have been more straightforward – see point above.
My problem is that Wales actually played bloody well in patches. Of all the Home Nations, they got the closest to the “big” team in their group – Scotland and England were thrashed and pointless against NZ and South Africa respectively, Wales lost 32-20 to Australia.
They came up against a very very committed Fijian team – you can almost tell who will win from the anthems and Fiji were completely up for it, and blasted Wales away in the first half. They completely deserved their win: I just hope that Fiji and Argentina can maintain that form going into the Quarter Finals. If Argentina don’t continue to play well, they could gift Scotland an undeserved semi-final place…
You have to play what is in front of you, but Wales always looked likely to have a tricky pool with Canada and Fiji. I honestly believe that Wales, playing as they did, would have beaten Scotland, Ireland and England playing the way that they did, but that is the luck of the draw.
After the start of the tournament, it was always likely that there would be one big shock (I don’t class Argentina – France as much of a shock as the Argentineans have been a very good side for a long time). And typically, it was always likely to be Wales. England and, to a certain extent, Scotland, have more of an ability to grind out unattractive results against weaker but committed opposition. England rely on Wilkinson too much – not just for penalties but for drop goals, tactical kicking and distribution. Scotland rely on Paterson’s boot from just about anywhere. Wales play fast and loose but are not the best defensively, which means that teams will rack up points against them and occasionally it all comes unstuck. This result is not on a par with the Samoa results as we played like donkeys in 1991. We actually played well this time round.
Having said that, as soon as Alfie goes it’ll be good – he’s had his time. The coach was unlucky but that is the nature of Welsh rugby – one of the hardest jobs in the world to try and meet completely unrealistic expectations.
No Northern Hemisphere teams in the semi-finals? Highly possible.
I'm not sure that was really random abuse. The key part of my argument was that we have played better than the Scots and the English. England only really played well once they had Wilkinson back against Tonga, and yes they rely on him as a talisman as well as his immense abilities. I would have agreed about Dallaglio being a talisman a few years ago, I don't agree now. Like Gareth Thomas and a few others (especially the Irish), he is past his prime.
Scotland ground out a victory. They are good at it and they play to their strengths, as do England. Agree, it ain't pretty, but I would rather see Wales lose and score 5 tries that watch Paterson score penalty after penalty from all over the pitch. That's my personal opinion...
As for supporting other teams, I will be supporting England against Australia - very little could bring me to support Australia unless they were playing NZ... I will, however, be supporting Argentina against Scotland, as I feel Argentina deserve the semi-final place more, and it would be the best thing for world rugby for Argentina to get through. Scotland are not even supported well by their own public - they can't even fill Murrayfield for VI Nations games these days let alone for WC pool games. Shocking...! Ad that's not to start on the debacle of the Borders and Edinburgh professional teams over the summer. I think that another team (Spain, Romania, Portugal, Argentina, Georgia, Russia) would actually be more worthwhile in the VI Nations than the Scots (it'll never happen but something has to give, in order to develop the game outside its heartland).
