Continuing on in our series of things that we already knew but will pretend we learned on the tour (yesterday’s was dedicated to Gavin Thomas) we have the panic that sets in to the Welsh rugby team. And not just any panic (though we will be covering defensive problems later in the series) – this is the panic we get when we look like we are going to score.
One try. One try in 3 games vs New Zealand. You think that would tell you all you need to know wouldn’t you? But no – things are far worse than that suggests. Not only are we struggling to score tries but it seems that when they are on we simply panic, unable to penetrate the opposition defensive line, unable to get over the white wash.
I know that sounds dramatic, but take a look at everything we have seen.
Offensive Problems
There are plenty of offensive problems, another topic of discussion deserving of it’s own study. But one of the major ones is our panic. Take, for example, an early 5m scrum Wales forced early in the game. The scrum was a dominant set piece for us – but rather than do something with it we gave away a penalty.
That is just an example. All you need to do is watch almost any game to see how often we spend in the opponents half, and even 22, but don’t score. It follows the same pattern every time – forwards hit, forwards hit, maybe goes to the backs before forwards hit – and eventually get turned over having made next to no ground.
This tells us a number of things
1)most of our ball carriers don’t make enough impact – AWJ, Ryan and JT especially.
2)Our players are scared of trying something
It is number 2) that is worrying because it is easier to do something about. Simply producing ball carriers, or getting the likes or Ryan back to the barn storming best we haven’t seen from him in awhile, is a difficult thing to do. But addressing our fear of mistakes is something we can do about very easily on the training paddock.
The forwards don’t try any inter passing, our backs run very little angles (where has Byrne’s imagination gone?), we look devoid of ideas. More accurately we look like we are terrified of making mistakes. The Welsh players look like they will simply do their job rather than try something new.
Eventually we did try something different – and were rewarded with 10 minutes of our best play and a try. Should have been two but for some inexplicable whiteline fever from Jon Davies.
Think what I am talking about is a one off? Look at the possession and territory we enjoyed the week before – without threatening to cross the white wash. Look at how we have consistently struggled for tries – especially tries that don’t rely on a moment of magic from James Hook or Shane Williams.
We panic when we see the line. We retreat into ourselves, scared of making mistakes. Until we stop doing that we will never start getting the scores we need to really threaten the likes of New Zealand or South Africa.
Please let us know about your thoughts on this in the comments below – or anything else you think we learned from the tour
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Good post Nick. I agree with everything you’ve said.
My concern is that players (the younger one’s especially) play with a freedom and invention at club and regional level which we have rarely seen from the International XV in the last two years.
It seems that once they step up to the big scene, their wings are clipped and they lose the creativity and lack of fear factor that made them great players in the first place.
I don’t want to criticise Gatland, Edwards or Howley, as they are the best men for the job, but this tour HAS to have shown them that changes need to be made.
Ps – how many more times is Byrne going to get sin binned???
Unfortunately we seem to be trapped in a cycle of diminishing returns, the coaches are afraid to drop Ryan Jones even tho he isn’t playing to the form the team expects from a captain. When I see him carry the ball all I think is “Please don’t get turned over!”. Incumbancy shouldn’t come into it, players should be selected on form alone.
Ryan’s time at 8 has been and gone imo – we need a more dynamic carrier, even if it has to be Powell… or give JT more of a shot there, would love to see him get some O’s games at 8, not least cos whilst he has talent he is ineffective at 2nd row and 6 recently.
Ryan has to move to 6 if he is to have any sort of future in the international game – and even then he needs to work on adding more dynamism to his game imo