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Wales fans tuned into their game against Argentina last Sunday eager to see what new head coach Steve Tandy had changed that would set his Wales apart from the side that has been floundering for the past 20 games up until now. Unfortunately, the answer was almost nothing.
Williams (14'), Lake (20'), Morgan (53'), Murray (72')
Tries
Delgado (6'), Prisciantelli (9', 61'), Cruz (37'), Carreras (39'), Delguy (43'), Grondona (79')
Edwards (15', 21', 53'), Evans (73')
Conversions
Carreras (7', 10', 38', 40', 43', 62', 80')
Penalties
Carreras (30')
Wales fans tuned into their game against Argentina last Sunday eager to see what new head coach Steve Tandy had changed that would set his Wales apart from the side that has been floundering for the past 20 games up until now. Unfortunately, the answer was almost nothing.
Of course, it is far too early to judge Tandy’s Wales; He will give players chances and 2nd chances, he will experiment and test, he will refine and tweak. Realistically, we should not judge any form of progress until at least the Six Nations. However, it was remarkable how little appeared to change in this game.
Perhaps we should have expected this given the coaching assistants are either highly inexperienced or are the men who preceded Tandy’s arrival – the attack is still very much in Matt Sherratt’s image, which can bee seen no more clearly than in the 10/12 dynamic.
Dan Edwards is a tidy player capable of playing both a kicking game or a running game but make no mistake: the attack is built around Ben Thomas at 12, just as it is at Sherratt’s former team Cardiff. Thomas passed the ball 22 times in this game – a remarkable figure for an inside centre who spent 10 minutes sat in the sin bin. Thomas also kicked the ball just as many times as Edwards and carried it twice as often.
Tandy has not had an immediate impact on the defence - which some say is one of rugby’s quick fixes. The players are still learning his system, so the jury shall remain out, but Wales somehow managing to have zero line speed yet still get caught offside multiple times wasn’t a good sign.
Jac Morgan was once again head and shoulders Wales’ best player (topping the charts for carries, metres for a forward, defenders beaten, offloads, turnover won and try involvements) so his injury stands to downgrade Wales significantly in almost every department.
The tight 5 in front of Morgan still don’t offer enough in the carry with Dewi Lake accounting for 19 of their 26 metres collective metres and whilst the line out was better than it was against Japan it was still flaky.
We can deep dive the stats and find positives such as a 22m entry conversion rate of 4.6 or rapid ruck speed, but the truth is this was a mix and match Argentinian team missing several world class players . The feeling throughout was that it was only a matter of time before the 50 points barrier was breached. The scrum stats show Wales had 100% success but that’s meaningless – Tomas Gallo is thought of as a weak scrummager, yet he sent Wales’ replacement front row scurrying backwards.
Results like this naturally lead people to ask ‘was Gatland really the problem?’ – the answer to which is he wasn’t the problem but he was a problem; his game-plan was outdated and he fell out with just about everybody. Still, watching Wales’ props look out of steam on 30 minutes perhaps tells us why the first thing Gatland used to do when getting players into camp was beast them in the gym for 2 weeks straight.
Speaking of Gatland, we are now 6 games on from his reign ending but the hangover continues. Not only are the players still completely shod of confidence but the attack is still exhibiting issues that have been present for 2 seasons.
There was the intercept try which was a carbon copy of the one thrown in the dying moments of the Rugby World Cup quarter final in 2023, but more worrying was the continuation of the overly-deep attack. For instance, there was an extended attacking set between 40 and 42 minutes where Wales carried up to the 10m multiple times only to then pass the ball back into their own half and start again.
On reflection, the only thing that was new about this Wales game compared to their last home game was how quiet the stadium was. Wales fans are long past the anger stage and are now almost totally apathetic.
Argentinian line breaks were greeted not with cries from those desperate for the tackle to be made and the full time whistle was not even greeted with boos from people watching their nation undergo ritual humiliation on the global stage. The place was silent.
The WRU are still managing to get 50,000 fans into the Principality stadium – the equivalent of a sold-out Aviva and more than fits into any stadium in New Zealand - but they are going to have to stand in the streets and hand out tickets for free if they want to preserve that.
The game against Japan is now a must win, anything else and the WRU will have to accompany those tickets with a free meal and a fist full of money to get anyone in the door.
