General Chat

Hi Our Shaun :-) :-)

DEWIS DIDDOROL IAWN- VERY INTERESTING CHOICE :-) :-) :-)

Like it!

I love Jamie Roberts (as long as his shoulder holds up) Jon Davies I think is still ruled out. Scott Williams had a bad injury- I wonder if he's ok now? I love Ryan Jones. It's a shame he's not been fit for this years championship.

DAN BIGGER-
I much prefer him at number 10 to Rhys Priestland. Just my opinion of course, but I think he kicks and loses the ball when he could have passed the ball.

TAULUPE FALATAU-
An interesting comment on Scrum V last Sunday. According to the panel (Jonathan Davies, Kingsley Jones and Robert Jones) WHY NOT PUT HIM FULL BACK. They believe that he is "probably the best Full Back in the World". They use him in that roll in The Dragons.

They talked about the pairing of Dan Biggar and RHYS WEBB in Mike's position as an option. I love Mike Phillips though, but he has to keep his temper. Lovely Stephen Jones used to rein him in when he was losing it! :-D :-D

Yes you have given some interesting food-for-thought Shaun.

WHAT A DREAM TEAM YOUR OTHER TEAM WOULD BE!!!

Merv The Swerve!!!! BARRY JOHN <3 I loved Barry John! Gareth Edwards- boy he could run! What a brill team! JJ and JPR!

What about lovely Ray Gravell? <3 I knew Ray. He lived in our village for a while, and I knew him also through the local newspaper that I worked with.

He went to school with my big brother. When we had the accident in 1976, when we lost our father and our home in a fire, he provided my brother with a full Rugby Kit!
What a marvelous man he was! <3 <3

Hi Jem :-))))))))))))))))))
What do you think of my team to go forward against France and England??

CENTRE’s Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies, and Scott Williams.

FLY – HALF’s James Hook and Dan Biggar.

FLANKER’s , Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric, Aaron Shingler, Josh Navidi & Josh Turnbull.

FULLBACK’s, Lee Byrne, Leigh Halfpenny and Liam Williams.

LOCK’s, Ryan Jones, Andrew Coombs, James King, Ollie Kohnn, Ian Evans & Lou Reed.

HOOKER’s, Matthew Rees, Ken Owens and Richard Hibbard.

PROP’s, Adam Jones, Gethin Jenkins, Craig Mitchell, Paul James, Ryan Bevington & Scot Andrews.

NUMBER 8’s, Taulupe Faletau and Andries Pretorius.

SCRUM-HALF’s,Mike Phillips, Lloyd Williams and Tavis Knoyle.

WING’s, George North, Alex Cuthbert and Eli Walker.


Apparently this is “THE GREATEST WELSH TEAM OF ALL TIME”, do you agree?
JPR WILLIAMS, GERALD DAVIES, JJ WILLIAMS, JOHN DAWES, BLEDDYN WILLIAMS, BARRY JOHN
GARETH EDWARDS , DENZIL WILLIAMS , GRAHAM PRICE , BRYN MEREDITH , DELME THOMAS
GEOFF WHEEL , DAI MORRIS., JOHN TAYLOR , MERVYN DAVIES .

Shaun

POST WALES V IRELAND DEBATE:

Well, Wales were hammered by the Irish in our last game!

WHAT HAVE THE RUGBY EXPERTS HAD TO SAY?

SCRUM V SUNDAY (9-2-2014)
Former Wales Rugby Union International Players- KINGSLEY JONES, GWYN JONES and HUW BENNETT, along with former Ireland International Rugby Union Player- SHANE BYRNE were interviewed following Wales' defeat by Ireland.

During their discussion they made the following comments regarding the game-

KINGSLEY JAMES:
"Wales was ONE-DIMENSIONAL- they need to vary the game and not just rely on power and strength to see them through every time" They need to "TWEAK" their play.

The panel agreed that Wales could not stop the DRIVING MAUL, they had NO DOMINANCE in SCRUMS, and were losing LINE-OUTS.

HUW BENNETT-
Huw Bennett said that they needed more DISCIPLINE- that they were giving away too many penalties and making too many errors. They need to get back to basics.

GWYN JONES-
Gwyn agreed with Kingsley's "One-Dimension" Point. He joked wryly-
"IF PLAN A DOESN'T WORK- THEN IT'S BACK TO PLAN A!"

SHANE BYRNE-
"Joe Schmidt (Ireland's Head Coach) had a GAME PLAN put together to negate the power, to take the game they (Wales) were best at away from them and frustrate the h**l out of them- and that's exactly what happened".

The panel made the claim that players (such as Sam Warburton, Gethin Jenkins and Dan Lydiate) were not fully match fit.

They also mused why other, fitter players were not chosen such as JAMES HOOK. It seems that as James Hook is skilled enough to cover a variety of different playing positions, he is left unused on the bench for emergencies!-
The former Internationals stated- THAT IF THERE EVER WAS A TIME TO USE HOOK, THAT WAS THE TIME!

Our JONATHAN DAVIES, former Wales International; and now respected BBC Commentator said-
"Wales didn't perform!... Wales had NO ALTERNATIVE GAME PLAN- NO CHANGE OF THOUGHT"

BBC WALES TODAY (10-2-2014)
An Interview with Former Wales Prop- BEN EVANS

He was asked-" HOW DID A GREAT TEAM END UP LOOKING SO POOR?"
His take on the Game (Wales v Ireland)-
"CREDIT TO IRELAND! A complete performance. Every facet of their game was spot-on!"

He believed that Wales' poor performance could have been partially because of "POST LIONS BLUES" and "THE UNDERTONES OF WRANGLING GOING ON IN THE REGIONS- how can it not affect the boys?!"

When asked about Warren Gatland's dilemma on whether or not to change the team he replied-
"That's the temptation isn't it! Give those boys another chance and risk the failure again, or give some new boys a chance. If it comes off- IT'S A MASTERMIND PLAN!..BUT I THINK HE SHOULD STICK WITH THEM!"

Evans made the point that we are only 2 games into the championship, and that WALES CAN STILL WIN!
It's ALL OPEN- he asserted!

*********************************************************************************************
NOW!!!!....CALLING ALL WALES RUGBY SUPPORTERS!.............

**WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
**WOULD YOU CHANGE THE TEAM?
**IF SO WHO WOULD YOU PUT IN OR TAKE OUT?
**WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON WALES' PERFORMANCE?

Non Wales supporters are also welcome to join in (respectful comments please :-|)

So France and Ireland are in front after Lap 1. And who do they both play in a fortnight :-D ;-)

What a weekend to look forward to. I agree with you, Shaun. Not looking good. But let us have faith Wales will play a whole lot better on Friday night. I think they may well win :-D :-D

It's looking grim Shaun :-(

I'm wondering if all the nonsense with the management of Welsh Rugby at present has affected the morale of our Welsh team! :-( :-(

Oh Jem, I'm not looking forward to the 21st are you? :-|

NO 6 NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES NEXT WEEKEND

NEXT GAMES...

21st & 22nd FEBRUARY:

Wales v France Fri 8.00
Italy v Scotland Sat 1.30
England v Ireland Sat 4.00

So where does this leave WALES and the rest of the Teams.

Tables won't work on here so I will post the info as best I can, as follows-

IRELAND......Played-2; Won-2; Drawn-0; Lost-0; Points For-54; Against-9; POINTS:4
FRANCE......Played-2; Won-2; Drawn-0; Lost-0; Points For-56; Against-34; POINTS 4
ENGLAND....Played-2; Won-1; Drawn-0; Lost-1; Points For-44; Against- 26; POINTS 2
WALES........Played-2; Won-1; Drawn-0; Lost-1; Points For-26; Against- 41; POINTS 2
ITALY............Played-2; Won-0; Drawn-0; Lost-2; Points For-25; Against-53; POINTS 0
SCOTLAND..Played-2; Won-0; Drawn-0; Lost-2; Points For-6; Against-48; POINTS 0

ONE MINUTE LEFT TO GO!

Yellow carded player back on for the last seconds of the match!

Scrum- Italy put in and the ball is out for the final passage of play.

MAN OF THE MATCH

FRANCE'S WESLEY FOFANA

IT'S ALL OVER!

FINAL SCORE: FRANCE-30...ITALY-10

Driving Maul.....Come on Italy...TRY ITALY!

FIRST TRY BY TOMMASO IANNONE IN ITALIAN COLOURS.

CONVERTED BY ORQUERA

Score: FRANCE- 30... ITALY- 10

Scrum- Italy put in. Come on boys. Pen advantage Italy...France not releasing!

Someone's injured..French player, went down too low in tackle and head and knee contact.

Frenchman has had to go off.

Italy has an extra man now... 8 minutes to go. They can't win now, but at least they could have a more respectful score.

And another wasted opportunity by Italy!

Crowds singing La Marseillaise

OH DEAR!!!!

2 REDS AND A PENALTY!

A RED CARD APIECE! France had pen kick out!

Scrum. Italy get the ball. Come on boys. France have stolen the ball.

PENALTY TO ITALY against France number 5. Throw in at 5. Up he's got it, they are driving...whistle?

Yellow card France for player who has just come on. Kicked the ball away!

Penalty Italy. Taking a scrum 5 yards out. Come on Italy.....good chance of a try from here!

It's in, they are pushing. Ref blows whistle?????????????

Ref is consulting with TV REF. HEAD BUTTS...UPPER CUTS...HANDBAGS FLYING EVERYWHERE!!!

Throw-in France. Kick.. but didn't find touch, back in Italian hands.

come on--5 metres out. 1yard out, can they do it....Has he scored? going to TV...

His own hand is under the ball, then French player puts his hands under the ball, but was it on the line first?

NO TRY AWARDED. Studio disagrees.

Scrum 5 for Italy 5 yards out!

Clock stopped for treatment.

Scrum down for Italy. collapsed ! slipping on the ground.

Down again! Penalty for Italy as ref loses patience with French Tight-head prop. Good kick into touch on the French 22. Italy throw in.

Come on Italy.....come on boys in blue... 5 metres from French line......and Italian rode the tackle but dropped the ball a yard out!

France lost throw in to Italy.

Come on Italy! Italy dropped the ball, after creating the opportunity to go left! :-(

France put in to Scrum.

JEAN-MARC DOUSSAIN GOES OFF TO A GREAT APPLAUSE.
REPLACED BY MACHENAUD

CROWDS DOING A MEXICAN WAVE!

Italy on the attack....c'mon boys...come on Italy. Still advantage Italy. not quite to a try.

JERSEY PULLING!

Back for the Penalty. Gone for throw in at 5 yards from try line. Up down and drive...can they do it???? I hope so!!

OOOOOH NEARLY THERE AGAIN...1 YARD OUT....Penalty to France for not releasing the ball.

And France are away again!ooooooooooooooooooh oooooooooooooooooh
WHAT A TRY!!!!!!

FANASTIC TEAM PLAY FROM FRANCE.... INTERCEPTION LEADS TO THIS TRY
by number 11 BONNEVAL
CONVERTED BY DOUSSAIN YET AGAIN!

SCORE: 30-3 TO FRANCE

PENALTY France...going for Touch. Throw in France. Here they come again...France on the attack!

Good defending by Italy, but still the French are pushing forward.

Penalty Italy- France diving in.

Italy throw in 10 yards inside French Half.

Yes---come on Italy

Good ground gained by Italy, but France has the throw in inside their 22.