@mooshld said in RWC Week 2: Wales v Portugal:

I feel like what we are seeing an interesting pattern at the world cup and during the warmups.

Once tier 1 teams go into their 2nd string they really are only performing marginally better than these tier 2 teams.

So the inverse is that with proper investment and a few stand out players tier 2 are not that far away.

I would watch a tier 2 rugby championship if the quality of rugby was near what we are seeing. Even more so if it allowed promotion to a tier 1 comp. Rugby championship or 6 nation's.

Most players at this World Cup would be playing some form of pro rugby.

There's still a gap, but teams have to be on their games at all times.

@pooler-fan said in RWC Week 2: Wales v Portugal:

@MiketheSnow we never perform after multiple changes for whatever reason.
Too many passengers - Halfpenny, Lydiate and Anscombe offer nothing as test players these days.
I've no doubt we'll improve significantly against Australia though.

Agreed about Lydiate

Costelow should have started and Anscombe subbed on at 50

Bad tactics for his first match in forever

Halfpenny is a rock in defence and is still our best goal kicker

Doesn’t offer much in attack at the moment though

Outside of injuries or suspensions most of those who played today will be watching from the stands from here on in

Christ had a much better showing
Faletau is getting fitter by the minute
Jac Morgan was immense

Hooker is a real problem for us still

Davies is our No 1 scrum half

Please give LRZ more ball in space

He’s wasted

@MiketheSnow said in RWC Week 2: Wales v Portugal:

Shittest RC ever

Rugby incident

Move on

Jordie Barrett (I think it was) got one of those successfully rescinded as it is a bio-mechanical action for your leg to go out. You can't stop it. Ridiculous card

Carley is not up to it at this level as a ref. Missed so much but his sideline didn't help him much either

@Steve said in RWC Week 2: Wales v Portugal:

The refs have abdicated responsibility for showing red cards since the bunker came in.

Not at all, you've missed the point of the bunker - it's there to speed up the game. The refs have generally been using it exactly as they should - check if the incident is at least worth a yellow, and then let the bunker spend minutes poring over the replays to decide of it's met the threshold for red while the game continues.

I guess the counter argument is that it seems the decisions about whether it's red-worthy are made by rolling a dice, which shouldn't take that long.

Bit of a scrapy performance from Wales, but pretty much what I expected. Good to get the BP win, and sit back and watch Fiji and Aus battle it out tonight.

The top nations might be able to put 50 points on a decent tier 2 team like Portugal, but that's not where Wales are at the moment, so I'll take this.

@Victor-Meldrew said in RWC Week 2: Wales v Portugal:

Entertaining match and Os Lobos have been really good. Excellent defence, discipline and kicking game.

We keep saying it every four years, but World rugby really does need to get it's act together and find a way to get teams like Portugal regular games against the top sides.

Absolutely.

And in true World Rugby fashion they are doing the exact opposite - their new pet project, the "World League", is going to almost entirely eliminate tier 1 v tier 2 games between world cups.

Great performance by Portugal. Very disappointed they ruled a red card. I am hating the lottery at this rwc

@MiketheSnow said in RWC Week 2: Wales v Portugal:

@pooler-fan said in RWC Week 2: Wales v Portugal:

@MiketheSnow

Halfpenny is a rock in defence and is still our best goal kicker

Doesn’t offer much in attack at the moment though

Two out of three, more than our fullback can manage at the moment

Halfpenny should have been penalised and perhaps given yellow for a supposed turnover a couple of metres out from his own line. No way he was supporting his weight, in a strong position, or lifting the ball.