Here we go again

Hopefully we'll have wised up from last week and play the game which suits us not them

Costelow nowhere to be seen thank god. But replaced by another dwarf in Dan Edwards. We'll see. I would have had Ben Thomas at 10.

Hardy needs to have the game of his life to compensate for the utter shit he delivered last week. New kid as scrum half sub is an exciting prospect.

Freddie Thomas and Teddy Williams could be a good combo in the second row.

As last week, we have the personnel to beat Japan. Whether we have the game plan and accuracy remains to be seen.

If Welsh rugby administrators had half your passion Mike, Tim Cymru wouldn’t be in this mess.

For the sake of Welsh rugby, I do hope they get a win this weekend.

Am I right that Wales haven’t won a test since the group stage of the RWC against Georgia?

@ACT-Crusader said in Mid-Year Tour : Japan v Wales Test 2:

For the sake of Welsh rugby, I do hope they get a win this weekend.

Am I right that Wales haven’t won a test since the group stage of the RWC against Georgia?

18 games stretch. Its a huge streak.

They do play Japan in November so you would expect they will break the streak either this weekend or against Japan at home.

Good to see Wainwright starting. God knows whose wives he's been shagging not to get picked so often.

@DaGrubster said in Mid-Year Tour : Japan v Wales Test 2:

@ACT-Crusader said in Mid-Year Tour : Japan v Wales Test 2:

For the sake of Welsh rugby, I do hope they get a win this weekend.

Am I right that Wales haven’t won a test since the group stage of the RWC against Georgia?

18 games stretch. Its a huge streak.

They do play Japan in November so you would expect they will break the streak either this weekend or against Japan at home.

Hard to say really. Japan were able to read them pretty well last weekend, so it would need a bit more inventive play than what we’ve seen so far.

Rugby in July in that part of Japan. Cripes, it is going to be hot!

Just kicked off

Japan about to get carded for repeat infringements

Wales with the 3rd attacking lineout in a row

14-3 Wales and Japan got a YC

That looked like he propelled himself off the ground with his legs. Try shouldn’t have counted

Great individual effort from Adams.

21-3 now

Surely they can’t screw this up

Hmm letting in a try on half time when you've scored in the 38th minute wouldn't have been in the plans.

Or could they.. Japan scores because of some soft defence around the fringes

Wales 21-10 at HT

Jeez, Leitch is a warrior isn't he?

Ours to lose
Like last week
By far the better team

Solid scrum
Functioning lineout

Still too many basic mistakes
Kicking very average again

Wales leading 21-10 at the break. They can't fuck it up again, can they?

And it's a two point game.

Wales score. It this the end of their long losing run?

Thank god for that

Hardy and Edwards did their best to fuck that up

Wales wins

So happy to see Eddie’s face

Congrats @MiketheSnow @pooler-fan and the rest.

@KiwiMurph said in Mid-Year Tour : Japan v Wales Test 2:

Congrats @MiketheSnow @pooler-fan and the rest.

Great effort by the Welsh ferners to keep their faith in the dark times. Now enjoy your win.

@MiketheSnow said in Mid-Year Tour : Japan v Wales Test 2:

Thank god for that

Hardy and Edwards did their best to fuck that up

Don't be too hard on your team, Mike.

Don't forget you had all your Lions missing.

Monkey off the back. Now have to back this up.

That must be a hell of a feeling. Jeez you’d want to play again tomorrow wouldn’t you?

Phew,
At least a new coaching team can come in with a clean slate without that bloomin' horrendous loss record hanging over them like a dark cloud.
We don't have the players we once had but there are some nuggets that can develop given time.
We can only work with what we have, onwards and upwards

If anyone wonders what it feels like to have the weight of a nation on your shoulders, I think Matt Sherratt’s face at the end of that game gives a pretty good indication.

Who’d want to be a coach, eh? That was an intense watch, even for a neutral like myself. Very happy for Wales to finally break their streak, you could tell what it meant for the players and the coaches.

Got to say how impressed I was again with Michael Leitch - what a warrior that guy is, to continue to perform at test level at 36 & in that heat and humidity.
The guy is a colossal figure, hugely impressive.

@Catogrande said in Mid-Year Tour : Japan v Wales Test 2:

Monkey off the back. Now have to back this up.

I hope so. Really don't like to see Wales in this place. Supporters deserve better

Well we avoided the ignominy of a Paul Hardcastle backed montage of misery from S4C,

'All those who remember the war
They won't forget what they've seen
Destruction of men in their prime...

I really wasn't sure what was going on
N-n-n-n-nineteen, nineteen'

Just!!!

Going in to the last quarter we were well on our way to another angler's 'one that got away' lament, but great energy, purpose and skill from the bench saw us bring an end to our 'horribilis duos annos'.

A much improved forwards performance both in the set piece and loose gave us the platform we so desperately needed to dictate the tempo of the match.

Add in the missing, injured, and untried and we have a very good foundation from which to improve.

The backs - despite scoring all of the tries - I'm not so sure of.

Costelow's omission definitely improved things but both Hardy and Edwards come from the same long line of farmers' sons shoveling shit for the most of the match and putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure and giving Japan a sniff of victory.

Add in poor kicking from hand and kicking when we should have passed and vice versa and these two are not the future.

We can do better, we have better.

I'm very much in the minority but I think Ben Thomas is our most talented and assured back and with 18 defeats on the bounce I would have given him far more opportunity to impose that talent on the Welsh game plan from the 10 position.

'But he doesn't play 10 for his club' come the screams. So what!

Whenever he steps on the field he's always close to being the best back for both Cardiff and Wales.

Get him to 10, put a hard running inside centre in the Jamie Roberts mold trucking it up and fixing defences, and our outside backs will be scoring tries left, right & centre much like the current Scottish backline.

Morgan-Williams looked to the manor born and leapfrogs Hardy as Tomos Williams' understudy.

Employ a young, innovative coach and watch this team flourish.

Yes we'll get hammered by both South Africa and New Zealand in the Autumn but we should be able to give Argentina a good game and look to defeat Japan again.

Onwards and upwards the World Rugby rankings.

@Victor-Meldrew said in Mid-Year Tour : Japan v Wales Test 2:

@MiketheSnow said in Mid-Year Tour : Japan v Wales Test 2:

Thank god for that

Hardy and Edwards did their best to fuck that up

Don't be too hard on your team, Mike.

Don't forget you had all your Lions missing.

@MiketheSnow said in Mid-Year Tour : Japan v Wales Test 2:

Well we avoided the ignominy of a Paul Hardcastle backed montage of misery from S4C,

'All those who remember the war
They won't forget what they've seen
Destruction of men in their prime...

I really wasn't sure what was going on
N-n-n-n-nineteen, nineteen'

Just!!!

Going in to the last quarter we were well on our way to another angler's 'one that got away' lament, but great energy, purpose and skill from the bench saw us bring an end to our 'horribilis duos annos'.

A much improved forwards performance both in the set piece and loose gave us the platform we so desperately needed to dictate the tempo of the match.

Add in the missing, injured, and untried and we have a very good foundation from which to improve.

The backs - despite scoring all of the tries - I'm not so sure of.

Costelow's omission definitely improved things but both Hardy and Edwards come from the same long line of farmers' sons shoveling shit for the most of the match and putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure and giving Japan a sniff of victory.

Add in poor kicking from hand and kicking when we should have passed and vice versa and these two are not the future.

We can do better, we have better.

I'm very much in the minority but I think Ben Thomas is our most talented and assured back and with 18 defeats on the bounce I would have given him far more opportunity to impose that talent on the Welsh game plan from the 10 position.

'But he doesn't play 10 for his club' come the screams. So what!

Whenever he steps on the field he's always close to being the best back for both Cardiff and Wales.

Get him to 10, put a hard running inside centre in the Jamie Roberts mold trucking it up and fixing defences, and our outside backs will be scoring tries left, right & centre much like the current Scottish backline.

Morgan-Williams looked to the manor born and leapfrogs Hardy as Tomos Williams' understudy.

Employ a young, innovative coach and watch this team flourish.

Yes we'll get hammered by both South Africa and New Zealand in the Autumn but we should be able to give Argentina a good game and look to defeat Japan again.

Onwards and upwards the World Rugby rankings.

Don't disagree with that Mike but I wouldn't count out Edwards - he's a good young 10 who'd look infinitely better with Reuben at 9. Hardy is gash, a good support runner but that's about it, his service is erratic and box kicking laboured and slow.
Rees-Zammit will be back in a few months, Grady also available for the autumn. Eddie James is a good prospect at 12.
There are green shoots there that need to be nurtured.
Hopefully we get a young ISH coach with some ability to mould a young group to better things.
All most Welsh supporters want is a team that is competitive with the top sides, we don't have the player pool to aim much higher than that.

Steve Tandy, who was Scotland's defence coach, is the new coach of Wales: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/cy8kgl77evvo

@sparky said in Mid-Year Tour : Japan v Wales Test 2:

Steve Tandy, who was Scotland's defence coach, is the new coach of Wales: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/cy8kgl77evvo

The WRU have their man

I’ll let the performances (and hopefully a few wins) do the talking

Tandy is well respected and he’s coming from an environment of professionalism at least

That’s already a bonus

But success?

Scotland haven’t won anything of note during his tenure

They have generational talent and still finish 4th in the 6N

And as defence coach he’s conceded more than Scotland have scored

@pooler-fan said in Mid-Year Tour : Japan v Wales Test 2:

@MiketheSnow said in Mid-Year Tour : Japan v Wales Test 2:

Well we avoided the ignominy of a Paul Hardcastle backed montage of misery from S4C,

'All those who remember the war
They won't forget what they've seen
Destruction of men in their prime...

I really wasn't sure what was going on
N-n-n-n-nineteen, nineteen'

Just!!!

Going in to the last quarter we were well on our way to another angler's 'one that got away' lament, but great energy, purpose and skill from the bench saw us bring an end to our 'horribilis duos annos'.

A much improved forwards performance both in the set piece and loose gave us the platform we so desperately needed to dictate the tempo of the match.

Add in the missing, injured, and untried and we have a very good foundation from which to improve.

The backs - despite scoring all of the tries - I'm not so sure of.

Costelow's omission definitely improved things but both Hardy and Edwards come from the same long line of farmers' sons shoveling shit for the most of the match and putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure and giving Japan a sniff of victory.

Add in poor kicking from hand and kicking when we should have passed and vice versa and these two are not the future.

We can do better, we have better.

I'm very much in the minority but I think Ben Thomas is our most talented and assured back and with 18 defeats on the bounce I would have given him far more opportunity to impose that talent on the Welsh game plan from the 10 position.

'But he doesn't play 10 for his club' come the screams. So what!

Whenever he steps on the field he's always close to being the best back for both Cardiff and Wales.

Get him to 10, put a hard running inside centre in the Jamie Roberts mold trucking it up and fixing defences, and our outside backs will be scoring tries left, right & centre much like the current Scottish backline.

Morgan-Williams looked to the manor born and leapfrogs Hardy as Tomos Williams' understudy.

Employ a young, innovative coach and watch this team flourish.

Yes we'll get hammered by both South Africa and New Zealand in the Autumn but we should be able to give Argentina a good game and look to defeat Japan again.

Onwards and upwards the World Rugby rankings.

Don't disagree with that Mike but I wouldn't count out Edwards - he's a good young 10 who'd look infinitely better with Reuben at 9. Hardy is gash, a good support runner but that's about it, his service is erratic and box kicking laboured and slow.
Rees-Zammit will be back in a few months, Grady also available for the autumn. Eddie James is a good prospect at 12.
There are green shoots there that need to be nurtured.
Hopefully we get a young ISH coach with some ability to mould a young group to better things.
All most Welsh supporters want is a team that is competitive with the top sides, we don't have the player pool to aim much higher than that.

Bit sooner than I thought but glad he's back.

Hopefully he’ll come back a la Steve Austin

Bigger, stronger, faster

Fingers crossed the NFL have rebuilt him