Monday, March 19, 2007

Finally

Well, we managed to get a victory at last. And let's face it, if you'd come up to me, or any other Welshman, before the tournament saying "you can only beat one team this year, which do you choose" then it's a bit of no-brainer.

But let's face it - England just did not show up on Saturday, and Wales didn't really play any different to the how they played in the rest of the tournament. This isn't actually such a damaging statement - we should have won against Ireland (people forgot that pretty quickly), drew against Italy, and while the Scottish game is one to forget, we didn't embarrass ourselves in Paris. Yet the reality is that we're still not clinical enough. On Saturday was that the our pack got the upper hand and turned the screw on the English from an early stage in the game, which meant quick ball and consistent movement over the gain line. That, coupled with Hook's excellent kicking game, meant that 75% of the game was played in England's half and to lose a game with that amount of territory is a almost impossible - but the scoreline didn't reflect the Welsh dominance. Let's be blunt about this, Wales should have been 30 points up at half-time, and should have won by 40, and only a lucky bounce, a moment of magic from Ellis and several moments of selfishness from Shane Williams prevented that. There is still a lot of work to do before the world cup.

As for England... only more questions, no answers...

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