Sad for Wales i must say,they must be very short on confidence at the the moment Losing so many close encounters against Oz must really rankle.Hope Leigh is ok , that looked a nasty injury.The Lions will need as many good players to step up to the plate as possible so lets hope for a better showing from the Welsh boys come the 6N.Ditto Scotland who have been woeful.Its clear to my mind the AR threw in the towel because he couldnt get his squad to play better than they did and yet there are some very good players there like Visser and Gray.Ireland have always been an enigma to me.Why is it that their provinces have been so dominant in HEC and yet the national side never really quite pulls it offdata:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7I reckon if they played like Leinster they would be a very serious threat.
As far as England are concerned what i will say is this -"a swallow never made a summer". Remember 2010 against Australia and the aftermath (6N).They need to build on what was an excellent win and maintain some consistency.As usual with the media itsa case of feast or famine.Over the top praise after such a win or a severe slagging off when things dont quite go to plan as against SA and OZ.having said that it was difficult to find any real flaws in yesterdays performance .Maybe Sharples deserves another go at RW and Brown is more of a FB as he lacks pace to be a genuine LW ,well though he played.I would try Tom Biggs there or maybe the young London irish wing Anthony Watson who looks a very exciting player.
The greatest positives for me is that there seems to be a real sense of togetherness in that squad and competition for places as well with good cover in a number of positions.The likes of Croft ,Hartley, and Foden wont be able to think they can just simply walk into the squad.If Tom Youngs can sort out his line throwing for me he'll be number 1 hooker because of his open play performances as he makes good yardage, ball in hand.I suppose the biggest positive was the praise given by NZ ,who dont normnally dispense it lightly
Only saw the highlights from the England game. Really played well for that result. The two quick NZ tries would have rattled many a team into submission so very well done on an excellent result.
The best news of the weekend is Halfpenny's out of hozzie following scans which found no injury. A period of rehab follows but looks like he'll be ok. By far Wales' best player of the AIs. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7 data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7 data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Cardiff could do with him back too, come to that data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
yes but those tries so well executed.Just shows what they can do even with limited possession