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Wales are better than that - Tipuric
By Peter Thompson
Justin Tipuric said Wales' fifth-placed finish in the Six Nations was tough to take and declared "we are better than that" after a dramatic finale against France in Paris.
Wales could have finished as high as second with a victory at Stade de France, but were consigned to a 20-18 defeat after Damien Chouly went over for a try in the 100th minute in a controversial end to the game.
Tipuric was left disappointed Rob Howley's men fell short after losing three times and winning just twice.
"It's tough to take, finishing fifth," said the Ospreys flanker.
"We are better than that. We've had a few really close games this year that could have gone either way. Unfortunately, we've come out on the wrong side of the scoreline. The changing room was very quiet after the game.
"I just think we have to keep on improving. We are working on playing a different type of game and hopefully that's just going to get better and better.
"We are getting out of our old pattern and trying new things: we are trying to spread the ball a bit wider.
"We know we are not perfect. But if we keep tweaking our game, we are only going to get better and better, because in our team we have a lot of skilful players. We just have to make sure we use them."
An enthralling, gripping #RBS6Nations is complete. Where did your team finish in the standings?
Full table https://t.co/32CU1mhaDl pic.twitter.com/6YcDs13mM8
— RBS 6 Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 19, 2017
Tipuric will now turn his attention to putting in some commanding displays at club level to try to secure a place on the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand.
Asked about the Lions tour, he said: "It would be nice to see some of the boys on the tour. We'll see how it goes. I'm just going to concentrate on the Ospreys now and try to help them get some silverware,
"From a personal perspective in this Six Nations, it's been nice to play. Coming off the bench is hard to do. I've really enjoyed starting. I've enjoyed the physical test and I want to keep getting better and better."
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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