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Wales player ratings vs Argentina | 2021 Summer Tests
By Ian Cameron
Wales player ratings: Argentina may have struggled against Romania last week, but they were always going to be a far more robust challenge than the Canadians, given a similar Pumas 23 toppled the All Blacks just nine months previously.
What unfolded was the flattest Welsh performance of 2021, in which the best they could do was a draw against an Argentinian outfit that had just 14 men for the bulk of this contest.
WALES PLAYER RATINGS:
1 NICKY SMITH - 6.5
As prop's go, Smith is a real competitor over the ball and he picked the Puma's pockets here more than once. Tackled his guts out.
2 ELLIOT DEE - 6
Beavered away all afternoon, his trademark industriousness on display before being replaced by Elias.
3 DILLON LEWIS - 6
Uncompromising in defence from the off and was just about edging his setpiece battle with loosehead Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro before the pair were sent to the sin bin by Matthew Carley.
4 BEN CARTER - 5
Relatively anonymous here off the back of a very impressive debut against Canada. Facing Kremer and co on your second cap will do that.
5 WILL ROWLANDS - 6
A hot mess of a performance, with too many silly errors and coach killer penalties. On the flip side ran a great supporting line to pop up out wide for Wales' 52nd-minute try which saw him having to rely on a Go-Go Gadget arm extension to take. Won't have liked to being handed off by Matera.
6 ROSS MORIARTY - 6
A fumble early on set the tone for a pretty flat first half for Moriarty. A couple of decent contributions with ball in hand in the second half, but he's still some way off his combative best.
7 JAMES BOTHAM - 5
Lucky to get away with a penalty for lifting Pablo Mattera beyond the horizontal and dumping him. Other than that, the game largely passed him by.
8 AARON WAINWRIGHT - NA
A bright start for Wainwright, an early canter up the pitch no doubt filling him with confidence, but he was hauled off with an unspecified injury after just 23 minutes.
9 KIERAN HARDY - 6
Targeted by the Pumas for some extra attention, ultimately resulting in a red card for the South Americans and a sore jaw for Hardy. Excellent service.
10 CALLUM SHEEDY - 4
Shaved the posts from 47 metres out with 13 minutes on the clock before gifting the Puma's their opening points by surprising his teammates with a tap and go before entering the subsequent ruck from the side. Didn't provide the control Wales' needed here and found wanting when it came to containing Argentina's ball carriers in the 1o channel. His first bad performance in the red of Wales.
11 OWEN LANE - 6
Like Jonah Holmes on the opposite wing, didn't get a great deal of quality ball, but made the most of what he did get. Came looking for work but the Pumas contained him.
12 JONATHAN DAVIES - 5
Sheedy needed minding in defence and Davies didn't do him any favours here. No bright ideas in attack either as Wales' struggles to capitalise on the extra man. At times the veteran looked too beaten up for the task in front of him.
13 UILISI HALAHOLO - 4
Was clearly annoyed at himself after a midfield fumble binned off a promising Welsh attacking position. A game to forget for Halaholo.
14 JONAH HOLMES - 5.5
Did he touch the ball in the first half? Wales generally failed to get the ball anywhere near their wings today and Holmes was a victim of that failure. A few decent contributions in the second stanza but he didn't worry the Pumas in attack.
15 HALLAM AMOS - 6.5
A good dustpan and brush, in the best sense of that metaphor. Some classy touches with the boot, although he opted to run the ball back at the Pumas more often than not. The best of mediocre back division today.
REPLACEMENTS
19 JOSH TURNBULL - 7.5 The big blindside made an impression off the bench and was one of a few Welshmen to take the flight to Argentina. 20 TAINE BASHAM - 7 A notable improvement on Botham. 21 TOMOS WILLIAMS - 7.5 - Took his try remarkably well while those around him looked on listlessly. 23 NICK TOMPKINS - 7 Injected pace and intent into Wales' misfiring backline. He's not a world-beater but he makes **** happen.
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Latest Comments
The only benefit of the draft idea is league competitiveness. There would be absolutely no commercial value in a draft with rugby’s current interest levels.
I wonder what came first in america? I’m assuming it’s commercial aspect just built overtime and was a side effect essentially.
But the idea is not without merit as a goal. The first step towards being able to implement a draft being be creating it’s source of draftees. Where would you have the players come from? NFL uses college, and players of an age around 22 are generally able to step straight into the NFL. Baseball uses School and kids (obviously nowhere near pro level being 3/4 years younger) are sent to minor league clubs for a few years, the equivalent of the Super Rugby academies. I don’t think the latter is possible legally, and probably the most unethical and pointless, so do we create a University scene that builds on and up from the School scene? There is a lot of merit in that and it would tie in much better with our future partners in Japan and America.
Can we used the club scene and dispose of the Super Rugby academies? The benefit of this is that players have no association to their Super side, ie theyre not being drafted elshwere after spending time as a Blues or Chiefs player etc, it removes the negative of investing in a player just to benefit another club. The disadvantage of course is that now the players have nowhere near the quality of coaching and each countries U20s results will suffer (supposedly).
Or are we just doing something really dirty and making a rule that the only players under the age of 22 (that can sign a pro contract..) that a Super side can contract are those that come from the draft? Any player wanting to upgrade from an academy to full contract has to opt into the draft?
Go to commentsUse club rugby.
You’ve got the perfect structure to run your 1A and 1B on a quota of club representation by Province. Have some balance/reward system in place to promote and reward competitiveness/excellence. Say each bracket has 12 teams, each province 3 spots, given the Irish Shield winner once of the bottom ranked provinces spots, so the twelve teams that make up 1A are 4 from Leinster, 3 each from Connacht and Munster, and 2 from Ulster etc. Run the same rule over 1B from the 1A reults/winner/bottom team etc. I’d imagine IRFU would want to keep participation to at least two teams from any one province but if not, and there was reason for more flexibility and competitveness, you can simply have other ways to change the numbers, like caps won by each province for the year prior or something.
Then give those clubs sides much bigger incentive to up their game, say instead of using the Pro sides for the British and Irish Cup you had going, it’s these best club sides that get to represent Ireland. There is plenty of interest in semi pro club cup competitions in europe that Ireland can invest in or drive their own creation of.
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