1
Wales player ratings vs France | Six Nations 2022
By Will Owen
Wales player ratings: After finishing strongly in Twickenham, Wales came home to Cardiff with the smallest of targets on their back. The trend is not to doubt Wales’ ability, but rather their capability of felling Fabien Galthié’s unbeaten France side.
Wales’ performance was strong, but they failed to score points. Despite playing in the right areas of the field, Wayne Pivac’s men were their own worst enemy.
15. Liam Williams - 5
Took some tremendously difficult high balls and kicked decently. Didn’t get many opportunities in attack.
14. Alex Cuthbert - 6
Will take plenty of flak for the Jelonch try, but could do very little when his inside men weren’t drifting. Picked up from his Twickenham form with a fantastic early chip and chase. Otherwise solid.
13. Owen Watkin - 6
The Watkin experiment is paying off for Pivac. Makes increasingly wise defensive reads and is developing into an extra kicking option. A good shift by the Osprey.
12. Jonathan Davies - 7
A reliable presence in the Welsh midfield. Typically made the right calls and stopped a couple of promising French attacks. Dropped the ball in a try-scoring opportunity, which dampens his impact.
11. Josh Adams - 6
Adams always looks at home in the 11 jersey in the Principality Stadium. Always chases kicks well and tackles hard. Sadly got moved into the centre at a vital moment in the game.
10. Dan Biggar - 7.5
Kicked the world’s first 22:22, seemingly. Helped steer Wales into the right areas throughout the first half. Unfortunately failed to identify opportunities to take 3 points in the second.
21. Kieran Hardy - 7.5
Was introduced early due to an injury to Tomos Williams. Took Melvyn Jaminet’s Eiffel Tower-sized bomb brilliantly, and kicked well himself. Loved to get under the skin of an off-colour Dupont. Collected performance by the Scarlets scrum-half.
1. Gareth Thomas - 5
Thomas has looked hungry in his last two caps. Picked the wrong man ahead of Jelonch’s try, but scrummaged well.
2. Ryan Elias - 6.5
An “alright” game for Elias now is ten times better than what it was six months ago. Made an error by leaving Adam Beard isolated in the French 22, but was solid at set-piece and in defence.
3. Tom Francis - 5.5
Typically strong up front and an unsung cog in Wales’ structure.
4. Will Rowlands - 7.5
Rowlands continued his strong vein of form by giving Cameron Woki a hard time at set-piece. Loved to test France at ruck-time, which was invaluable.
5. Adam Beard - 6
Beard was huge at the line-out and technically fantastic in the tackle. Beard’s standards at international level are sky-high, but he had an okay outing today.
6. Seb Davies - 6.5
Davies’ selection at blindside raised a few eyebrows, but playing three locks is a powerful trend at the moment. Davies started strongly with his kick-chase and rucking efforts. Great game from the loose forward.
7. Josh Navidi - 7
Integral to the red defence and constantly held off multiple French forwards at ruck-time. Navidi is massive in Wales’ structure, even if less flashy than the likes of Basham. Great 75 minute shift after a long injury.
8. Taulupe Faletau - 8.5
There is no problem on earth that Taulupe Faletau can’t fix. Was dealt poor passes, difficult kicks and unlikely tackling positions, but always came out on top. World class.
REPLACEMENTS
16. Dewi Lake - 7
Made a heavy impact around the park and was solid at the lineout.
17. Wyn Jones - 6
Not a significant impact, but didn’t make any real errors.
18. Dillon Lewis - 5
Held his own at scrum time against the monstrous Gros, which deserves credit.
19. Ross Moriarty - 5.5
Made a couple of heavy tackles, but wasn’t on for long enough to make a big difference.
20. Jac Morgan - N/A
Wasn’t on for long enough to make an impact.
22. Gareth Anscombe - 5.5
It was the correct call for Pivac to put him on for Williams, but Wales arguably could’ve used him as more of a kicking option.
23. Louis Rees-Zammit - 6.5
A timely substitution to lift the crowd - Rees-Zammit made a lovely half-break at the end, but sadly didn’t get much chance to run in space.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
3
Suaalii strikes awe as Wallabies lose midfielder
4
Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
5
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.
Go to comments