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'Who on Earth decided not to keep Shaun Edwards?' - Welsh fans not impressed as defence has become porous under Kiwi Pivac
By Online Editors
France comprehensively beat Wales 38-21 in the first Six Nations warm-up match on the back of another star performance by scrumhalf Antoine Dupont in Paris.
What started out as a promising evening for Wales ended in tatters as Teddy Thomas chip kicked Dan Biggar to ice the match with a superb piece of individual skill, France's fifth try of the night.
The visitors had raced out to early 10-0 lead through a try to Leigh Halfpenny but the destructive Dupont took over for France, scoring two tries to lead his side to a 21-13 lead at halftime. He laid on another for Charles Ollivon for the first score in the second half to put Wayne Pivac's men into a deep hole they couldn't get out of.
The loss was Wales' fourth consecutive under new coach Wayne Pivac, who had previously led the side to 1-3 in his first Six Nations campaign earlier this year.
Despite the match being the first in over seven months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, online many Welsh fans were quickly losing confidence that Pivac is the right man for the job.
After losing Gatland and defence specialist Shaun Edwards, their defence has become a concern for fans. They conceded 30 points or more for the second consecutive match which fans described as 'disorganised', 'woeful' and 'very easily beatable'.
A few calls for Pivac to be replaced by fans were made, with one fan saying 'the next few games' is all Pivac has to prove his mettle otherwise a new coaching staff will be required. Many lamented the loss of Shaun Edwards, who had turned Wales into one of the best defensive sides in the world before taking up a role with France.
Alun Wyn Jones, who equalled Richie McCaw's record for most test caps in the match, said there were a 'few more gears to go up' for the side after loss on ITV's post-match interview.
"We had a dream start getting that score. We had territory and possession in the second-half but France had us on the counter-attack," he said.
"In these strange times, we're fortunate to take to the field but we need to get better. There's a few more gears to go up."
Wales have a final round clash with Scotland to finish their Six Nations campaign to try and earn back some respect while France will play Ireland in a crucial final round match where bonus points and points differentials could play a part.
Ireland are sitting on 14 competition points, one ahead of both England and France on 13. Eddie Jones' side will play the bottom placed Italy where a bonus point victory is on offer, which would mean Ireland need to do the same against France to maintain first place outright.
If Ireland beat France without a bonus point and England secures theirs, it will come down to the points differential between the two sides. For France to win, they must beat Ireland and better England's result against Italy.
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Mallia deserves 8 at least. Brains and skills for the comeback. Him, Garcia and Albornoz the core of The Pumas attack. Hope to see them in the 15s against France
Go to commentsYeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
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