Duw, Duw, Duw!

Alun Smith

I know, I know, I stuck my neck out when I said Wales could beat Argentina and set myself up for a bit of a fall. I also put a lot of caveats into my prediction mind. Silly old Alun isn’t that silly.

I’m bitterly disappointed, of course. Not just about the result but for the team and for the coaches, and for those Welsh fans who, like me, had been led to believe that a corner had been turned during the previous three outings.

I still think it has been. It’s just that we’ve turned a corner and been presented with another mountain.

I’m also disappointed that Wales’ performance has allowed this mentality of ‘just-in-case’ melancholy to resurface. That darkened corner of the room where safety is found in the guise of acceptance, for a certain breed of fan.

Their particular brand of gloomy bias has now been confirmed. Having dragged that emo-esque tribe into the light against Italy and Fiji, they’ve now scurried back into the shadows, muttering ‘yeah well, we never win, sack the coach, sack the players, sack the WRU, sack everyone, sack me, sack you, I didn’t ask to be born, I hate the world’. Yeah, those guys.

The score against Argentina in the autumn of last year was 28-52. That was on home soil, with a brand new coach, with only half a backroom to lean on. They beat us this time by 14, at altitude, in their own backyard. And yes, our defence coach is new and Lydiate wasn’t in the building. Money, apparently. So, to say there’s been no progress at all is for the birds.

There definitely has been progress. We just bettered the Argentine scrum for goodness sake. Truly, we did. If your scrum is better than Argentina’s, you’re doing ok in that department.

Ironically, that’s where the issue is. Some are saying we were on the back foot and that’s why Costelow and Williams played badly. I disagree.

We had half of the possession. The difference is what we did with it. Where Wales did go backwards on Saturday (aside from the collisions), was that they inexplicably reverted to a kicking game that simply doesn’t work for them.

It was one of my caveats pre-game. Kick well and intelligently. They did neither. Either you kick to compete or you kick for territory, or you don’t kick. Wales kicked somewhere in the middle and consistently gave Argentina front foot ball. I thought we’d left that tactic behind, such that it is.

My other pre-game caveats were 1) Front up- well, we did in the scrum and the rucks but didn’t in the loose. We were hanging off tackles and when we didn’t miss completely they weren’t dominant enough. We can’t blame Peter Murchie though, he’s only been there five minutes. 2) Belief. They didn’t believe, that’s why they didn’t try anything through the backs. I do blame Sherratt for that. He’s been there long enough now.

We are going to lose against SouthAfrica. Everyone loses against South Africa, whether it’s their first or second team. That is why beating Argentina was vital to give us go-forward for the autumn installment of the competition. It’s not going to get any easier, we’ve got the All-Blacks and a resurgent Australia to contend with. A win against Japan is not enough.

Progression

Whilst a win against Argentina would have represented solid progression under Tandyism, that chance has now been lost. A win against the Boks and we’ll have to put him on crucifixion watch. It won’t happen though.

No, success next Saturday will be easy to measure. I’ll be looking for the score to be kept to a twenty point gap, for Wales to put some attack moves together and for the set-pieces to continue to function as admirably as they have been.

Do that and Wales can comfortable say they’re half-way up their latest mountain.

Their Everest isn’t until next year. There’s time.