TOP OF THE DROPS
Kicking masterclass by Biggar and Patchell proves the difference
THAT was an exceptional Wales win yesterday full of promise and potential for even bigger challenges ahead but now the team and the Welsh rugby nation must keep their feet on the ground.
Wales are in control of their pool and looking at a quarter-final against the runner-up of England’s pool and whoever that is will have lost once in the next two weeks and be a little vulnerable.
It would be very easy to start looking too far ahead. What Wales must do is have a couple of complete down days and then really put the foot to the pedal in training, because how they use the next two games is important. They must not do anything to slow the snowball that is beginning to roll. No distractions.
And after the 2007 World Cup — when Fiji beat Wales by lulling them into an extraordinary, chaotic game of 15-a-side sevens — they will know that the Fijians, up next, could still be very tricky.
Fiji can only salvage their World Cup by beating Wales and if they play like they did for the first 50 minutes against Australia that is not totally impossible. They rested too many key players when losing against Uruguay last week and clearly, as a squad, weren’t at the races mentally, but Wales will know that won’t be the case in Oita on October 9.
There are two aspects of the Wales win yesterday that need highlighting: their dropped goals and Gareth Davies’s brilliant interception try.
I never fail to speak in praise of dropped goals because they invariably play a role in winning big rugby matches and the six points that Dan Biggar and then Rhys Patchell garnered yesterday were the difference between Wales winning and losing.
Drop-kicks are almost points for free. You can accumulate them with almost the first kick of the game, which is what Biggar did, or just after half-time, as Patchell chose to do, without the opposition really feeling their effect.
If a goal-kicker lands a 60-yard penalty that seems really important but it is worth no more points than if the same kicker pops over a dropped goal from 20 yards in front of the posts.
And then we have the Gareth Davies interception try, not to mention the other two occasions when he came within an ace of repeating it.
This is a fantastic ploy which you can perfect in training. It can come into play anywhere on the park but can be really devastating when your scrum- half picks off the passes of a fellow scrum-half from set- piece possession or slow second-phase possession.
What you need is a scrum-half with serious wheels and a great natural anticipation for what passes to make a play for. Davies is just such a player. He looks as quick as anyone in the Welsh back division and if the ploy comes off he has the long-range speed to finish it off.
But you need to be organised. Exploding out of the blocks looking for those interceptions is not without its risks. It leaves a gaping hole in your defensive line and colleagues must step in accordingly. This comes with practice and instinct — those players around Davies either know or sense when he is about to go for broke.
The other factor for Davies is if you drop too many attempted interceptions and only manage to get one hand to them, when it doesn’t quite come off you run the risk of a yellow card for a deliberate slap- down. So it’s a proper skill to work on. Even though you might be tempted to stretch and catch with one hand, always use two because then you shouldn’t get penalised if you fail.
And eventually what happens is that, as with Davies, you get the reputation of being an archpoacher, a brilliant interceptor and that should earn you the benefit of the doubt if it’s close.