What Wales coach Wayne Pivac can learn from the world champions

Wales should follow South Africa and ditch the rule that players outside Wales cannot play. I do not think that SA would have won if they had not picked “away players”, which was a condition that Erasmus insisted on before accepting the coaching job. We have four regions, none of whom are setting the world alight, so the more players we can get into the English Premiership will only benefit the Welsh team.

Kraken

Wales wanted to be in an “arm wrestle” with South Africa, and we had parity. I certainly wouldn’t say they physically dominated us like they did England. Our defence, for whatever reason, was far too passive this world cup which is a massive shame considering the amount of times we’ve totally shut teams down in the last 18 months including South Africa and Australia. Power was not our undoing against South Africa it was our inability to be positive with ball in hand and stretch them, like we did at times in first half. rooster1985

Where do you think Rhys Carre is going to learn the most, Saracens, from playing alongside high quality international props, or by staying in Wales at Cardiff Blues?

Handmedownred

Wales’s defence is rightly being called out. It was appalling. Not sure why, but I suspect it’s mental rather than technical. The Tomas Francis injury was a case in point from a kick-off why was a 20 stone prop the first man there? And that wasn’t a one-off incident, kick chases were poor throughout the world cup.

Muscovite

Given that as individuals the talent was a long way down on the 2011 team, Wales did a great job. I think the only player in the current team who would have made that team other than Alun Wyn and George North is possibly Liam Williams. There were some strange selections, such as Rob Evans and Samson Lee, but I couldn’t figure why the best defensive 6 in Wales, Dan Lydiate, did not make the training squad. Missing tackles is only part of the problem, making a tackle when you are a forward and being driven backwards is almost as bad.

Eborr