Wales must avoid any ‘Mazdas’ and get the basics right

A MEMORABLE episode of Only Fools and Horses saw the inimitable Rodney Trotter lament: “I’ve got this horrible feeling that if there’s such a thing as reincarnation, knowing my luck I’ll come back as me.”

At one point in their lives, Ryan Jones, George North and Paul James could have been forgiven for feeling the same way. The two forwards lined up three years’ running in an autumn series game against a Pacific island nation, with North going one better and making it four in a row. The matches were brutal. In 2010, Warren Gatland’s team picked up more bruises than points against Fiji as they were bashed about and forced to settle for a 16-16 draw, but that was a mere pillow fight compared with the outing against Samoa a year later, when Richard Hibbard and Dan Biggar had their senses scrambled by challenges that might have merited the attention of the video ref at the Battle of Hastings.

Making matters worse for the hosts that night, they fell to a 26-19 defeat.

Nor were Tonga exactly playing touch rugby when they visited Cardiff in 2013, a match the home side again found hard going.

What is it with Wales and these November games against so-called lesser opposition?

And it isn’t just island nations who cause problems, with countries such as Georgia and Japan also having troubled Warren Gatland’s men at this time of year.

SECOND-TIER SYNDROME

CALL it second-tier syndrome, perhaps.

Indeed, in eight autumn games against second-tier teams during the Gatland era, Wales have won only two by double-figure points margins.

Sometimes, they have simply made so many changes that continuity has been affected and their lack of depth has been exposed.

That happened against Georgia last year when Gatland kept just one player from the previous week and saw his side labour to a 13-6 win.

On other occasions, opponents have played particularly well, notably Japan when lighting up the Principality Stadium with some brilliant attacking play before succumbing to a late Sam Davies drop-goal which secured Wales a fortunate 33-30 win in 2016.

The challenge has always been to achieve the right balance between resting players and retaining enough 15 ........... Jonah Holmes (Leicester) 14 ............. Liam Williams (Saracens) 13 .............. Tyler Morgan (Dragons) 12 .............. Owen Watkin (Ospreys) 11 ................... Steff Evans (Scarlets) 10 ......... Dan Biggar (Northampton) 9 ................. Tomos Williams (Blues) 1 ..................... Wyn Jones (Scarlets) 2 ...................... Elliot Dee (Dragons) 3 .................. Leon Brown (Dragons) 4 ......................... Jake Ball (Scarlets) 5 .................. Adam Beard (Ospreys) 6 ........ Aaron Wainwright (Dragons) 8 ........................ Seb Davies (Blues) 7 ............. Ellis Jenkins (Blues - capt) Reps: Ryan Elias (Scarlets), Rob Evans (Scarlets), Tomas Francis (Exeter), Cory Hill (Dragons), Ross Moriarty (Dragons), Aled Davies (Ospreys), Rhys Patchell Scarlets), Josh Adams (Worcester)

Referee: Assistant referees: TV match official:

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quality and experience to ensure a good performance.

Sadly for Wales, it has largely been a trick they have been unable to pull off in this slot in the calendar.

Today, they have again made 14 changes.

But let’s see how proceedings unfold.

MOMENTUM AND DEPTH

THE hosts are going into the Test with momentum, having beaten Scotland and Australia after a strong summer tour.

A convincing show against the Tongans would further cement the belief that Wales are developing deeper talent reserves than they’ve had in a while.

A scratchy effort would revive questions about whether Gatland and his coaches really do have adequate cover in every position.

Maybe, then, some would see this match as being a depth-gauging exercise for Wales’s coach.

It should tell him much about where he stands 10 months out from the World Cup.

19TH CENTURY AND ALL THAT

NOT everyone shared in the positivity that abounded after the wins over the Scots and the Wallabies.

Indeed, one newspaper called the 15 .......................... Vungakoto Lilo 14 .......................... Viliami Lolohea 13 ............................... Alaska Taufa 12 ...................... Siale Piutau (capt) 11 ............................. Daniel Kilioni 10 .............................. Kurt Morath 9 ........................ Sonatane Takulua 1 .......................... Siegfried Fisi’ihoi 2 ........................... Paula Ngauamo 3 .................................... Ma’afu Fia 4 .................................... Leva Fifita 5 .................................. Sitiveni Mafi 6 .................................. Dan Faleafa 8 ............................... Sione Vailanu 7 ................................ Fotu Lokotui Reps: Sefo Sakalia, Latu Talakai, Paea Fa’anunu, Onehunga Havili, Mike Faleafa, Leon Fukofuka,

Kali Hala, Atieli Pakalani games “two of the worst Test matches of modern times”, with another suggesting that at times last weekend “we might have been back in the 19th century, 3-3 entering the final quarter”.

Gatland could fire back that international rugby is about results before anything else.

He would be right to do so, but performances also matter and what a fillip it would be for the Kiwi if his shadow team could truly dominate Tonga.

There are incentives all round for individuals to perform, with World Cup squad places very much on the line – maybe even spots against South Africa in next week’s series finale.

But those Welsh players who might be tempted to contemplate the rugby equivalent of flying solo should probably think twice.

For if they are to win without anxiety they need to make full use of their superior preparation and play as a team. Take the field as 15 individuals and, as sure as Saturday comes before Sunday, Tonga will knock them over like skittles.

THE LEGEND OF THE MAZDA

HISTORY confirms, too, that it might be advisable for the home players to operate with a degree of care, given Tonga’s penchant for red-raw physicality. And, just in case anyone is thinking of doing so, it certainly might not be the best idea to take a leaf out of the Welsh playbook from 1987 when Glen Webbe ended up badly concussed in a World Cup match with Tonga after Mark Ring called a ‘Mazda’– the name given to an incredibly complex backline move aimed at winning the try-of-the-tournament award and the prize of a Mazda car.

Webbe later described it, in jest, as a ridiculous ploy, involving five switches and 10 miss-passes. Predictably, it went haywire and the Bridgend wide-man ended up being smashed flush on the jaw by a flying tackle from the Tongan full-back.

In his book ‘Bread of Heaven’, Ieuan Evans recalls: “Glen was in such a bad way after the match that he kept looking round the dressing room, a blankly bemused look on his face.

“The only person he recognised was his close friend, Mark Ring.

“’Hey, Ringo,’ he kept saying. ‘Who are all these people? Where is this place, anyway?’ and then he’d shake his head and mutter: ‘What am I doing here?’

“It was no wonder he didn’t know where he was. He had been hammered by one of the most brutal tackles I have seen on a football field of any description.

“A Tongan Exocet is not at all a pretty sight.

“This bloke flew at him in such a blind fury that he might have taken Webby’s head off. How he was allowed to stay on the field, I shall never know.”

It was little consolation to Webbe that he had scored a hat-trick. He had no recollection of it.

Of course, the modern game has television match officials and citing commissioners but an appetite for hard-hitting, aggressive rugby is close to being enshrined in the genetic code of every male Tongan.

Their perennial challenge is to retain their warrior spirit while staying on the right side of the referee.

BASICS FIRST

FOR Wales, the issue will be to play the game on their terms, building a score and making sure the basics are in place before they try anything too fancy.

Their forwards have to cope with the physicality that will come their way and take charge at the set-pieces while hoping their fitness will tell the longer the match wears on.

Ellis Jenkins has a point to prove after being confined to 20 minutes as a replacement so far in this series,