ALUN WYN TO FIGHT FOR TEST PLACE
WARREN Gatland delivered a clean bill of health on Alun Wyn Jones after the British and Irish Lions captain made a successful comeback in a 49-3 victory over the Stormers in Cape Town.
Three weeks after dislocating his shoulder against Japan at Murrayfield, Jones played 27 minutes as a second-half replacement to complete what Gatland described as a “miracle recovery”.
The Lions’ forward talisman made seven tackles and gained four metres from five carries to give his shoulder a solid test seven days before the series against South Africa begins.
Now officially reinstated as skipper with Conor Murray stepping aside, Gatland must decide if he is ready to face the world champions.
“Alun got a few shots on and defended well. There were a couple of touches in there as well,” the Lions head coach said.
“The big thing for him was to get through that period and see how he was afterwards. I haven’t really had a chat with him but he wasn’t out there for a long time. We just wanted to see how the lungs were.
“I know how hard he has worked over the last year or so, he was desperate to make the Lions.
“In 2017 he probably wasn’t at his best but has really been exceptional in the way he has prepared for this tour.
“It was a shame he picked up the injury but it’s great to have him back. We’ll have that discussion about whether there’s a role for him as a starter, bench player, or if he’s not involved next weekend.”
Luke Cowan-Dickie emerged as the star performer at Cape Town to advance his Test claims at hooker and he now has a real chance of edging Jamie George and Ken Owens for the number two jersey.
But also firmly in contention after impressing during the seven-try rout of the Stormers is Marcus Smith, the 22-year-old who was making his Lions debut only a fortnight after winning his first cap for England.
Smith arrived into camp on Monday as injury cover for Finn Russell but could now be involved in the 23 against the Springboks.
“The longer the game went on the better Marcus Smith looked and he became more comfortable out there,” Gatland said.
“We’ll have a look through the game again but he looked good and had some lovely touches.
“He kicked well and kicked for goal well. I thought he defended well.
“For a guy who has only had one training session and has been here for only five days, it was good.
“He will be part of the discussions, there’s no doubt about that.
“He’s like everyone though. A lot of people have put their hands up.
“In fairness to the Stormers, they came out and had a real go at us in that first 20 odd minutes and we had to weather a storm.
“There were some really good performances. Luke was good, the second rows played well.
“There was some good stuff from the back row. Duhan Van Der Merwe was strong on the wing too.”
WHEN Wayne Pivac slides back in his armchair to assess where things went wrong in Wales’ disappointing 33-11 defeat to Argentina, the viewing will not be pleasant.
Yes, this was a Wales team bereft of experience and familiarity, but those excuses will only carry the can so far for the level of performance.
Yes, the temperature at pitchside was a balmy 46 degrees C but that excuse will only hold so much water because, as the old adage goes, it was the same for both teams. Pivac, to his credit, acknowledged as much.
With that in mind, the Wales boss has no choice but to dissect the performance with the scrutiny that he would any other.
This, in large part, was an exercise to discover just how much depth Wales have across the board. In Pivac’s estimations, there were 27 players absent through injury and Lions selection.
What he learned, in his own words, is that they were “exposed” in certain positions.
The top-line stats do not make for easy reading. There were 11 knockons and six more turnovers. They conceded 13 penalties – the target will always be single figures – and did not complete one offload, which has been a staple of Wales under Pivac.
The manner of the penalties and the handling errors will be what frustrates the most. Argentina were well worth their victory but, in many ways, this young Welsh side wrote the book on how to lose a Test match.
CRUCIAL KNOCK-ONS
WALES got off to a good start, crossing for an impressive try after a sweeping move which sent Owen Lane over in the corner.
Then came the coach’s nightmare. Josh Turnbull gathered the restart and then it was spilled as he was tackled to the ground. That gave Argentina cheap entry into the Welsh 22 and resulted in Matias Moroni’s try. Los Pumas hit the front and never looked back.
Soon after, though, Pivac’s side worked another opening which saw Tommy Rogers, earning his second cap, end up in space on the near side. Hallam Amos threw a well-timed, accurate pass but Rogers dropped it with nothing but grass in front of him.
A real chance went begging.
On the stroke of half-time, another sitter went down when Amos attempted to field a bouncing ball with no Argentina player within 15 metres of him. It bounced straight through his arms and the exasperation in the stadium was palpable.
During the final quarter, with Wales chasing the game, they simply couldn’t get the passes to stick and it prevented them from getting any sort of foothold in the game.
After the match, Pivac insisted that the “extreme” conditions made the ball particularly sweaty. But Argentina had to play with the same one and didn’t struggle as much.
“Against a team like this, you have to take your opportunities when they present themselves”, Pivac bemoaned.
“We dropped the ball cold when we created a nice break in the first half. We had our moments but we were our own worst enemies.”
BAD DECISIONS
PIVAC’S side made it difficult from the start. Looking to launch a counter-attack in the fifth minute, Rogers sliced his up-and-under horribly into the middle of the field.
He couldn’t reclaim it and, instead, Argentina moved fairly freely
up the far side of the pitch. The pressure eked out one of the many penalties but, on that occasion, Nicolas Sanchez would not make them pay.
They were very much made to pay, though, when Jarrod Evans got caught in three minds in the 25th minute.
Fielding a kick in behind, he thought about the kick and the pass to a team-mate before eventually being caught in possession by Moroni.
He got tackled and lost possession of the ball, which would have led directly to an Argentina try if referee Luke Pearce hadn’t wrongly called play back for an Argentina knock-on that never was.
Making up for his error, Pearce awarded a scrum to Mario Ledesma’s side and they then crossed through scrum-half Tomas Cubelli. Another try from Welsh mistakes.
SET-PIECE CRUMBLES
THE scrum became a bit of an issue throughout the afternoon. Ledesma’s mob had plenty of joy at the set piece and it gave Sanchez opportunities to either drill his side into position or keep the scoreboard ticking over.
There was also a crucial lineout lost in the first half.
Evans had kicked Wales to within nine points as half-time approached and then they were given an enticing attacking position deep in the 22.
But the lineout was overthrown and the chance went begging. Whether it was a bad throw or a bad lift, it mattered little.
Argentina cleared and Amos fumbled it. A major chance to turn the screw went begging.
DISCIPLINE ISSUES
MIDWAY through the second half, with Wales trailing by nine points, their chances of completing a comeback were dashed.
Amos sent the ball skyward and tried to complete one of his trademark chip-and-chases. With his eyes on the ball, he ran into Cubelli, lost balance and then clattered into Santiago Carreras, who had risen to claim the high ball.
There could be few arguments with
the yellow card that was shown and Wales were down a man, making that mountain a little bit steeper.
Minutes later, an over-enthusiastic Taine Basham, fresh off the bench, tackled Carreras late after he cleared the ball.
A penalty was awarded some 60 metres up the field, where the ball landed, and Argentina kicked themselves another three points ahead. Game over.
“When it’s a system error, we’ll look at it internally,” said Pivac. “Some of it was just over-exuberance by someone trying to make an impact.
“Taine’s late charge, those sorts of things.
!You put that down to a young man who’s gone out there with an opportunity and he’s full of excitement.
“Those are learnings for those players because you can’t afford that in a Six Nations match or an autumn match.”
More penalties in the final 10 minutes were directly responsible for Argentina’s final 10 points. Three of them came from Sanchez’s boot, while the other came after he was able to put them five metres out from the Welsh line and Pablo Matera crashed over.
THE CONTEXT
TO put the defeat in context, you cannot simply gloss over the fact that this was a young, experimental Wales side.
They were also at the end of the longest of seasons, while Argentina came fully loaded and preparing for their latest assault on the Rugby Championship.
These were two teams at very different stages of their seasons.
The game was also framed very differently for both sides. Wales were looking to see what their wider squad players were able to do against stern opposition. Argentina were looking for a tune-up before their international calendar really gets going.
Both will have got what they wanted out of the match in some ways.
From a Welsh perspective, they did not win but Pivac has been left in no doubt as to just how deep his squad is, and just how much quality he has at his disposal.
But despite that, more can fairly be expected of the players that took the field.
Not many in red jerseys played to their potential and that is what will hurt the most.
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