I think that history was made last night by the underdogs - it was first time in RWC history that the 3rd ranked team in a group secured a bonus point win over the top ranked team in the group…..
SA showing their class. Scots looked decent and solid in defence, yet the Boks won comfortably in the end. Strange how that head collision was missed, that's arguably worse than the red Curry got for England.
Brutal game. Fair play to Wales, brilliant result and that dogged defending and fitness was Gats all over. He wasn't happy with the "dumb decisions" made in the last 15 though! Could easily have blown that - again What an exhausting watch! The Aus v Fiji game is going to be epic.
The ref missed loads to be fair. Also Wales should have been yellowed for constant penalties that second half. It's a tough job! Swings and roundabouts.
The ref was awful for both sides. As well as the hit on Rowlands shown above: There were 2 incidents in the first half (I think) when the Fiji number 8 leant over the breakdown, one metre from his line, then seesawed to put his hands on the ball on our side, with his feet in the air right in front of Carley. He then proceeded to do the same at the next breakdown, nothing given on either occasion. The Fiji yellow for collapsing the maul was nailed on, and given the forward speed and momentum of the maul, why wasn’t it given as a penalty try? As for the clout to the jaw for Cawdor (Gareth Davies) that tackle could have been a yellow by the current (debatable) standards. The ruck on our 5m line with Fiji in possession late in that second half was a corker too, a Fijian sprinted in at 45 degrees off his feet and ploughs into a player on the other corner of the ruck right in front of the ref, again, nothing given.
Lot of whinging (England fans mainly I suspect) about how the ref won the game for Wales But then... That was an oversight and we would have really been out of sight on the scoreboard then, with no coming back for Fiji.
The problem is that the ‘accepted’ narrative in much of the media - especially social media - is that Fiji was hard done by and that Wales received favourable treatment …… the risk going forward is that refs will treat us harshly to ‘even things up
Here is one view of Carley's performance https://www.rugbypass.com/news/ref-watch-in-defence-of-matthew-carley/
Hats off to Uruguay, great effort Oh, what might have been! A little unlucky really and the scoreboard wasn't representative. I'm getting confused by these red card decisions. That looked like a straight red to me, I'm struggling to see the mitigating circumstances. Curry's was a yellow only for me, there seems to be a lack of consistency.
Wait until we play next - referees will want to prove that there is no bias/favouritism towards Wales: expect yellow cards aplenty until we are knocked out
It's a possibility alright but I'm more worried about a similar game to last night - we put out a greatly changed side who struggle to overcome Portugal. And let's be honest, we need a bonus point win as anything could happen in our group now!
We all saw how we dropped down a level or two when Gatland introduced the bench against Fiji. That said, in theory, Portugal are no Fiji, and Anscombe is an ‘old head’ at fly half - although I’m not, as yet, convinced by either of the 2 centres
NZ looked quite slick last night, although Namibia were awful. Fingers crossed today Cymru, need that bonus point!
