My god what a game, so tense and exciting, those last few moments I was on the edge of the seat and I apologise to all my Welsh friends but I was rooting for the men in blue.
Samoa stated that they will be playing for the souls of the deceased from the tsunami, and they seriously did their nation proud this evening in front of an impressive 58,900 crowd. While the sun had set in Cardiff it was just rising in Samoa as a nation born and bread for rugby woke up to see the Samoan team, who only come together four days ago, give Wales a scare nine years after their last fixture.
It was expected to be a physical encounter. And to describe this game as a physical encounter is an understatement. Henry Tuilagi laid down the law within the first minute running straight into Gethin Jenkins and Alun Wyn Jones, leaving quite literally a crater in the earth.
Moments later a late challenge on Dwayne Peel by Lolo Lui left the Sale Sharks scrum half in a daze for a few moments. And it didn’t stop their Tuilagi was a man on a mission throughout the whole game, to top is previous tackle with an even bigger hit!
The Samoans played with real fire and provided a great source of entertainment for a neutral fan.
Wales however, well that is just a different story. They started very strongly, Dan Biggar introduced himself to the international rugby stage with a pin point accurate cross filed kick, which found Leigh Halfpenny who crossed over for his fifth Welsh try, this happened moments after Biggar put the home team 3-0 ahead.
However signs of Wales’ inconsistency shown last week began to creep in again. A few of their early attacks were ended due to lack of discipline and precision at the break down.
Wales did though; defend brilliantly against such a physical opponent. Let’s be fair if all 17 stone of Henry Tuilagi runs at you on your own, chances are, you will come off second best. Therefore Wales committed two men to one attacker, which ensured that the Samoans could be stopped easier without making too much ground. One player would take the legs while another would wrap around so the option of an offload was impossible, therefore slowing the Samoans game down and putting Wales in control.
The Samoan’s tactical kicking wasn’t up to scratch and it allowed Wales, specifically James Hook to counter attack easily as the defensive line was almost none existent.
And this is where the problem lays, Wales dominated the game. On the day, Wales were the better team, they had the majority of possession and the majority of territory. However they didn’t take their chances. Hook had a number of breaks as well as Warburton, but something would always bring the attacking phases to an end, either a turnover, a knock on, or poor discipline.
It’s something Wales needs to look at. All that needs to be tweaked is their precision, and possibly a slight element of luck. If that last pass is made, or if the last pass is caught, it’s a guaranteed score, but that’s just not happening at the moment.
Samoa had two players sin binned, therefore Wales were playing against 14 men for a quarter of the game. During the second sin binning (H. Tuilagi) Seilala Mapusua managed to score an interception try, and I was off my seat cheering him on.
After this interception, in a point in the game where the match should have been put to bed and where Wales should have been fairly in control, the panic buttons where frantically being pushed.
Wales were playing at 100 mph and where making the wrong decisions, they seemed to panic in attack in the last quarter. It seemed to me they didn’t know what to do with the ball as they looked up and seen blue jerseys wanting to slice them in two.
Wales discipline could have cost them the game. However, Samoa missed a penalty that would have brought them within a point. Wales had completely lost all their composure toward the end of the game.
Samoa’s golden opportunity came when Mapusua grubber kicked the ball into space which just dribbled into touch. Three or four inches to the left, and Samoa would have been victors.
Although this wasn’t a great performance by Wales, we have to remember it what a young side that was fielded, 1/3 of the team that played the All Blacks was missing. Debutants like Biggar, Warburton and Jonathon Davies can learn from this game and this ‘victory’ will develop them into better players.
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