Posted by There’s nothing quite like winning. Performances can be attractive, they can be brave, they can be dominant, but ultimately winning is the aim no matter how it comes.
For Cymru on Saturday it certainly wasn’t pretty, nor was it even close to convincing, but it was a hugely important victory. And after the last two years of hardly winning anything, there’s no chance that any Welsh person should be turning their nose up at a victory.
It is difficult not to acknowledge the mark of how far Welsh rugby has fallen. From using games against the likes of Japan, respectfully, as an opportunity to rest and rotate before facing major Southern Hemisphere opposition, to having to go fully loaded into a must-win game against the Cherry Blossoms in order to avoid a nightmare Rugby World Cup draw.
That’s where the Welsh Rugby Union have led the game in this country though, and it seemed the pressure on this fixture in terms of the pool stage draw and the opportunity to win a first home game in over two years was weighing heavily upon the players as they battled through a first half of largely rearguard action despite having a man or two advantage for periods.
The defence and scrum were solid, and there were moments of individual brilliance, but ultimately an extremely shaky lineout, an aerial game that was better than the previous week’s loss to Argentina but still not at the level required, and an attack that coughed up too much ball and is still looking clunky failed to put Cymru in the driving seat.
Not much of that was put right during the second half, at least until the final two minutes when bizarrely under the most extreme of pressure the attack did seem to spring into life to twice drag the hosts out of their own 22 and up the field in a bid to overturn a two-point deficit, but what allowed them that opportunity to fight for the win was a different team spirit than we’ve seen for a number of years.
Noises coming out of the national team camp at The Vale Resort, on and notably off the record, have been extremely positive since Steve Tandy and his coaching ticket arrived. A world of difference from previous regimes with a new training schedule, the separating of work and social space, and much clearer and more detailed messaging.
With a younger nucleus of players eager to learn and improve, the staff appear to have helped foster a much better environment around the squad, with the translation on the field seeming to be a willingness to fight and a belief that they can make something happen rather than not being equipped with the necessary tools in key moments.
Winning in the summer will certainly have aided that, and winning again on Saturday is another small step in the recovery of Cymru, even if the performance was well below the necessary level to compete at the top. The hope will be that learning to win is followed by gelling tactically and catching up to Italy and Scotland in the Six Nations.
First though the unenviable challenges of the All Blacks and the Springboks await, the latter of which comes outside the test window and without the assistance of players based in England and France. Money spinners for the WRU, perhaps, but wholly inappropriate from a rugby perspective as Tandy looks to build something from a very low base.
It won’t prevent it, but it’s still worth saying that there is no point overreacting to the next two weeks. Cymru will almost certainly be on the receiving end of heavy defeats; it won’t be a reflection of the quality of the coaching, and it won’t be a reflection of where the players can develop towards. They have been put in an impossible situation by the governing body.
The only hope is that with absolutely no pressure on them that they can go and produce periods of play that allow themselves and supporters to retain hope in the wider project of taking the national team to the 2027 Rugby World Cup as a somewhat competitive force. Whether that’s in keeping the opposition’s score to a respectable level or putting a good number of points on the board ourselves.
It’s another chapter in this story state of affairs for Welsh rugby, and with the WRU set to use the money raised to continue to push through a crazy new system of control over the professional game in Wales there’s no obvious sign of the book coming to a close at this point.
Cardiff Rugby Life 