Posted by Cymru have won back-to-back test matches for the first time since the 2023 Rugby World Cup pool stages. That is the headline from Saturday’s opening game of the Nations Championship from the Cardiff City Stadium.
A lot has been made post-match about Fiji’s attacking statistics, some of the under par elements of the performance from Steve Tandy’s men, and whether a win over the Pacific Islanders should be celebrated, but this piece will be a far more optimistic view of the proceedings from Leckwith and the context around them.
Dan Biggar said it best in ITV’s post-match coverage when he explained that “Wales aren’t competing with (the top sides), Wales are competing against Italy, Wales are competing against Fiji, and the last two test matches they’ve played against them they’ve had really good results and performances”.
Additionally it’s worth adding that Fiji are no pushovers and Cymru beating them by 15 points is an unusually large margin. Even the side at the peak of its powers at the 2019 Rugby World Cup only won by 12 points while the away team were of course victorious at the Millennium Stadium in the 2024 Autumn Internationals.
The Flying Fijians coming into this game were probably the best they’ve been in the professional era, with the likes of Semi Radradra and Jiuta Wainiqolo being genuine superstars, while Pita Gus Sowakula, Josua Tuisova, Selestina Ravutaumada and Salesi Rayasi are all at Top14 sides and the underbelly of the squad is now getting regular top level rugby with the Drua in Super Rugby.
They have experienced steady improvement of infrastructure around the national side too and were certainly confident of performing, as seen during the first quarter of the game where their fluid attack, incredible offloading and general pace and dynamism were sumptuous. It looked almost impossible to deal with.
And yet Cymru did deal with it. The tackle height was adjusted to try and prevent the offloads, the breakdown was targeted to slow down the opposition and steal some ball, the set piece became a focus as the pack got the upper hand at the maul and scrum, and on the whole there was no obvious panic at the onslaught they suffered early on.
Do the defensive stats make particularly pretty reading? No, of course not, but against Fiji they rarely do. Did the backs fire in any attacking manner? No, they seemed somewhat nervous about the physicality and line speed the “hosts” brought, as well as the threat of conceding a turnover against the best counter attackers around.
That spread into the kicking game too where the reward of getting field position and an attacking opportunity was outweighed by the fear of kicking long and the Fijians just cutting the chase apart on transition. Test match rugby is just about winning though, and Cymru put in a very good needs-must performance.
A try margin of 3-6, and more importantly a points margin of 24-39 with six points left on the tee, is all that really matters and straight away gives Steve Tandy’s side a great base from which to head on to the multi-continent tour they now embark on.
There will be improvements needed to that attack next week as Argentina await in San Juan after Scotland laid the blueprint for winning in South America thanks to an accurate, pacey and varied attack which pushed and pulled the hosts to breaking point. But for two late consolation tries it would have been a hammering by the Scots.
The question for Tandy, in conjunction with Matt Sherratt, is whether Dan Edwards is the right man to drive the side around the field from fly-half. The Ospreys man is developing a bit of a habit of starting test windows slowly, possibly linked to the struggles of the team as a whole, but also maybe due to the very different tactics that the Cymru attack utilise compared to his club side.
There’s no doubt he remains a very talented player, and at a recently turned 23-years-old he has so much growth ahead of him, but Sam Costelow just feels a more natural fit for what Sherratt is trying to achieve with this attack as well as seemingly being more on Tomos Williams’ wavelength and having a Scarlets link with Joe Hawkins and Eddie James outside him.
Either way, Saturday will prove an interesting test of where this Cymru side really is in the quest to jump from competing with Fiji and Italy, to pushing Argentina, Scotland and Australia in that next bracket of tier one teams.
There’s no pressure on a result, but some 14 months out from the next edition of the Rugby World Cup it would be positive to see a closing of that gap on the sides that the men in red will hopefully meet in the knockout stages Down Under. Ymlaen!
Cardiff Rugby Life 