What a shambles

To reverse engineer Churchill, I'd like to begin by saying "Never have so few, disappointed so many for so long."

To say it was one of those games is to suggest that 'one of those games' happens on a regular basis. Five or six years ago you'd certainly have been justified in that suggestion, but today -- with 'new Wales', I''l be honest I never thought I'd see us in a bad game for the next couple of seasons. The 18-18 draw was in my opinion worse than the Ireland game. There at least we could pinpoint where it went wrong and what we needed to put right. Against Italy we had all the personnel we were able to play, on the field. Despite that Wales still managed to put together one of the most abject second half performances of recent memory. Where do you begin? With the countless errors? With the obvious difference not having Peel or Cooper makes to the team? On our lack of leadership? All of these are very important questions but let's begin with the forward effort.

Under Mike Ruddock Wales looked a decent pack. This isn't me forgetting what I've said previously and waving the 'Come back Mike, all is forgiven' banner. Not at all. What it is, is a statement that Ruddock is a very good forwards coach with bags of experience. Robin McBryde has only just finished his playing career and has zero coaching nouse or experience. This can only explain part of the reason why our forwards reverted to their shambolic worst. Michael Owen has to shoulder part of that blame, for a supposedly intelligent footballer with all the skills, his vision let him down today. Everybody who knows rugby knew that in the first twenty minutes the Welsh pack needed to lay down a marker, commit the Italians with lineout drives, strong carries and some serious contact at the breakdown. Allow the Italian defense to fan out and adopt their patterns, and it was always going to be a long game, which it proved to be. So what do we do? Off-the-top lineout ball (surely there was someone in the pack who saw we needed to change it up), almost no drives, forwards standing static in the backline and minimal commitment to the breakdown. Am I being harsh? No I don't think so.

The Welsh team and their style have been found out this season because we have not committed enough opposition players to the tackle or breakdown situation, close to the ball, so there is space and gaps out wide for our backs to play in unhindered. Teams have stood off us, assessed where the runners are coming from and allowed us to play in front of them. Yes we are missing Ryan Jones, Brent Cockbain and Dafydd Jones but are they the only strong ball carriers in the whole of Welsh rugby. Not by a long shot. So why then was it deemed necessary to go with a backrow of Owen, Colin Charvis and Martin Williams? A spoiler, a footballer and a bits-and-pieces man. Why didn't Popham start? Where was Gareth Delve? I understand loyalty and I understand the need to make amends for the Irish performance, but sometimes changes help and are required. Not as a punishment, but as a means of freshening things up and giving everyone involved some time to recharge. Let's be honest even before the Italy game, the Six Nations had gone. The World Cup is a year away and there aren't going to be a lot of competitve international matches for Wales between then and now, so it was ideal to give Delve a run out, give Popham a run out - they are form players who need to gel in the set-up for the World Cup should we experience the number of injuries we did post-Lions.

Talking of the Lions, Michael Owen was found out on that tour by the New Zealand sides. In the land of the long white cloud they do not tolerate shirkers or those afraid of the contact situation, Michael Owen is. How many times have you seen him in a maul/ruck turning ball over? How many Jason White style bone-jarring tackles have you seen him make? I watched the game with one eye on Michael Owen today and I'm sorry but he genuinely does not want to know. Just resting at scrum and maul time, he stands on the edge of rucks supposedly sorting out the defensive line and doesn't play both sides of the ball as the Americans like to say. When he did get involved one of the Italian prop forwards took offence and came after Owen for a 'little chat'. Michael Owen needless to say didn't want to know. Now it's all very well saying what a great footballer he is etc but the No 8 has a role to play; he should anchor the scrum, carry the ball well, sweep up behind his flankers and make big tackles. That is the bread and butter of a Number 8. Pick any great one, even true footballers like Zinzan Brooke, and that is what they do. Michael Owen doesn't. He also isn't a great captain. With the momentum of the first two games of last year behind him, he looked great deputising for Gareth Thomas. I could have captained that team successfully. However when the going isn't as comfortable, when our rugby isn't that fluid, then Michael Owen has gone into his shell. In this Italy game, he should have told his forwards to carry the ball more at the heart of the Italians. On the fringes they were weak and balls coming back on the inside were reaping some great rewards. Towards the end of the game we should have been playing for territory. The Italians live off mistakes, they are not going to run the ball 80/90 metres of their own backs very often. We should have nailed them down there and applied the pressure. At the end it was blatantly clear that Stephen Jones was the one the players were looking toward for inspiration and direction. Until Ryan Jones returns, Michael Owen's place needs to be seriously considered, especially his role as captain.

As I mentioned at the start there were other reasons why Wales played so poorly. For starters we dropped a lot of ball, basic errors both handling and at set-piece made the game stop-start, playing straight into Italian hands. Their slower forwards got regular breaks, their defence was allowed to constantly realign and reset, plus we never managed to apply consistent pressure. There was always a release valve for them. Secondly, boy do we struggle without our first choice half-backs. Dwayne Peel left the field and our pace slowed right down. Unfortunately for Mike Phillips he is the wrong type of player for this Welsh style at the moment, he is too combative and gets sucked into the wrong places with the ball. With Peel and similarly Cooper's service, Stephen Jones seems to have more time on the ball. Another factor against Mike Phillips is that he does not boss forward packs, I counted several occasions where Colin Charvis or another forward got to the ruck and picked it up looking to pass to Stephen Jones. With Dwayne Peel they know to leave the ball, with Phillips they looked unsure and it needed him to stamp his authority on that aspect of the game. Combine these issues with no Gareth Thomas as figure head, leader and talismanic icon for the team, plus muffled performances by Mark Jones and especially Shane Williams in breaking the game open, and you get a shoddy 18-18 all draw.

I'm going to leave it at that for now as it's late, I'm sobering up and my fingers are tired but undoubtedly there will be more to say after I've seen the game again. I'm also going to try and avoid mentioning the Ireland vs Scotland game as if ever two teams needed passing lessons more urgently than Wales and Italy, it was Ireland and Scotland. Watching Jason White mash people was awesome but watching Ronan O'Gara puts me to sleep, what they wouldn't give for a Stephen Jones. Finally 'Vive le France.' Having had the Grandslam dream wiped away in the Scottish mud, it'd be nice to see some gallic flair put England's Six Nations hope to the sword.