Wales knocked out by Wallabies, and the Pumas are on the prowl

Australia turned up to the Principality Stadium, Wales took another hour to arrive. It was a dismal performance both defensively and offensively from Wales. Giving possession away far too easily, lack of conviction in the attack, and total disorganisation in defence.

I'm not going to go over the events of the match, but in a nutshell Australia should have been home and dry before half time and only a little bit of rustiness prevented Wales from being beaten to a pulp by the break. The second half was a more even affair, but Wales still rarely threatened the Australian defence, and only scored a try from a piece of magic from Scott Williams. So where did it go wrong for Wales, and what positives can be taken?

Wales well resoundingly beaten by Australia last weekend. (Huw Evans Photography)

Positives

We'll look at the positives first, and in reality it was the performance of a few players that is all the Welsh public is taking from the game. Three players in particular had note worthy performances. Justin Tipuric was handled expertly by the Australians in terms of the breakdown battle, although that isn't anything that was strictly his fault. He really came to the fore when Wales opened up a little bit, his handling skills, support lines and comfort outside clearly showed how important he could be to Wales should they adopt an expansive game plan.

Moriarty was a shining light for Wales.

From the bench Hallam Amos brought a level of excitement and enterprise to a Wales team that had been ponderous and predictable all game. In some newspapers his lack of pace has been a subject of much debate, saying he would have scored a try near the end if he'd be a little quicker. Which I feel it wholly unfair, given it was a stupendous covering tackle from Nick Phipps. Hallam Amos brings a youthful exuberance, intelligence and ingenuity to a backline that has become worryingly predictable in recent months. Sadly he has been ruled out of the remainder of the Autumn Internationals, which
means the other wingers will have to step up.

Wales' best player on the day was Ross Moriarty, the Gloucester player continued his level of performance from the summer tour, filling in for the injured Talupe Faletau. Moriarty provided Wales with front foot ball every time he took the ball on, thundering into tackles to stop Australian momentum at key times. In fact at times he looked like the only Welsh player who wanted to be there, utterly dedicated in covering the pitch and having as much impact as he could. Based on his last few performances in the red shirt, I would argue for his inclusion to a new look Welsh back-row: alongside Tipuric and Faletau.

Negatives

Now for the hard part. the areas that went badly wrong for Howley and his players.

Set Piece

Wales struggled to compete at the lineout, unable to secure they're own ball on multiple occasions and giving Australia an armchair ride in attack. For the first half an hour Wales were unable to have any sort of meaningful possession or dictate where the game was played, and it was the leading cause of Australia's dominant first half.

Owens struggled at the lineout.

It isn't the first time this has been an issue for Wales, they struggled in New Zealand too. In fact the coaching staff seem to have a selection dilema when it comes to hooker in this position. The current first choice - Ken Owens - has been struggling for a while to hit his jumpers and secure clean ball for the half backs, but is a brilliant player around the park with effective carries and a neat pair of hands too. The other option is Scott Baldwin, the Osprey, much more your classic hooker. Effective in the tight carries but not spectacular, and has good percentages at the set piece. Howley - and forwards coach McBride - may have a longer term decision to make if problems persist at the set piece.

The scrum too was inconsistent, at times it looked like a real weapon again, at others times it fell apart in impressive style. Samson Lee is starting to look like the sort of player that looked like the long term replacement of Adam Jones again.

Unorganised Defence

Probably the most obvious thing through the game was the total disarray in which Wales took to the field. Beaten easily again and again by the masterful Bernard Foley. We will give credit to Australia here for being simply amazing with their ruck play, their decoy runners, and their offloading. However they weren't given much of a challenge at times.

Australia sliced open Wales with regularity.

The Welsh backline struggled to get organised against the onslaught that Australia presented, with the centre's Roberts & Williams totally out of sync. One would rush up and the other would sit back, and when the man did rush up, he wouldn't make the hit to kill the move and Foley or others would simply pass them out of the game. It didn't get much better with the wingers who were both easily beaten with cross field kicks, which got Australia behind the gainline and the Welsh defence scrambling even more so.

You can maybe excuse the defence against Australia in open play, due to their incredible play speed. Yet Wales also looked lethargic from first phase, with a hooker being used as the primary line leader from lineouts Australia always had the advantage with speed. This lack of pace seemed present across the entire Wales team, with all of them looking exhausted and beaten from the off as Wallabies cruised past them with what looked like ease. 

Shaun Edwards said a few days afterwards that they had only had one defensive training session as a starting team all week, which is shocking for a team that has long pride itself on it's ability to keep teams out. What didn't help was the loss of Jonathan Davies a few hours before kick off, a play who has been crucial to Wales' defence for years, but the fact that this wasn't prepared for is worrying.

Collision Battle

Australia consistently beat Wales at willing
the tackle collision, 

This stemmed from the defensive line speed issues previously mentioned. Australia consistently won the contact, getting their ball carriers over the gainline with regularity, which allowed them to win the ruck quickly and attack again.

The Australian players just seemed to want it more, barrelling into the collisions and relishing the chance to knock the opposition players back. It was aided by the support play from other forwards aiding their team mate and driving him into the contact. The support work also allowed the players to "tip on" the ball just before the point of contact putting a teammate onto a weak shoulder which is much easier to make ground against. 

Compare that to Wales who would often be sent into the contact without support, too far from the ruck for a quick clear out, and with no one to offload the ball to either. Australians were able to double team the Welsh ball carriers as it was clear who would be taking the ball in. Wales played much more intelligently in the summer, and you wonder where that went.

Attack System

Where oh where did the expansive, Kiwi-esque, style of play that was so exciting and effective in the summer? Wales were adventurous, using their forwards as link players to allow their backs to attack with width and pace. Their wingers roaming looking to get involved in the centre field and use their pace, footwork and power to have a real impact. Biggar and Webb controlling influences which were starting to get the attack to tick in a way it hadn't in a while.

Compare that to Wales in Cardiff. One up runners. Hands down the line passing with no pace. Boring kick chase plan that has proven ineffective against the South Hemisphere for years. Wingers hiding on the wings and trying to run over players rather than burst through holes. I don't know where to place the blame, Biggar attempted to play the "summer style" at the start, but the forwards seemed oblivious to his positioning behind them. So he reverted to "Warrenball" kick chase - which Wales were comprehensively beaten at - and runners trying to out muscle the opposition. 

You can't blame players to falling back to old methods when the new ones weren't working, the problem was the old style looked rusty, old and lethargic. It allowed Australia all the time in the world to organise their defence and wait to pounce to turn the ball over. Wales need to choose a style and stick with it through thick and thin over the next few months until the players know it inside out.

In New Zealand, North was used brilliantly, he barely saw the ball against Australia.

With all of these in mind, what do Wales need to work on before running out against Argentina on Saturday? There are three focal points that I feel need to be fixed first, the lineout is an issue but Ken Owens should hold on to the jersey for now.

Forwards actually using the ball

All of Wales' forwards need to
look for the pass.

The All Black style of play demands that all players be capable of passing the ball, seeing space, and making the right decisions in attack. Wales are apparently trying to emulate this style of play, albeit with their own flavour. When they were down in New Zealand, Wales seemed to be getting the hang of this sort of system. Their tight forwards playing with a bit extra width from the breakdown, with the fly half in behind offering the chance to use the backs.

This system forces the opposition to consider multiple options. The pod of forwards - usually three or four - has the option to crash it up, tip it on to a support player just before contact, or pull it behind them to the fly half on an arcing run. Against Australia these options were rarely used and it meant Wales were very easy to defend. Compare that to Australia - utilising a similar system - who varied their options continually which meant the Welsh defence were never able to predict the play.

If the Welsh forwards start thinking about the support around them, and shifting the point of contact, then Wales will stand a better chance of finding gaps and getting over the gainline.

Back-line needs to be flatter

For a long time Dan Biggar has been accused of not taking the ball to the line and threatening the opposition defence. While it may be true that it is not Biggar's natural game, he has developed in recent years to attack with the ball and play flatter. He did this on multiple occasions against Australia, however his backline were still sitting deep behind him, which meant he'd still have to pass the ball back behind the gainline and any threat he posed was pointless.

If the system mentioned previously, the Welsh backline need to be going at full speed when they get the ball in their hands, receiving the ball flat and looking to break through holes. You're never going to find a gap to burst through if you're standing deep, it gives the defence too much time to readjust and close you down. Wales have shown their capable of playing flat and fast, in games against England and the Kiwi's they really put defences under pressure when they used the ball at speed.

Defence

The return of Jonathan Davies could help Wales in defence.

Kind of an obvious one, and not exactly one I know how to solve precisely. Firstly they need to sort out communication and the speed at which they set up, far too often they were caught out by Australia's blitzkrieg assault. This was largely down to Wales' inability to slow down the breakdown pace, the Welsh forwards unable to get over the ball or stop the Australian players going over the gain-line. Wales will be hoping to compete more at ruck time against Argentina and allow their defensive line to set up and read the opposition attack.

I'm sure that Wales will be having more than one defensive training session this week, as Shaun Edwards looks to return his team to their impenetrable best. The centre partnership especially will be crucial to stemming the tide, making sure they link up together and don't leave gaps for the adventurous Argentinians to burst through.

They'll also have to look at defending the cross-field kick, both North and Cuthbert struggled against this last weekend and it gave Australia really go forward. Usually when a defence ends up forcing an opposition to kick the ball away it's a win, but Australia looked to use it as a way to beat the defence early on. If the wingers sit a little deeper behind the rushing defence then the kicks should be well covered. Although if the wingers aren't joining the out-to-in blitz that puts a lot of pressure on the outside centre to completely shut off the wide options.

Wales Team vs Argentina (12/11/16)

15 - L Halfpenny

14 - L Williams

13 - J Davies

12 - S Williams

11 - G North

10 - D Biggar

9 - G Davies

1 - G Jenkins (C)

2 - K Owens

3 - T Francis

4 - L Charteris

5 - AW Jones

6 - S Warburton

7 - J Tipuric

8 - R Moriarty

16 - S Baldwin

17 - N Smith

18 - S Lee

19 - C Hill

20 - J King

21 - L Williams

22 - G Anscombe

23 - J Roberts

Williams has been Wales' best player for a while.

It certainly is a eyebrow raising team selection by Rob Howley, whether it is a knee-jerk reaction to
the performance against Australia, or the beginnings of a new look Wales will probably depend on the performance this weekend. The return of Liam Williams will greatly aid the kick defence issues mentioned, as well as providing Wales with a real ambitious threat going forward. Jonathan Davies is the best outside centre Wales have for defending their way and his loss was greatly noticed against Australia. Scott Williams starts alongside his Scarlets team mate, very different from Jamie Roberts, more capable of making a break or putting in an intelligent kick. This is his chance to stake his claim for the 12 jersey long term. I am a little surprised to see Biggar continue - Howley saying it was hard to judge him with limited possession - I thought maybe Anscombe or Sam Davies would be given a chance, Biggar really needs to showcase his ability to play with width and pace. Gareth Davies adds another dimension to Wales' attack, not quite the tactical influence that Rhys Webb is, but a dangerous runner with the ball.

In the pack there is the return of the fated Warburton/Tipuric combination that many Wales fans long for. Warburton has played most of the season at blind-side flanker so he should be more accustomed to the role. The return of Warburton should also aid Wales in slowing down ruck ball with another capable jackler in the team. It's great to see Tipuric and Moriarty continue as they performed

The return of Jones will certainly up Wales' effort.

fantastically against Australia even when on the back foot. The biggest asset for Wales is the return of Alun Wyn Jones from compassionate leave, he was the sort of leader that Wales needed last week to drag them back into the game. His leadership and determination have been a core value to Wales in recent years and his absence is always noticed. Also mention for Tomas Francis replacing Samson Lee, possibly after Francis was part of a dominant scrum near the end of the game, and Argentina will be coming with a powerful set piece.

The bench is set up to cover all positions as best as possible. Cory Hill will win his second cap from the bench after both Bradley Davies and Jake Ball failed fitness tests. James King can slot in anywhere in the back row, and provides athletic defence should he come on. Gareth Anscombe replaces Sam Davies this week, a small surprise considering how well Davies seemed to do with his brief cameo. Jamie Roberts starts from the bench for the first time in over 70 caps, his experience could be crucial late on, but it will be interesting how he adapts to this new role.