Good to see Hennessey on the bench. Not so much Beard. Would've been tempted by a 6/2 split though. 

The rest as expected really. 

Reading the BBC feed, had forgotten that Hawkins and James played 12 and 13 for the U20s for two seasons... maybe this is genuinely a combination we can build on for club and country. 

Shame Sam got injured, he was on fire vs Scotland and when he came off Wales looked a lot worse, but at least his performance shook things up and you'd hope Edwards/Evans both feel like they need to step up their game now at 10

That made no sense.

This weekend Grady is left out for Hennesey and that doesn't make sense for me.

any way bizarre selection

that back 5 bar wainwright offers next to no

carrying threat at all , ireland will smash us in the  contact

100%, smash them going forward at the mo.....really positive from the boys here 

Brilliant Wales 

Defence has been great ....big 40....   id love us to beat them over there.

There is more passion now but such a long way back.

The 9-12 axis just isn’t working, we desperately need Sam back at 10 and to move Eddie to 12.

How on earth was Dan Edwards one of the candidates for MOTM, were the pundits / sponsors watching a different game to the rest of us?

Great effort by team Mann was indeed man of the match outstanding fair play 

Tshiunza certainly is a physical specimen. But that abrasive go forward aggression I've never seen from him. Jac Morgan whilst physically smaller beats him hands down on that score.

not talking Italy… but soon.  

At least I watched a whole Wales match , not done that for a  while  and that's because we were at very least , competitive and gave everything .

The problem  is how do you  turn  decent  performances into wins ??? 

The key surely,  is to offer more in attack creating  more questions  in defence than we asked tonight.

A balanced,  cohesive , and fluent  attacking game, isn't somthing  you can pull out of a hat, so plenty to,occupy Sherratt,  as attack coach.

Happy we are seeing progress , but,a lost at home to Italy and the gloom will settle  again like Stotch mist.

Come on SA.you have to be realistic.

There is turmoil in the game in Wales created by the WRU.

We lose heavily to France  and then to England . Ireland however thrash the English  at Twickenham,  a feat rarely  achieved.

Wales now travel to Ireland  to play them on their patch and we all were expecting  a hammering.

No, that does not materialise,  and at one point, deep in second half, it is

 19-17. That's progress,  and in these dark  times we should be grateful for that instead of carping.

We're missing good decisions and some of the execution wasn't right under pressure.

I think both of those improve as the coaching team matures and grows.

V surprised Hardy didn't come on at Williams's yellow card. And not finishing with Jarrod Evans on the pitch seems missing the point of having him there.

LRZ some good kicks and looked threatening with the ball. Growing into his role.

Thomas Francis makes a huge difference.

Dafydd Jenkins finally finding form that had him mentioned as a lion.

Dewi also had his best game for ages.

Carter looks a different player than when he has previously played. 

The back row were immense overall Mann has really impressed me a smallish guy for a six but clearly has heart and really puts himself about. 

Wainwright is a beast of player hope he fit for next week as I didn’t think Cracknell was up to it when he came on.

Tomos Williams really frustrating can be brilliant for Glos but rarely shows it on Welsh shirt.

Missed Sam at ten he gets backs going much better than Edwards. 

We must find a way of getting Zammit into game more he is the  best strike runners we have put him on wing with Mee to 15.

Forward pass for their last try killed us led to yellow card which would not have stood. We were lucky with their disallowed try though. 

The signs are good but still think we need to get rid of Sherratt and get backs coach in. 

Italy will be tough and a great test to see how far we have come. 

Agree with you there Eddie to 12 he’s not a 13 just doesn’t have the pace but could Be a great 12 

I still can not see anything in hawkins 

Watkins may be the best bet next week up against Brex be a tough one , Hennessy no we’re near that level yet

Mann made 30 tackles!! Well done that....!

Missed a jackling 7 last night.

Tomos had get a yellow, but Ireland committed umpteen penalties in the red zone and no card. Overall the ref had a good game.

Noticed Eddie on the wing a fair bit, what a game he had. Grady for Adams v Italy.

Feeling a lot more positive than at the beginning of the 6N.

Gutsy performance.

In the build up to Scotland v France, all 4 pundits - John Barclay, Benjamin Kayser, Martin Johnson & Sam Warburton - all said that 2 of the Irish tries should not have been awarded.

The forward pass for the last try and Tomos’s yellow and a pick and go try in the 2nd half, iirc, where Kelleher had latched onto the ball carrier try scorer and got ahead of him, preventing a tackle on the man in possession.

For me though, Steph Emmanuel will be the 12 in a season or two and he will be a playmaker at 12. Although he has an all round game. James or Hennessey at 13. The future team in WoL was pretty exciting tbh and there were a lot of options missing from it. 

jarod looks a more complete 10 than edwards atm

hardy in for tomos

forwards go again though Id drop beard from the bench 

Ah no! Just seen the points difference

I have even started watching  Wales again,  at least  with a little  more pride, if  not confidence. 

To win games  however, we are going have to ask far more questions  of opposition defences.  To do this , just look at the Scottish playbook, and copy it.

White , just like Gibson Park, gets the ball away in a flash, while Tomos Williams seems to take an age. At Scarlets, Cawdor, for all his incredible talents , was also  frequently not able to deliver a rapid  service.  

Wales, like Scarlets,  are not overloaded with huge ball carriers, as a result tempo and intensity  surely need to be a priority, moving the point of attack quickly  so mis -matches  defence are soon beckoning.

Edwards at outside half is surely not the man to  direct affairs, so hopefully Costelow  will be back to face the impressive  Italians.

Wales will,have to move up another notch to beat them I am afraid 

I hope Wales can win and the sponsor to England..

Yesterday italy wrote their history in a really bad match 

This morning’s papers are going into the English team and its management in some detail.

A 60-70 thrashing of England by France, smarting from an almighty rocket salvo from Sean Edwards and others plus a sensible, rather than casual, team selection coupled with us beating Italy by 40 points and the wooden spoon is for the Twickers Trophy Cabinet.

A 6 nations tournement is long time in rugby & Borthwick & his staff are rightly getting stick. The tactics employed are surely not Blacketts version of the way to play.

LRZ maybe effective at 15 in the Premiership but he looks completely out of sorts at international level, Eddie James is wasted at 13 and Hawkins isn’t an international 12 either.

Good points Legend !

Key one being the point I made in my response to the Irusg game.

Speed of ball HAS to  a  priority going forward. S outland have a clear template now, and if it  wasn't the  atrocious conditions against Italians( who deservedly adapted & won) they could be in for the slam.

Quick ball doesn't  necessarily  mean lateral, it means stressing opposition defences to reform quicker and scramble.  This is how you get defensive  mismatches, and you nullify the set structures. 

This is not going to happen  overnight. 

In that respect the public expectation( many of whom don't  watch regularly  rugby) is that , we can  beat Italy on the basis of the encourag8ng improvement. Italy are a different  beast now, and it will surprise me if they don't  win..butbtye key is are Wales developing  their own template , selecting players in the correct positions and playing with and energy  abd passion to make us proud. Thatcwill be enough for now, but obviously  in sport itsxabout winning  and moving on hopefully  wecwill be in a better position b8th on ahd off the field. 

I hold my breath  !

Scotland v France was an amazing match... maybe in another 5 minutes, France could have won! Full marks to Scotland... even Dupont seemed at a loss, daftly throwing a forward pass near his own dead ball line. Russell's long passes really gave his outside backs a chance to shine... looking back, credit to Wales for keeping them under some sort of check. 

Italy v England - Menonchello must surely be awarded Italy's top honour for his performance - an amazing display of power and speed. Just shows that England beat Wales because we were really bad that day - I said at the time that they weren't that good. 

Ireland v Wales - Wales continue to show signs of improvement - after two very poor rounds, two showing a new pattern and a much improved defence. We have to hope that this improvement leads to a long-awaited win v Italy. Can't see there'll be much in it. 

I have formulated the perfect plan for our next game:

Elias to play 10 and just run the ball every time he gets it, overpower Italy

Name Murray and Dan Edwards as our starting props on Tuesday, then switch them out for actual props just before the game as 'injured in the warm up', to mess with Italy's plans of scrum dominance, wasting their whole weeks preparation.  Psychological warfare.   Tandy to throw a grenade pre-match like Gats and Eddie Jones used to "pasta isn't Italian it was stolen from the Chinese" or something, get them wound up and emotional.  

If Tandy is reading this, I'm free to join your coaching team whenever you need me 

But we are getting our act together , should be one hell of a game .

The game's in Cardiff.  I'm hoping they have a serious rugby hangover after breaking a huge record last week ...

So am I Lofty. Take any advantage we can get. I would love to see Eddie selected against Menoncello -the best 12 for me in World rugby at the moment. The rest of Wales can then see what us Scarlets supporters have known for a while - we have a serious talent in our hands.