By Dai
August 24 2003

What an embarrassment - Wales were totally outclassed by England today and I feel sorry for any supporter who paid £30 to watch the rubbish on offer from our national side. For a brief look at the game and more detailed look at where we go from here read on.

Humiliating is the only word I can use to describe this Welsh performance today. There was no passion or commitment and so we deservedly lost the game. 

Englands so called second team as many have labelled them managed to score five tries through Moody, Luger, Worsley, Abbott and West with Alex King kicking 2 conversions, Dave Walder kicking one and King kicking 3 penalties and a drop goal. All this and all Wales managed was 3 penalties from Stephen Jones and it could have been much worse if King hadn't missed 5 attempts at goal.

In the first half the performance wasn't great from Wales but they managed to stay in the game and only allow England to score one try leaving the half time score at 16 - 9 but in the second half the Wales team offered nothing and failed to get in the England half for much of the half, instead allowing England to run riot and end up being the deserved 43 - 9 winners.

Steve Hansen lost his cool this week when questioned about "the importance of performance rather than the win" and although I can see what he is saying about us needing to put in a good performance to get the win I think he should just be focusing on getting a morale boosting win - something which we failed dismally at against England. Today, he can't even tell us that the win is irrelevant because the performance was there because the good performance that he is looking for quite simply was non existent.

Where do we go from here?

Sack the coach and bring in a new fifteen players is about the only thing I can think of right now. Yes, the WRU may not want to pay off Steve Hansen but surely we can't go on like this. World Cup or no World Cup we can't do any worse if we bring in a new coach now so why not give it a go?

Steve Hansen has said after the game that he is going to stick with the job but lets face it who is going to want to give up a £200,000+ a year job when they know that their employer isn't going to sack them because they can't afford to pay off the contract. 

Also, if this is the best fifteen players we have in Wales then we have serious problems. There are fifteen new players coming in to face Romania on Wednesday night and if they put in good performances then give them another go against Scotland and if they look to be showing more commitment and more determination than the current bunch then stick them into the World Cup squad.

Player analysis

None of the fifteen players who started today deserve to go down under this October for the World Cup. Senior players like Stephen Jones, Robin McBryde, Colin Charvis, Mark Taylor and Martyn Williams have to take some of the responsibility for this defeat and if any of them thought they were already on the plane to New Zealand before this match then they need to think again as not one of the players out there today demonstrated why they should be given a place in the final 30.

15 Rhys Williams - Made a couple of half breaks in the first half but done nothing to show why he should be the number one Welsh fullback. We can only hope that Kevin Morgan makes a good enough recovery to take to the field in October.

14. Mark Jones - Continually come inside and lost the ball. Now must be the time to give Gareth Wyatt a go.

13. Mark Taylor - Defended adequately at times but failed to offer anything in attack. 

12. Sonny Parker - Had a poor game but is that the fault of Sonny? He hasn't played since April and so the Romania game would have been a better opportunity to bring him back. 

11. Gareth Thomas - Last weeks captain failed to make any breaks in attack and defended in the same way as most of the Welsh team - poorly. Perhaps Shane Williams will come back into the equation now.

10. Stephen Jones -  Scored our 9 points but that doesn't make up for this shocking performance. He was given the added responsibility of captain but poor kicking and distribution meant he had a bad day all round. Hansen had Gavin Henson on the bench but didn't take the opportunity to give him a chance to show what he can do. Jones seems to be a favourite of the WRU management although after yet another below par performance the outside half position must surely now be up for grabs.

9. Gareth Cooper -  Failed to get the ball out of rucks quickly enough (maybe due to the poor clearing out work by the forwards) but didn't offer much else to the team. Dwayne Peel's performance last week was no better and so lets look at what Mike Phillips can do on Wednesday.

1. Iestyn Thomas - Struggled like the rest of the pack today. Perhaps Gethin Jenkins should be given a chance in his favoured position or maybe give a chance to the Neath Swansea boys.

2. Robin McBryde - Lineouts didn't really work that well and there seemed to be some delays in throwing the ball in. Mefin Davies has also had a chance so maybe Gareth Williams should be given a chance (When I say chance I mean start the game not come on towards the end when we are already beaten)

3. Gethin Jenkins - Not a good performance by Gethin. Yes its not his favoured position but that should not be used as an excuse. Ben Evans has had a chance and performed poorly so maybe we should stick with Gethin and give him another chance to show what he can really do. 

4. Robert Sidoli - Not the best of performances by the Warriors lock and didn't show in todays performance why he deserves to be picked above Michael Owen. We know he is a better player than this but like most of his teammates he didn't perform when he needed to.

5. Chris Wyatt - If anyone has been wondering why he has been out of the equation for so long they needn't look any further than this performance today. A poor performance form the Llanelli lock leaving us with the dilemma of whether to switch back to Gareth Llewellyn.

6. Colin Charvis - Part of a backrow which clearly isn't working. For a player who is still looking for a club you would have expected a better performace which would of raised his profile but we didn't get it. The former captian may have had his last chance.

7. Martyn Williams - Some glimpses of good play from the flanker but even his inclusion in the team is questionable as it is evident that the current back row of Charvis, Williams and Jones isn't working.

8. Dafydd Jones - Not an international number 8 - Maybe we should give Michael Owen a go in this position even though many of the coaching team is adamant that Owen only has a future in the second row.

Subs: All the substitutes who came on (can't name them as I had lost interest by that point in the game) didn't do anything to improve the game although they can't be blamed as it is hard to come on and make any impact when the team is already well beaten.

Whats the views of everyone else?

Who should go to the World Cup?

Should Hansen go?

Let Us Know On The Messageboard