I'm not quite sure why Wales dropped hooker Owens out of the 22 as I haven't seen a mention of his being injured. I thought Rees would have been the starting hooker last Saturday but, regardless, Owens ran on and threw about 10 throws to the lineout and they were all spot on. He seemed to play OK otherwise too.
It's rough that 8. Faletau had to go home but Oz won't be crying too many crocodile tears for Wales with their stars Beale, JOC (James O'Connor) and Quade injured, and besides, Ryan Jones looked back to his old self when he replaced Faletau at Suncorp.
Beck for Scott Williams is a good move though he had a strange game off the bench at Suncorp: one brilliant pass off the deck was responsible for the Cuthbert try, but his too high pass to the same player near the end of the game in his own 22 ruined the possibility of another.
Starting AWJ is also very good; he's a 24 carat hard bastard; looks it too.
Wales will be better for the gallop in Melbourne; just as the Wobs do sometimes second game in after a long break. Genia and Barnes will be targeted but if Welshmen are going to stand around the ruck to get them, the Wobs may pick and drive where they ain't.
They will also have plays that target Vuna, and going through video clips of his defensive inadequacies. There was likely too much to look at before the first test.
One of the Wallabies biggest drawbacks last week was slow realignment on defence and presenting spaces which were too wide. A couple of times the wide gaps were caused by defenders helping out in tackles without cause. The Wallabies had only 7 lineouts last week; so Wales didn't kick it out a lot. They'll probably kick it out less this week, drive it up one side of the park to attract defenders, then switch it to the other side to find those gaps.
This was their old ploy of a couple of years ago.
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