Today’s review contains no bias from your Welsh correspondent as we look at the Pool C matchup between Wales and Portugal.
Team News
As with France and the All Blacks, Wales have made 13 changes to their side from last weekend. Louis Rees-Zammit and Taulupe Faletau are the only survivors, although the scrum halves have merely swapped who starts and who’s on the bench. I think this was the plan all along but six days rest after Fiji and 250 tackles by Wales in that game would certainly have helped push it that way. We’ve seen that the youngsters for Wales can perform, but can implode, as can the seniors. This side isn’t as young as some of the sides we saw in the warmup matches, but is younger than the sides we saw last week.
Gatland has said any or all of these players can push their way into the team against Australia next week. If they play well, a few of these names, beyond the survivors, might make it.
Portugal had a bye last weekend. They have a chunk of players who play professional rugby in France and elsewhere but mostly in lower divisions and several of them are amateurs. Pro D2 is a very high standard but it isn’t the top flight and some are playing in lower divisions than that.
Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 13 Mason Grady, 12 Johnny Williams, 11 Rio Dyer, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Tommy Reffell, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Dafydd Jenkins, 4 Christ Tshiunza, 3 Dillon Lewis, 2 Dewi Lake (c), 1 Nicky Smith
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Tomas Francis, 19 Adam Beard, 20 Taine Basham, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Sam Costelow, 23 Josh Adams
Portugal: 15 Nuno Sousa Guedes, 14 Vincent Pinto, 13 Jose Lima, 12 Tomas Appleton (c), 11 Rodrigo Marta, 10 Jeronimo Portela, 9 Samuel Marques, 8 Rafael Simoes, 7 Nicolas Martins, 6 Joao Granate, 5 Steevy Cerqueira, 4 José Madeira, 3 Anthony Alves, 2 Mike Tadjer, 1 Francisco Fernandes
Replacements: 16 Raffaele Storti, 17 Joris Moura, 18 Pedro Lucas, 19 David Wallis, 20 Martim Belo, 21 Diogo Hasse Ferreira, 22 Lionel Campergue, 23 David Costa
First Half
Just before the anthems it was announced Reffell wasn’t playing, Morgan would replace him, making it three survivors from Sunday’s game against Fiji. Lake retained the captain’s armband.
As part of World Rugby’s new colour blind initiative, both sides were in their away strip. We had black v white instead of red v green. I understand one side changing away from that, both seems extreme.
After an opening start when Wales went through the phases before an error, Portugal exerted continuous pressure for about six or seven minutes and were unlucky not to score first when a penalty kick bounced off the upright. More Portuguese pressure followed but a turnover, quick hands and a smart kick from LRZ saw him dot the ball down unopposed.
After that, the game started to settle into some sort of pattern but not really a rhythm. Wales were better at set piece, structured play but also transitioned well into counterattack after a turnover. Portugal were great in broken play and counterattack. From a Welsh perspective they were entirely too good at creating broken field chances.
Jonny Williams was shown yellow for playing the ball on the ground, preventing an offload, quite rightly, and 15 v 14 the sides were about level. Wales attacked but were thwarted, as did Portugal. The extra man allowed them to produce two enormous 50-22s and eventually three points from a penalty.
Wales finished the half with a bit of a settler. It looked like Williams had scored, but the TMO showed he’d dropped it first in the double tackle. Offside gave them a second chance and Lake powered forward, tapped, picked up and drove straight over.
Wales are not imposing their game plan consistently and Portugal are slowing their rucks down too easily for Gatland to be at all happy but they are comfortably ahead on the scoreboard.
Half-time score 14-3
Second Half
In what had been an area of Welsh strength, the half started with a string of scrums and lineouts. Scrums mostly continued to be an area of Welsh dominance but they lost three of their own lineouts in a row.
As Wales started to use their replacements they started to impose themselves more and more. Penalties started to flow, to the point the ref warned Portugal for repeated offside, then repeated scrum offences, then repeated everything.
We started to see Welsh phase play, speedier rucks and smarter play. It wasn’t one-sided, Wales ground out a try, Portugal returned the favour with good pressure then a nice move from a 5m lineout.
The Portuguese had a lot of the ball, but it was in their half, they tended to kick and Wales got the ball facing a line of defenders, so they were kicking back. LRZ broke through and Wales looked to have scored but Dixon overruled Jonker and called it back for obstruction. Correctly, unfortunately.
In the final minutes Pinto jumped to catch a high ball, then kicked Adams in the head. Portugal finished a man down. With the clock in the red and Hymns and Arias (it’s part of the repertoire of Welsh fan songs) ringing around the stadium Faletau picked up and drove over finally sealing the bonus point.
To add insult to injury, the TMRO upgraded the card to red in the time it took for the penalty, scrum and the try to be scored.
Final score 28-8
Final Thoughts
I wouldn’t have caught this, but when kick tennis broke out, the Portuguese kicker didn’t advance to try and put players onside. No one else advanced so there was no penalty but nor did they retreat. Any attempt to run back saw a wall of defenders. It was cute and I suspect we’ll see a law change or a lot of teams adopting this in future.
Portugal might not challenge Fiji or Australia either, but they could beat Georgia if they can play like this and Georgia play like they did last week. Regardless of that, in broken field play they have an attractive and dangerous style and they can run a lineout drill to score. They’re better than you might expect.
ITV coverage needs to get its act together, showing the wrong score and pool points!
Wales did not impress today but, just like France on Thursday, this was effectively their dirt trackers. They got the job done which is the important thing in terms of keeping Welsh hopes alive for getting out of this pool. Did anyone except LRZ, Faletau and late inclusion Morgan put their hand up for the game against Australia? I think the scrum halves are pretty interchangeable to be honest, so Tomos Williams, but I expect he’ll start on the bench. Anscombe might replace Costelow on the bench, probably not as a starter. He might not, because I suspect Gatland wants Costelow to get match experience quickly. Lake might make the bench after returning from injury. Unlike France, I don’t know anyone blotted their copybook though.
