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Wales' World Cup - Owain Jones' alternative awards

AWJ and Warren Gatland

Wales’ World Cup roller-coaster came to an end in the Third-Fourth place play off in Tokyo where an injury-ravaged Welsh side were comfortably beaten by a New Zealand side still reeling from their semi-final loss to England.

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It was the culmination of a seven-week assault on rugby’s biggest prize and although Warren Gatland’s men fell short, they reached only their third semi-final in 32 years, going out to eventual winners, South Africa, through a late 76th minute Handre Pollard penalty. Along the way, some reputations were forged, some diminished as Wales carried a nation’s hopes.

As they ready themselves to head home, here are some decidedly unofficial gongs to hand out…

The ‘world is his oyster’ award – Josh Adams

Josh Adams had enjoyed an encouraging start to his Welsh career in 2018, but that was merely an aperitif. 2019 was a truly transformative year for the Carmarthen-born flyer who was released by his home region, the Scarlets, as a teenager forcing him to refine his game at Worcester Warriors.

Seven tries in seven games made him the top try scorer in Northern Hemisphere history in the tournament but that didn’t tell the full story. He made the most breaks with 18 and came seventh in metres made, with 390. Such is his progression that he will be seen by many as Wayne Pivac’s first choice wing next year. George North, by contrast, endured a quiet tournament and he will know his place is not to be taken for granted. If there was a game where Adams really came of age, it was against Fiji where he endured a torrid opening quarter. Left for roadkill by Josua Tuisova and using a weak shoulder to try and bring down Kini Murimurivalu, he was already reeling when he spilled a pass from Jonathan Davies. For a moment, the Cardiff Blues wing could see his Test career at a crossroads, yet he found the resolve to dig in and was rewarded with a hat-trick. From there, he kicked on and was Wales’ standout player against New Zealand.

The ‘it’s only a little bit of blood’ award – Ken Owens

The Sheriff of Carmarthen throws himself into contact with the reckless abandon of a 20-year-old and his love of close quarter contact meant his forehead was a mass of sweat and blood for a large part of the tournament. His was a flesh wound that wouldn’t heal as he spilled claret for the cause but he didn’t give his eye-catching graze the slightest attention as threw his head into rucks with customary ‘Cannonball Ken’ ferocity. A tub-thumping tournament from Wales’ most capped hooker, and time now to restore his rugged good-looks.

https://twitter.com/estellehart/status/1188390101933547520

The ‘NBA hang time’ award – Tomos Williams

With minutes to go against the Wallabies and with Wales under unbearable pressure, Matt Toomua pumped the ball into the Oita sky, as Australia looked to turn the screw deep in Welsh territory. Fifty metres back lay the smallest Welsh defender – and former basketball player – Tomos Williams.

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In an ode to the considerably taller LeBron James, Williams sprung backwards out of play and flipped the ball infield, in a feat of great dexterity, to a waiting Adams to hoof the ball back with interest. Not too shabby from the Treorchy’s resident jack-in-the-box and a fine tournament ensued.

The ‘flying before you can walk’ award – Hallam Amos

The incoming Cardiff Blues wing-cum-fullback is undoubtedly a talented fellow, as we witnessed with his arcing run around Ben Smith and step inside Richie Mo’Unga to score a classy try against New Zealand but against Uruguay he had the sort of game only a mother could love. Amos had already had two tries disallowed – one for a forward pass and one for a foot in touch – when he had a final chance to redeem himself. The old adage is, ‘third time lucky’, well it didn’t ring true for Amos.

When Rhys Carre broke down the left flank like a baby rhino on the loose and whipped a 15m pass off his right hand, 22m out, the wing could see the corner flag. He had time to slide in to score but instead went for the acrobatic mid-air grounding so beloved by photographers. The only problem was he didn’t have a firm grasp on the ball and lost control of it on grounding. Amos trotted away sheepishly, leaving referee to check with the TMO. The replay showed his egregious error, leaving referee Angus Gardiner chuckling. He wasn’t seen for another three games.

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The ‘trussed up like a mummy’ award – Hadleigh Parkes

Hadleigh Parkes has earnt every one of his Welsh caps after the age of 30, and the Huntersville toiler has stretched every sinew for his adopted country. He’s been in the wars, wearing a bloodied headband during the Six Nations, but in this tournament, he has been out on his own in the pain game. He broke a finger against Georgia, having it strapped up for the rest of the tournament, before banging a shoulder against Uruguay and being further padded up just in order to get through games. He was forced to keep on trucking because of Jonathan Davies’ knee injury and it was a small mercy he had 55 minutes respite against New Zealand before coming on. Apart from that, he played in every minute of the tournament, carrying into contact again and again. If there’s any justice, you won’t see Parkes much before Christmas.

The ‘catch me if you can’ award – Gareth Davies

Ali Price knows all about Gareth Davies. The Scottish scrum-half had his pass read and picked out for Davies to gallop away 80m and score against Scotland in February 2018, so when Will Genia took an extra step to send his pass to Bernard Foley, he knew what was coming. Accelerating out of the line the Scarlet, picked the ball out of the air and sped away from the flailing Wallaby defenders and down the left hand tramline, outpacing Foley, to run in unopposed and give Wales, what proved to be their match-winning score. The lesson was clear, beware of the man they call, ‘Cawdor’.

Wales alternative awards
Gareth Davies sprints away for Wales in the pool stage. (Getty Images)

The ‘Benjamin Button of rugby’ award – Alun Wyn Jones

Bonymaen’s pride and joy wouldn’t let you know he’s raging against the dying light. In fact the Welsh captain probably revels in the fact many people try and keep retiring him. Indeed, as a stubborn bugger of the highest order, it probably motivates him. Just 34, with a contract with the WRU and the Ospreys set to expire in July 2021, Jones thought he should just remind those who doubt him how much oil he has left in the tank by topping the Rugby World Cup tackle charts with 79, or in old money around 17 tackles a game. With a nomination for World Player of the Year bagged and now the holder of the second most Test caps in rugby history, there will be plenty of dust in the eye when Jones finally hangs up his boots, on his own terms.

The ‘unlikely romance’ award – Jake Ball and Faf de Klerk

Jake Ball had a fine tournament for Wales. The main beneficiary of Cory Hill’s untimely injury, the bearded Scarlets behemoth provided some much-needed go-forward in the middle of the park but Ball saw red when riled by the diminutive Springbok scrum-half, Faf de Klerk, during the tense World Cup semi-final.

Grabbing him by his lapels, the 6ft 7in, 19st second row gave de Klerk the sort of look that could curdle cream, while the Sale Sharks scrum-half fluttered his eye-lashes and laughed in his face. It was quite the courting routine and ended with Ball resting his giant forehead against de Klerk as if it to say, ‘there are cameras here, wait until I find a darkened alley, goldilocks’. If a clip could sum up the difference between backs and forwards, this was it.

Press conference with Warren Gatland and Alun Wyn Jones and Gatland’s final game as Wales head coach ended in defeat. New Zealand emphatically won the World Cup bronze medal 40-17 at Tokyo Stadium.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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