What a load of nonsense we've all been spouting about the 'Welsh way'. These naïve ideas about avoiding contact, looking for space and playing with flair have proven to be completely out of date.
The first task for the Elite Performance Director is to set out a new set of skills that all youngsters learning the game should attain.
Would be wingers should not concern themselves with such heady notions as beating their man, side stepping or counter attack. Instead they should focus on the new basics such as chasing box kicks, booting the ball down the tramlines and running into contact, not around it. I want to see these nine–year–olds being coached to run with necks bent back looking skyward at up and unders, these are the skills now required.
All potential outside halves should be back in the pocket firing kicks into the corners, not standing flat and running on to the ball. When in opposition territory they must attempt an obligatory drop goal twice per half. Added praise will be given to those who can ignore overlaps without even looking.
As for the forwards, well, if they start on the scrummaging machine before they are ten, they may be lucky enough to see a ball by the time they start senior rugby.
And that's the last time that I want to hear any criticism of the Ospreys whose mind numbing brand of rugby is in fact visionary. Lyn Jones has a mandate to kick the leather off it.
That is a facetious take on what has happened in the knockout stages of the World Cup. It is not necessarily targeted at England but it is clear that limited sides are able to beat better teams by playing ultra conservative rugby. And that applies equally to Argentina who have been great value in the competition but are completely one–dimensional.
Rather than enjoy the losses of New Zealand and Australia, as many of us did with their quarter–final exit, we should have worried about the implications of those results on Wales.
It is clear that the Welsh way is not conducive to winning in the knockout stages of a World Cup. If you go back through the history of the tournament, rarely have the most adventurous sides won the competition. When the pressure is on, sides revert to safety-first tactics in the big games.
One of the inferences that England will draw from their recent achievements is that the English Guinness Premiership is the best breeding ground for international success. The sterile league that rewards the unimaginative is setting an example for the rest of the game.
One cannot but admire England's fortitude in reaching the final. Their strength in adversity has been the story of this World Cup. But can it be right that a team so limited in its outlook and devoid of any creativity is able to reach the final of the World Cup?
The fundamentals of the game such as the scrum and line-out have been neglected by New Zealand and Australia and they have paid the price. However, I would hope that reaching the pinnacle of the game would require more than set-piece dominance, kick and chase and hope for a mistake.
South Africa will start the final as the more daring of the two sides. Eddie Jones has helped them expand their game and they have consistently scored tries from their own half. Habana's breathtaking speed has helped but the whole team have bought into a more expansive attitude.
My hope is that skill will win in the end, whichever side shows it. Yes, professional rugby is brutally physical but there must be at least some balance in the game or else it is not the game that many people will want to watch or play.
The World Cup has already been a remarkable success but the IRB will need to analyse the matches in detail to see if this is the game they want it to be. There will be pressure from the Wallabies and the All Blacks to allow more movement, which would suit them, and it may be time for Wales to join them in that cause. We are not going to win a World Cup if this is the sort of rugby it takes. Furthermore, this is not how we in Wales want to play rugby.
There are some interesting times ahead for the Elite Performance Director whoever he may be. Wales appear to be locked into a four-year cycle with the sole aim of delivering World Cup glory. If that is the case, should Wales build a game plan around the rugby we have seen to win the tight knockout matches? Should the EPD instruct the regions to narrow the tactics and try and master the kicking strategy that we have seen used in pressure games? Should we move away from our innate strengths and play an England type game?
One could argue that Wales doesn't have the forwards to compete with England and South Africa in that type of game. However, the Welsh way has failed to reach the quarter-finals in three of the last five World Cups. Unless the game changes, we may have to change, if reaching the final is what we want.
Your comments
Tomos27/9
I agree with Gwyn, Wales need to up their game to win against Fiji. It's going to be tough out in France after playing two games at home. Congrats to Alfie for his 100th cap!