Gareth Edwards: Wales game was one of worst I've seen

Tuesday 9 February 2010
Published By: Ben Welch
Six Nations > Wales

Gareth Edwards has slammed Wales' performance in the opening game of the Six Nations, branding it one of the worst he has ever seen.

Writing for Wales Online, the former scrum-half, who is considered by many to be the best player to ever lace up a pair of boots, said that the first 40 minutes on Saturday was some of the most awful rugby he has seen for years.

"The skill levels were low, as bad as I have seen in years, with poor passing, dropped balls, dreadful kicking out of hand, indecisiveness and a lineout that failed to function. What makes it more galling for me was that England were equally as bad," he said.

Edwards cited the second-half performance of James Hook as the one highlight in an otherwise disappointing encounter from a Welsh perspective.

One element which provoked the legend's ire was the senseless trip by Alun Wyn Jones on Dylan Hartley, an incident which led to Wyn Jones spending a ten-minute period in the sin bin in which England scored 17 unanswered points.

"What made it worse was that he did it right under the nose of the referee. What was he playing at? England were nearly 40 metres away from our line and weren't going anywhere," Edwards thundered.

The encounter marked 100 years since the two nations first squared off in international competition and each team marked the occasion by wearing commemorative kits.

However, Edwards claimed the tie was one of the worst of that century, with Shane Williams' performance summing things up.

"What summed up a poor, poor game for me was that hardly anybody would have noticed Shane Williams was playing. Did he get a pass?," he asked.

Wales will now turn their attention to their encounter with Scotland at Millennium Stadium next Saturday (February 13th), though their line-up is likely to be without Wyn Jones, who took a verbal bashing from Warren Gatland after the England game.

Posted by Ben Welch