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Wales vs England in Cardiff last Saturday was one of the most even, closely contested rugby matches the Six Nations has seen in a long time… if you ignore the scoreboard.
Glancing at the metrics, you’ll struggle to find a reason for Wales’ total humiliation at the hands of their worst enemy. Here’s a few examples:
No, the only stat that tells the story of this games is whilst England score 10 tries from 13 22m visits, Wales scored just twice from 8. Why?
If you are going to be defending against Wales any time soon, here’s what you need to know:
They’ll attack the open side - 91% of the attacks went this way, the most of anybody.
They’ll play wide - they had the least tight/close movement and the most mid/wide movement of anybody.
They throw mid length passes - they threw the fewest short and fewest long of anybody
Remember these 3 things and you will stop Wales’ attack. Their Six Nations opponents did: Wales scored the fewest tries of anyone, made the fewest line breaks and visited opponents 22m areas the least often.
Wales play so wide because their carriers cross the gainline less than 50% of the time and commit multiple defenders just as rarely, making them the worst in the tournament at both. As a result, their offloading game is almost non-existent - they threw the 2nd fewest with just a 71% success rate. They also have the worst tackle evasion, meaning they aren’t running around you either.
The one player you need to worry about is Blair Murray - still in his 1st ever season of pro rugby - who beat a tournament high 25 defenders and gained the 5th most metres of any player.
Luckily, Wales turn just 19% of their line breaks into tries, 10% worse than anybody else. They also scored zero tries off kick return and zero from their own half. See? Easy.