On the morning after the day before, Harri Morgan’s only blessing is that he’s not having to spend more yen – again. But there’s another thing our World Cup fan man isn’t buying after Wales’ semi-final defeat to South Africa – all the “what if” stories.
To quote one of the great philosophers of our time, “What I need now is two positives, one to cancel out the negative and one . . . just to have a positive.”
I can, possibly, find half a positive in the fact that I haven’t had to spend the day conducting a cost benefit analysis of forking out a heap of cash for a 32-hour flight via Cairo to get myself back to Tokyo.
That would still leave me half a positive short of neutral, and well, finishing the day on the plus side of the mood ledger is just not happening – not after a day that Wales bowed out of the World Cup in a tight one. Again.
I’m not sure I’ve fully processed all of the “what ifs”, but I must be close by now.
Should Wales have manufactured a drop goal earlier in the sequence when they found themselves attacking on the Springboks’ 22 with 10 minutes to play?
How might we have improved if all the big names had been out there in the middle? The carrying of Taulupe Faletau, the front line attacking threat posed by Gareth Anscombe, the wizardry of Liam Williams.
I’m sure I could watch the game back and find a penalty here or there that Jerome Garces might have handed to Wales, whilst simultaneously ignoring any similar calls that might have gone the way of South Africa.
I could, but nobody is watching that back. Unless you really, really love a box kick.
There will be those for whom the dwelling on this semi-final defeat has manifested criticism of both tactics and performance.
I mean, why didn’t we just follow the blueprint that England had laid out 24 hours prior? Why did we keep kicking? Why didn’t we open up? Why didn’t we play ‘the Welsh way?’
The answer to much, if not all of the above rests on the dreaded collision. A fundamental aspect of modern day rugby union.
Wales simply don’t have the physical specimens required to consume the number of South African defenders, or create the speed of ball, that would have made a consistently more expansive game plan a viable option.
Certainly, not against a monstrous Springbok outfit for whom the substitutes would be better described as reinforcements than finishers or game changers.
The eventual victors would have undoubtedly revelled in the opportunity to exploit the weak rucks that would have ensued from desperate width that hadn’t been earned with go-forward.
Warren Gatland’s pragmatism has given us some of the great days, and only in time will we realise just how special those days really were. Yesterday, it fell short.
The All Blacks await in Friday’s bronze medal match, but the journey proper is over.
Four more years.
