Wales fell to an embarrassing defeat against South Africa but on a weekend of humiliation there were bright spots in the embers
Saturday afternoon at the Principality Stadium was arguably the lowest point in the history of Welsh rugby.
To lose 73-0 at home, even if it was against the back-to-back world champions, was completely and utterly horrific. Steve Tandy’s side got pulverised and they are undoubtedly the worst tier one nation, if indeed they can still be called one.
But on a positive note both the Scarlets and Cardiff achieved a couple of fine results in the United Rugby Championship on Saturday.
Here are your winners and losers….
Winners
Scarlets
In what was a very dark day for Welsh rugby the Scarlets ended it on a high note.
Dwayne Peel’s side didn’t have a single point to their name going into last night’s game against Glasgow in Llanelli, while their backline was decimated by international call-ups.
But the Scarlets were outstanding as they thrashed the former champions 23-0 to claim a first victory of the season.
The Scarlets were boosted by the return of some key forwards in Jake Ball, Max Douglas, Ryan Elias and Josh Macleod, while Kiwi backrower Fletcher Anderson was superb on debut.
The west Walians took Glasgow to the cleaners up-front as their scrum annihilated the Scottish outfit.
Macleod and Macs Page scored the tries, while the outstanding Sam Costelow kicked 13 points.
Cardiff Rugby
It is a very dark time for Welsh rugby, with the Welsh Rugby Union looking to reduce the number of professional teams from four to three.
Despite some positive results this weekend, three of the four clubs have struggled badly for results but Cardiff have been the exception to the rule.
The Welsh club have played six and won five, with the only defeat a narrow one against Munster in Limerick.
Shorn of 15 players through Wales call-ups and injuries, Cardiff claimed an impressive 29-14 victory over Zebre in Parma.
Cardiff are now second in the URC table, just two points off the Stormers in first place.
Their form this season is all the more impressive given the loss of head coach Matt Sherratt to Wales in the same week as the URC kicked off.
Corniel van Zyl, Gethin Jenkins, Jonny Goodridge and Scott Andrews deserve enormous credit.
Ospreys and Dragons
Yes, I know both sides lost but they gave a really good account of themselves in testing circumstances.
The Ospreys were without 23 players but pushed a full-strength Edinburgh side to the limit in the Scottish capital before slipping to a narrow 19-17 defeat.
Mark Jones’ side played some good stuff, scoring three tries courtesy of Luke Davies and Phil Cokanasiga (twice).
In the end Edinburgh had a bit too much power but this was a valiant effort and picking up a losing bonus point wasn’t a bad result.
An understrength Dragons side also performed well and were robbed of an opportunity to have a shot at claiming a draw when the officials failed to penalise Leinster for a shocking high tackle on Levi Douglas.
The structure of the professional game does need to be radically altered but considering the position the Welsh Rugby Union put the four clubs in this weekend they all deserve a place in the winners’ column.
Losers
WRU
The WRU’s management of the game in Wales has led Welsh rugby to this point.
When Wales were successful under Warren Gatland a number of prominent figures warned the governing body that unless they invested heavily in the professional game and the pathways then they would slip back into the doldrums in the future.
They were right.
Years of neglect along with poor decision after poor decision has turned Welsh rugby into a laughing stock.
The WRU’s decision to organise an out-of-window Test match on the same weekend as a full round of URC fixtures has gone down like a lead balloon.
It was poor timing but this game was arranged back in 2017 but was delayed because of Covid and the money made goes back into the game.
But still it wasn’t ideal.
However, the WRU should be heavily criticised for a top-heavy approach which starved funding from everything underneath the men’s national side.
You reap what you sow.
Eben Etzebeth
The 34-year-old is one of the greatest second-rows to have ever played the game but World Rugby should throw the book at him for what he did to Alex Mann.
In the dying embers of the game Etzebeth appeared to intentionally put his thumb into Mann’s eye.
The giant South African received a straight red card but he should now receive a significant ban.
It was an act of thuggery that has no place on a rugby field.
There should be zero tolerance when it comes to any intentional contact with the eye and World Rugby should make an example of the Springboks legend.
Steve Tandy
The Wales head boss inherited an absolute mess upon replacing Warren Gatland.
It was always going to take an extremely long time for Tandy to see tangible improvements.
There were some small signs in the first three games, particularly in attack but Saturday’s horror show at the Principality Stadium emphasised just how far off they are from competing with most other tier one nations.
Yes, Wales were missing some key players due to the game falling outside of World Rugby’s designated international window but even if they were available it still would have resulted in a hiding.
This is not Tandy’s fault but this could get much worse for the 45-year-old because he does not have enough top-class Test players to turn Wales around.
Wales pack
When Wales were successful under Warren Gatland they had a pack of forwards who could win an arm wrestle against the strongest sides in the world, including South Africa.
But currently Wales lack size and power up-front, while they do not have enough athletes.
Predictably the Wales pack got annihilated in every aspect of play by the world champions, while both Argentina and New Zealand also dominated Tandy’s side up-front.
But perhaps the most concerning performance came in the narrow victory over Japan where Wales came second best physically against Eddie Jones’ side.
Yes, they looked decent at times with ball in hand and scored some nice tries against the All Blacks but unless they start getting a physical foothold in the game they stand very little chance of avoiding an unprecedented third-straight wooden spoon in the upcoming Six Nations.
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