Wales’ "inexcusable" defeat to Georgia in Cardiff should lead to serious questions being asked about the coaching staff.
So declared Jamie Roberts after Wayne Pivac’s team were beaten 13-12 in a Principality Stadium horror show on Saturday, and ex-Wales captain Sam Warburton also waded in, describing the loss as unacceptable and speculating about "deeper, underlying issues" and "something we perhaps don't know" which is affecting players' motivation.
Wales produced their worst display of the Pivac era, with their forwards outmuscled and their attack hopelessly blunt. They failed to score after the 24th minute, were smashed in the scrums as the game came to the boil and managed just two clean breaks all game against their second-tier opponents. The setback follows the home reverse against Italy in the Six Nations.
Read more: The disastrous Wales ratings on team's darkest day against Georgia
It led Roberts to address the issue of those running the national squad.
“I think there needs to be serious questions asked about the coaching side,” he said on Amazon Prime Video. “We talk about motivation of players. As a player, yes, you play for your country and you are wearing the three feathers, but you also play for your coach. And to see a Welsh side come out at half-time and put in a performance like that is unacceptable. So there needs to be serious questions asked.”
The much-decorated centre, a former national skipper himself and capped 94 times by his country, agreed “without a shadow of a doubt” it was the worst performance he had witnessed from Wales in Cardiff. "Wales were found wanting for desire," he said. "That’s what I was disappointed about. That’s what the Welsh rugby public will be most disappointed about. You are playing at home, against Georgia. No disrespect to Georgia, but this is a game we should be winning.
“Wales have lost to Italy and Georgia this year, within a 12-month period. It’s inexcusable and a very, very disappointing result from a Welsh perspective.”
Asked if he had detected life in the team, he replied: “There wasn’t any. Certainly in that quarter when the game was being fought for I didn’t see any fight from the Welsh lads. The scrum encapsulated that.
“I think the problems run a bit deeper. You look at the front five who were in that last couple of scrums —Jones, Wainwright, Roberts — hugely inexperienced. I would put fault in the system that Wayne potentially over the past few years hasn’t exposed those players enough to deal with those situations on the pitch, when it comes to crunch points in Test matches.
“He talks about responsibility. I think the responsibility lies with him as a head coach. It’s unacceptable, Wales losing to Georgia in a World Cup year.”
WIN: Free tickets to watch Wales v Australia in the final autumn international
His fellow Amazon Prime pundit Warburton was equally unimpressed, saying: “We’ve played with Taulupe Faletau, Justin Tipuric. These guys are people I loved playing with. They are real rugby warriors and tough men. I’m not questioning them.
“But I wonder, if it’s not being expressed on the pitch, there must be some kind of deeper, underlying issues. The players — why aren’t they motivated? Why aren’t they desperate? I don’t know what the answer is. I’m not challenging the players. There are some tough, great competitors out there, some of the best players I have ever played with. But for some reason, it’s not translating onto the pitch and there’s something that we perhaps don’t know which is why they are perhaps not fully motivated at the moment.”
He said he hadn’t heard Wales players geeing each other up during the match. “I was listening to the ref mic and I wasn’t hearing a whole lot. I remember [when he played] we were losing to a so-called lesser nation and in a team huddle and one of the senior lads was, like, ‘we cannot lose. It’s literally unacceptable to lose to this nation’. We went back out and in the second half we won.
“I was part of some bad results as well. We’ve all been there as players. But that’s not Wales [losing to Georgia]. We can’t stoop to that level.
“It’s great that Georgia have won. It’s great for the game. But we are playing at home. If you’re away on a summer tour, in a Lions year, you can swallow it but it’s still a tough pill to swallow. We don’t lose to Georgia in an autumn series 10 months from a World Cup. That’s not acceptable.”
Warburton also focused on the way the game is run in Wales.
“It’s easy for us to look at the situations on the pitch and what happened: which high ball did we lose? Which scrum went backwards? Which critical moment did we get wrong? The problems are way deeper than that.
“It was in the press a couple of weeks ago - the governance and the WRU. There are people there with best intentions who have been brilliant in supporting the community game and should definitely have a place. But it shouldn’t have a place in deciding what happens to a £100 million turnover company. We are trying to win a Rugby World Cup. It’s an old structure that’s been in place for a long time that doesn’t suit modern rugby whatsoever. That has to change.
“All good organisations start at the top. We can look at the pitch but we need to look way beyond that because the problems are much deeper. The cracks have been there for a long time and they are now finally coming to fruition. That’s the harsh truth about it.”
READ MORE:
Shambolic Wales humiliated by Georgia as Wayne Pivac's reign now facing serious questions
The disastrous Wales player ratings on team's darkest day against Georgia
Shaun Edwards decides future, reveals England meeting and is open to Wales return
Wayne Pivac refuses to give up and says Wales future is a 'question for others'
The full transcript of Wayne Pivac's tense press conference as job now on the line
