Biggar highlights discipline and physicality in defeat

Wales captain Dan Biggar was open and honest in his assessment of Wales’ crushing loss to Ireland in Dublin on Saturday afternoon.  

Referee Jaco Peyper blew the final whistle with the scoreboard showing 29-7 in favour of the Irish after the latter turned the screws on their opponents in a truly dominant display. 

The hard-working Taine Basham snatched an opportunistic try late in the game to give his team’s score a modicum of respect, but it was not a performance Wayne Pivac’s men could be proud of. 

“We said the discipline and the physicality were the two things that we needed to bring, coming to Dublin, and we probably didn’t get those two quite right across the whole 80 minutes,” Biggar said postmatch. 

“There is no doubt it was a frustrating afternoon. We didn’t get enough front-foot ball or dominate enough collisions to really allow us to put pressure on Ireland for large periods, like they did to us. 

“Ultimately, Ireland won too many physical collisions, and for us, for whatever reason, that is what we need to go back on and have a look over the weekend and on Monday. 

“The collisions in rugby, if you don’t win them and especially against a team the way Ireland play, it was going to be a hard afternoon, and that is how it turned out. That will be a huge focus for us this week, along with the discipline. 

“We are better than that today, really. We know we are better than that, and we have got to make sure we get a bit more edge to us in training this week. 

“Not overthink things, because there is not a huge amount to fix. Physicality is a huge one, and discipline. I am really proud to lead the team out, but it was a disappointing afternoon, there is no doubt about that.” 

Wales will have a chance to redeem themselves next weekend when they tackle Scotland in Cardiff – a tough assignment as the Scots will take the field with their tails up after downing the English in Round 1. 

 B