‘F*****g carry harder!’ Unheard moments as Wales end in confused mess against France

As Wales secured turnover ball in their own half, something just didn’t seem right.

From the press box, it just looked all a bit, well, chaotic. Not chaotic like the rugby chaos that Rob Howley speaks of, but just confused.

With countless numbers out wide, Wales just skipped it all – throwing a miss-infinity hospital pass to Josh Adams, with the winger being smashed back.

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In disarray, Welsh bodies ambled around in panic. Beyond the battle to retain possession at the ruck, Adam Beard ever so slightly manhandled Elliot Dee from behind, moving into position to carry off nine.

Only briefly, but it was enough of a subtle indication that Wales didn’t quite have their bearings. At the next ruck, Gareth Davies was charged down by Romain Taofifenua and it was game over.

Under the sticks, Adam Beard gesticulated wildly, pointing to different parts of the pitch – likely highlighting moments where Wales had made life unnecessarily hard for themselves. As players trudged back for the restart, Owen Watkin puffed his cheeks out in a hopeless manner.

If Warren Gatland had called one moment of madness by Josh Adams in the opening defeat to Scotland “dumb”, then who knows what word he’d have come up for this passage of play.

What made it all the more galling was that, up until then, Wales had been good. Maybe as good as they’ve been in this tournament.

Gatland had tried the patience of the masses who have, so far, accepted that this is a team at the start of a rebuilding phase when he made some experimental changes for the seemingly winnable clash with France. A new and untested centre partnership was the main gripe for some.

But, the pairing of Watkin and Joe Roberts – particularly the former – highlighted where Wales had been able to keep themselves in the fight for over an hour.

Communication had been the key point Gatland wanted to see from his fresh centre partnership and Watkin certainly delivered on that front.

As Wales defended admirably against the might of France’s power, the Ospreys centre could continually be heard barking orders – “Numbers, numbers,” he called on one occasion as he identified the threat on the openside, shifting back behind the ruck to populate the defensive line.

In attack, where Wales were able to cause problems if they put together five phases or more against Shaun Edwards’ defence, he was decent. As Wales hit that magical fifth phase, the centre drifted behind the front-line, pointing captain Dafydd Jenkins in the direction of his opposite number Nicolas Depoortere.

Jenkins ran a hard line at the French centre, allowing Watkin a little space to glide through to set up Tomos Williams’ score when he took Sam Costelow’s pass. It was all indicative of the tempo that Wales had looked to set in a frantic first-half performance.

On his 50th cap, hooker Dee, thrust into the starting side late on, marched to the touchline early on in proceedings, looking to get the Welsh lineout going as soon as possible.

“Ball, ball, ball,” he continually cried as he clapped his hands, looking for someone to hand him one. After one eventually came, he turned to one of Wales’ medics pitch-side, likely to bemoan the fact that things were running a little slowly on that front.

After Rio Dyer had crossed for the opening try, Dee returned to the sideline to apologise to one of the ball-girls. A nice touch, given it wasn’t as if any ire had been directed from Dee at anyone in particular.

That spot on the sideline would provide Dee with some other rare moments on his milestone appearance. It’s not often you see an assistant referee call over a player for a live demonstration, but that’s what happened in one stoppage.

After a brief chat with Jenkins, Dee was summoned to discuss where he was throwing the ball into the lineout, with the hooker standing on the line to try and show he wasn’t trying to shave a few extra inches of the distance between him and his jumper.

On another occasion, as Dee walked to that same spot on the sideline, this time he was deep in conversation with referee Luke Pearce.

“Don’t make me go there,” was the official’s end-line to the conversation, whatever it had been about. It could have been about anything in fairness – with lineouts having been a point of discussion between Wales’ players and Pearce.

The referee was making a point of calling the nominated scrum-half for the the throwing team at each lineout, with Wales failing to make clear who the intended receiver was.

“I said before the game to make it clear who the receiver was,” said Pearce to Adam Beard. “If I don’t see one, I’ll call no receiver. So put your hand up”

Scrums too, given France’s dominance, were also a topic of conversation. From the outset, you could see how that battle was going to play out.

Ahead of the first scrum, Pearce gave some comments to each front-row – with the referee switching between English and French to do so.

“Very slow, Wales,” he said. “France, c’est bon.” Unsurprisingly, given that’s French for ‘that’s good’, France got a scrum penalty seconds later.

For all the French-language interactions by Pearce, his best quip to a French player still came in English. As the officials ruled a French score that was ultimately chalked off for a knock-on, French captain Gregory Alldritt jogged over to Pearce to give his own thoughts.

“You should be a TMO,” responded Pearce. Even with that reprieve, more tries would come for France.

In the end, their power told, leaving Wales to learn another hard lesson at this level.

As they searched in vain for a consolation, the shouts of one Welsh voice against the tide of blue jerseys told the story of the day.

“F*****g carry harder,” it cried. Easier said than done, sometimes.