A beautiful autumn day in Cardiff provided an azure blue sky, an open roof and brilliant sunshine.

The seagulls basked on the riverbank as boats pottered up and down the flat calm river taff and all was right with the world.

Inside the Principality stadium however the climate was a totally different one, it became gloomy and it rained, it rained tries for Australia,and it cascaded errors and uncertainty for Wales.

Australia poured through a leaky Welsh defence once reknowned  for its watertight qualities, but which, on Saturday afternoon had more holes than a second hand dart board.

In an analysis of what went wrong for Wales the detailed answer is pretty much everything 

For Wales, the prospect of an eagerly anticipated victory over Australia,was replaced with the harsh reality that they were nowhere near good enough.

“Wales are notorious slow starters in the Autumn” has now overtaken  “You never know which French team will turn up”as the most annoying rugby cliche, sadly these days we now know exactly which French team will turn up, and the slow starts of Wales have now become a chronic inertia. 

The rain turned to ice, as Bernard Foley, known to his team mates as “Ice Man” orchestrated matters seemingly untouched, Wales, no doubt fearing the cold, decided to keep their distance and give him the freedom of Cardiff, allowing the brilliant Waratahs fly half to parade his talents free from any kind of pressure.

It was the Wallabies 600th test match, and on November 5th the fireworks were provided by the men in green and gold, all the men in red could bring to the party was  a huge damp squib.

So to the long range forecast, a deep depression is likely to sit over Wales for the foreseeable future, and with the Pumas arriving , we move from marsupials to big cats.

 There will be no room for tame pussy cats at the Principality stadium next Saturday.

COMING UP THIS WEEKEND

AUSSIE AMBUSH

Murrayfield will be packed with bitter Scots looking for some closure and a smattering of revenge after being robbed of victory against Australia in last years World Cup quarter final 

It should be a fascinating encounter and if the Scots have their way the Wallabies could well be heading home, via Paris, to think again.

TOULOUSE TERROIR  

On Saturday, France face Samoa in Toulouse where the pitch infesting fungus will be the real winner and undoubtedly get the better of both sides

Toulouse stadium has a dreadful playing surface that has been beset with problems let’s hope that there aren’t too many scrums.

 

 

ROMAN RUINS

The weekends most daunting task must surely go to the Azzuri who face New Zealand in Rome. 

An All Black side,outplayed by Ireland at the weekend, will be looking to take out their frustrations on the home team.

An unenviable  Italian job where the home side once again will be relying heavily on Sergio Parisse to blow the doors off the All Black machine.

It’s going to be a long and stressful afternoon for the scoreboard operator at the stadio olympico.

BOKSING DAY

At Twickenham a Springbok team low on confidence and belief,not eased by a 31-31 draw with the Barbarians, will surely find an England team with an abundance of both qualities, too hot to handle.

MADRID MATCH UP

Heading further south Spain face Tonga in Madrid, a great test for Spain one of the up and coming teams of Europe.

The full list of international fixtures this weekend