What Argentina-bound Wales learned from Fiji win

One look at the post-match attacking statistics and you would have thought Fiji had won comfortably.

The South Sea Islanders had 167 carries with 674 metres gained, 32 offloads with 24 clean breaks and 42 defenders beaten.

In stark comparison, Wales had 80 carries with 259 metres gained and just two offloads, five line breaks and 16 defenders beaten.

The first-half statistics were even starker than the final game findings as Fiji produced some dazzling build-up play - but only finished the opening 40 minutes with one try to their name.

So how did Wales end up outscoring Fiji by six tries to three?

It was a mixture of Fiji spurning those first-half chances, and sometimes as a direct result of desperate defence and remarkable resilience from the likes of Jac Morgan, Dillon Lewis and Joe Hawkins, among others.

New defence coach Peter Murchie will know there will be things to work on with 42 missed tackles, most of them in the opening half, and a team completion rate of 64%.

But Murchie and Tandy know they have the basis of the immense character of the squad to build on the defensive systems.

Wales were far superior to Fiji in their discipline and set-piece dominance.

The Fijians conceded 13 penalties to just six from Wales which allowed Tandy's side to exert the control.

And they did this in the first-half at scrum with Rhys Carre especially dominant as he also scored a fourth try in his fifth international.

On the other side, Lewis put down a marker for a regular run in the tight-head prop shirt with Tomos Francis, Keiron Assiratti and Archie Griffin missing, while replacement Ben Warren impressed on his first cap.

Three of Wales' six tries came from the driving line-out with Morgan diving over twice and replacement hooker Ryan Elias crossing late on.

Fiji also admitted afterwards Wales had dominated the contact area, while Wales looked physically fitter with the bench making an impact.

"We've been critical of this team over the last couple of years," former Wales fly-half Dan Biggar told ITV.

"The coaching staff, the players, everyone involved deserves a huge pat on the back.

"They could have gone behind early doors with Fiji having the opportunities they had but Wales got the set-piece game going.

"That's what we said before the game 'can they out-ball Fiji?' and 'can they out-set-piece Fiji?'

"They managed to get a game plan on the pitch and execute it."

It will not be breaking news to many Welsh fans that Wales have missed Jac Morgan.

The British and Irish Lions flanker was injured in Tandy's opening game in charge against Argentina in November and missed the next eight internationals.

Morgan, 26, returned on the Test stage in style with two first-half tries and a dynamic defensive effort, typified by at times acting as a human speed bump when stopping Fiji powerhouse Josua Tuisova.

Morgan was named player-of-the-match with his back-row colleague Aaron Wainwright not far behind him.

"Jac is incredible to play alongside," said Wainwright.

"I know he's been out for quite a while, but comes straight back in and he's relentless.

"He works his socks off and comes up at vital moments, whatever that may be making a last-ditch tackle in the 76th minute, tracking back, or winning a turnover for us, he's always there or thereabouts."

The major negative for Wales rugby was the fact the match was played in front of a disappointing crowd of 16,456 in the first rugby international played at Cardiff City's football stadium, which has a capacity of more than 33,000.

This victorious Wales side, who beat a team two places above them in the world rankings, deserved to have celebrated that success in front of more fans.

International rugby is supposed to be the pinnacle and should not be performed in front of thousands of empty seats.

This was the second successive week the Welsh men's side have played in front of underwhelming crowds after the 33-31 victory against Barbarians at the Allianz Stadium where two of the three Twickenham stands were closed.

Now we had the Cardiff City Stadium failing to sell out despite having a fan-friendly mid-afternoon kick-off.

Regardless of the semantics of this being an away Wales game with Fiji choosing to host their "home" match in Cardiff, Welsh rugby bosses should be concerned because this was a poor look to a worldwide audience.

It was the only opportunity for Wales fans to see their own national side in a competitive game in Cardiff this summer in a new tournament against one of the most entertaining sides in world rugby.

It proved the lowest crowd of six opening weekend Nations Championship matches, with Japan’s victory against Italy attracting 21,000.

We wait to see what crowds Fiji get at Liverpool against England and Scotland at Murrayfield In the coming two weeks.

Just under 70,000 fans watched Wales beat Italy at the Principality Stadium in mid-March, so where have those 53,000 supporters gone?

Factors such as poor results, apathy towards summer rugby, international rugby overkill and the Cardiff City Stadium not being seen as an appealing a location as the Principality Stadium must be considered.

Armchair supporters will have had other major summer sporting events like football's World Cup, Wimbledon and Formula One's British Grand Prix to concentrate on, while 35,000 people were watching American rapper Pitbull in an open-air Cardiff concert.

But the WRU, who will have been concentrating more on marketing their actual home games in November against New Zealand, Australia and Japan from which they will directly benefit, must not ignore how weary the Welsh public have become as a result of how the domestic game is being governed.

This week's pay row with the Welsh players, just another controversy in a long list, highlights the negativity surrounding the sport in Wales.

While Wales are beginning to get their act together and delivering on the field, it is time the WRU emulated this off the pitch.