{"id":9350,"date":"2016-02-26T11:59:40","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T11:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=9350"},"modified":"2016-02-26T11:59:40","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T11:59:40","slug":"wales-closing-in-on-top-form-says-former-cardiff-winger-nigel-walker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/02\/26\/wales-closing-in-on-top-form-says-former-cardiff-winger-nigel-walker\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales closing in on top form, says former Cardiff winger Nigel Walker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WALES are &#8220;not a million miles away&#8221; from hitting top form, says ex-Wales and Cardiff winger Nigel Walker.<br \/>\n\u201cWhat Wales have lacked is that fluency, there have been too many errors,\u201d said Walker, who won 17 caps for Wales and forged a successful athletics career.<br \/>\n\u201cIf you want to play a more expansive game, you have to be more precise.\u00a0If you stick it up your jumper you can get away with being less precise, and it becomes more turgid.<br \/>\n\u201cBut they are not a million miles away, and I expect them to get better as the tournament goes on.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9351\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9351\" style=\"width: 443px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Nigel-Walker-pic.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9351\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-9351\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Nigel-Walker-pic-300x171.jpg\" alt=\"Walker in his playing days\" width=\"443\" height=\"253\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9351\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-9351\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Nigel-Walker-pic-300x171.jpg\" alt=\"Walker in his playing days\" width=\"443\" height=\"253\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> <strong>Nigel Walker in his playing days<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n\u201cI\u2019d expect them to be better again against France, and if they keep improving, by the time they play their fourth and fifth game they\u2019ll be a real handful.<br \/>\nDespite entering tonight\u2019s game unbeaten in their first two Six Nations fixtures, the French have been far from convincing.<br \/>\nHowever, Walker, 52, who is director at the English Institute of Sport, believes the French will pose a genuine threat tonight.<br \/>\n\u201cThere will be quite a severe test tonight,&#8221; he said.<br \/>\n\u201cFrance aren\u2019t the best team in the world at the moment, but they will pose a threat, although I do expect Wales to win.\u201d<br \/>\nOf France\u2019s new head coach, Walker said: \u201cGuy Noves has had a brilliant coaching career with Toulouse, but over the past few years Toulouse have struggled under his watch.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9353\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9353\" style=\"width: 461px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Nigel-Walker-pic-2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9353\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-9353\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Nigel-Walker-pic-2-300x171.jpg\" alt=\"Walker expects a Welsh victory tonight\" width=\"461\" height=\"263\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9353\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-9353\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Nigel-Walker-pic-2-300x171.jpg\" alt=\"Walker expects a Welsh victory tonight\" width=\"461\" height=\"263\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> <strong>Walker expects a Welsh victory tonight<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n\u201cThe difficulty with France is they have so many international class players, that over the past four or five years they have not known what their best 23 is, and that\u2019s why they have struggled.<br \/>\n\u201cI think they need to pick what they consider to be their best 23, and stick with that 23 for a period of time to let that side gel.<br \/>\n\u201cRather than one defeat, one unconvincing performance, and change the team.\u201d<br \/>\nArguably the most controversial selection ahead of tonight\u2019s encounter was the selection of the much-maligned Alex Cuthbert.<br \/>\n\u201cI was surprised because Tom James hadn\u2019t done anything wrong in the two games that he\u2019s played.<br \/>\n\u201cYes he broke clear on the blind-side, and many people criticised him for not scoring.<br \/>\n\u201cIs that a mistake? I don\u2019t know.\u00a0Should he have scored? Probably.<br \/>\n\u201cIt seems to me that he\u2019s been dropped for that, because he hasn\u2019t done anything else wrong.<br \/>\n\u201cI assume Alex Cuthbert has looked really sharp in training, and that the selectors want to see whether Alex Cuthbert has re-discovered the form he showed two years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WALES are &#8220;not a million miles away&#8221; from hitting top form, says ex-Wales and Cardiff winger Nigel Walker. \u201cWhat Wales have lacked is that fluency, there have been too many errors,\u201d said Walker, who won 17 caps for Wales and forged a successful athletics career. \u201cIf you want to play a more expansive game, you have to be more precise.\u00a0If you stick it up your jumper you can get away with being less precise, and it becomes more turgid. \u201cBut [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,4],"tags":[154,328,339],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-9350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rugby","category-sport","tag-rugby-2","tag-six-nations","tag-wales"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - 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