After all, Wales have only won one Test match since 2023, while Argentina can count New Zealand among their conquests this year.<\/p>\n
This was Steve Tandy’s first game as Wales head coach, a fresh start of sorts, but the attendance was 50,185 – the lowest for a non-Covid-era game since 2016.<\/p>\n
It’s all relative – many sporting entities would love that kind of support – but it is still a sizeable drop from the capacity crowds of close to 75,000 which the Welsh Rugby Union has come to rely on for much of its income.<\/p>\n
Whereas sell-outs used to be a given, there is now an acceptance of Wales’ new reality.<\/p>\n
And more striking than the empty seats was the way in which that acceptance manifested itself in such a flat and passive atmosphere.<\/p>\n
Yes, the volume increased as Wales briefly fought back with two tries to level the score during the first half – but that optimism was short-lived.<\/p>\n
You can’t really blame the fans. This was a 10th successive home defeat for Wales, with the two most recent visitors racking up 120 points between them.<\/p>\n
Yet as those supporters streamed out onto Westgate Street after the final whistle, much of the chatter was strangely upbeat. <\/p>\n
Some were impressed by the sharper looking attack, others encouraged by the brief spells where Tandy’s young charges competed with superior opposition.<\/p>\n
But it is a grim state of affairs when conceding 52 points at home – having shipped a record 68 against England on their last outing at this stadium – is considered par for the course for Wales.<\/p>\n
Even for a country which has swung wildly from soaring highs to crushing lows throughout its tumultuous rugby history, this is a nadir for the game in Wales.<\/p>\n
You would not have known this team were Six Nations champions four years ago; Grand Slam winners and World Cup semi-finalists two years before that.<\/p>\n
By now, they are languishing in 12th in the world rankings. Losing has become so routine that people have become desensitised to the humiliation.<\/p>\n
That is why each Argentina try prompted little more than a puff of the cheeks from those watching in the stands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After all, Wales have only won one Test match since 2023, while Argentina can count New Zealand among…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-275223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}