Here are your rugby morning headlines for Monday, March 21.
Warburton questions players' desire
Sam Warburton is among the pundits who have questioned the desire of the Wales players against Italy as the inquest into the shock 22-21 defeat continues.
A number of video clips have been shown as part of the BBC's post-match analysis of the game appearing to show Wales players not chasing kicks strongly or working as hard as we have come to expect over the years.
READ MORE: It's hard for Wayne Pivac to come back from this, but he shouldn't be the sole scapegoat
Asked by Rugby Special presenter Ugo Monye about an "unacceptable" lack of desire compared to the Italians, Warburton said: "I remember, sometimes that was thrown at me when I was a player and I used to think 'how can you say that because you weren't in the changing room with us'. But that is what it looked like to me. It looked like Italy were playing for their lives and everything depended on it but Wales lacked that intensity.
"We saw the Italians' desperation to chase and get on the ball. When you watched Wales players off the ball I thought 'are you desperate to not concede a try as if your life depended on it?' I'm not sure. "
Warburton also insisted Wales' problems run far deeper than just Wayne Pivac and the players.
"It would be easy to just look at the head coach and the players but I think Wales have been hiding behind much deeper issues. We have had a generally successful national team and poor regions, but now the national team is not doing so well.
"There is no alignment between the WRU and regions and now all those cracks that have been papered over are being exposed. We quickly need to align everyone because we don't have a huge player pool and we can't let any talent slip through the net. The WRU and regions need to be on exactly the same page and that is not the case."
Powell: Should AWJ retire to join coaching staff?
Former Wales back-row Andy Powell has questioned whether it is time for Alun Wyn Jones to retire in order to help the national team by joining the coaching staff.
Jones, 36, turned out for the 150th time for Wales on Saturday in the defeat by Italy, a milestone some believe it might be time for him to retire on. With Wales in disarray, as outlined by Davies and Shanklin above, the Welsh public are wondering how the downwards spiral can be stopped. Lions tourist Powell hypothesised that Jones might be the perfect man to join the coaching staff and put all of his experience to good use behind the scenes.
"Is it time the most capped player in rugby finished and helped the nation in coaching?" the 23-cap Powell wrote on Twitter.
READ MORE: Why time might be up for Alun Wyn
Former international shot dead
Former Argentina star Federico Martin Aramburu was reportedly shot dead in France over the weekend.
According to French outlet L'Equipe, th 42-year-old, who was an ex-Glasgow Warriors player, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Paris. They went on to state that the 22-times-capped international was involved in an argument in a bar with a group of people who later returned and shot him.
An image of Aramburu was shown on the big screen at the Stade de France before France's Grand Slam-winning match against England on Saturday night in tribute to him. Dimitri Yachvili, former France scrum-half and team-mate of Aramburu with club side Biarritz, said "the game has lost a brother who loved life".
Former Argentine rugby union player Octavio Bartolucci told an Argentinian news website: "It was terrible to wake up to this after spending all night with him.
"A group of us including myself and former teammate Jose Orengo had gone out for dinner. We hadn’t seen each for several years and we had a great time. We were talking about our families and work and those things. We finished eating and went to a bar and another after that and then Jose and I decided to call it a night.
"Federico stayed on because he had to meet up with a business partner at a travel agency he runs that takes people to rugby matches who I don't know. We found out about what had happened the following morning."
He added: "I understand there was an argument about something and then the shooting happened but I don't know anymore because we had parted company around 2am that morning."
Jones reveals disappointment after losing 150th match
Alun Wyn Jones admitted that to lose in such agonising fashion on the day of his 150th cap was disappointing.
The talismanic Wales lock strode out at the Principality Stadium for his 150th appearance in the red shirt on Saturday, a day which took a dramatic twist in the final minute when Edoardo Padovani crossed for Italy to earn the visitors a 22-21 victory in the Welsh capital.
Asked whether the result sullied the occasion of his 150th cap, Jones said: "Well, that's the focus, obviously. A lot has been said about the milestone, and the emotive stuff. I said in a couple of interviews in the week it was about the rugby and the win. Being one of the players coming into the squad you try to add to everything. On a personal level I'm disappointed with the result. It is what it is in many ways, but you have to focus on the rugby sometimes."
Jones marked the occasion by walking out onto the pitch in Cardiff with his daughters. The second-row said that, after many of his milestones coming away from Wales or without fans, the opportunity to share the day with his family was something to savour.
"I've put myself in a hole emotively in front of enough of you guys down the years. I'm not going to do that now," he added. "I said to Sonja [McLaughlin, the BBC reporter] on Thursday when you do something long enough, my first cap was in Patagonia, my 50th was at Twickenham, my 100th was at Eden Park there comes a point where you want to share it with your family.
"That was a big stick and carrot for me. It's almost a third attempt at the fact that in the midst of a global pandemic where we lost a few games there. I got injured in the autumn, and again the stick and carrot was there. Wayne [Pivac] said from the outset there'd be a potential opportunity to feature in this game."
Young admits Stormers 'a different level' to Cardiff Rugby
Cardiff Rugby boss Dai Young admitted his side could not handle the DH Stormers, who were "on a different level" as they romped to a 40-3 triumph over the Welsh capital city outfit on Sunday.
Young's men were hammered in Cape Town as the South African side dominated the United Rugby Championship clash. The Cardiff head coach said the Stormers were just too much for his team to handle.
“Obviously the weather was a factor which we’re not used to but the Stormers team were more of a factor," Young said after the match. “Sometimes you have to put your hand up, take on the chin and be honest, and I thought they were a different level to us today. Their physicality, their power and pace, was too much for us and we haven’t come across too many teams who have played like that and we struggled to cope.
“We were tired because we didn’t any possession or territory. It was something like 35% possession and even that was in our own half so there was little we could do.
“We didn’t hold onto the ball for long periods, we went to five phases once and got to three phases twice so you are never going to ask a team of the Stormers defence any questions. We were giving away penalties so we were constantly defending and defending so that drained the life out of us.
“Of course we are disappointed we lost but sometimes you just have to put your hand up, take it on the chin and it’s not easy to accept but the Stormers were a different level and we couldn’t cope with their physicality, their pace, their contact area was fantastic and we could get any of our game going.”
Cardiff take on the Warriors at the Arms Park on Saturday and Young knows his side have to put in a performance in front of a home crowd next time out.
“What we are taking is knowing we have a lot of work to do is we want to compete with the likes of the Stormers," he added. “We’re hugely disappointed with the result but we have to be honest with ourselves, dust ourselves off and work harder. If we want to compete we have to be so much better.
“We were beaten by a better team who have been operating at this level longer than we have and hopefully we will take a lot of learnings. We will look at ourselves hard, look at the things we can control and could have done better.
“We are on our own patch and we certainly want to bounce back. We’ll be honest with ourselves but we won’t beat ourselves up, what we concentrate on is Glasgow, which is now the most important game.”
