Ryan Elias admits "it's difficult to be positive" following France's record breaking hammering

Monday, 16 February 2026 at 19:49

byHarry Tovey

Wales and Scarlets’ Ryan Elias, following Wales’ 54-12 defeat against France, admitted that ‘it’s difficult to be positive' as his side shipped 102 points in their opening two matches of the 2026 Six Nations.

It was another defeat in the Welsh capital. It was another record-breaking day on and off the field. It’s hard to really judge Wales at a time when performances are improving, but to come up against a mesmerising France team, those improvements are hard to find.

Watch the Guinness Six Nations at your local Greene King sports pub.

Wales have now gone 13 games in the Six Nations without a win, and conceding more than 50 points a game has become an unwanted norm for Steve Tandy’s side. In some of those thrashings, particularly against New Zealand and Argentina, there have been glimmers of hope for Wales.

However, they all feel like distant memories. In comparison, Wales conceded 92 points in their opening three games of the 2025 Six Nations, with two of them away from home.

That’s been trumped, and with Scotland, a resurgent Italy side at home and a trip to Dublin to face Ireland, that already substantial amount of points yielded will rise further.

Speaking in the bowels of Principality Stadium, hooker Elias, who made his first Wales appearance in the contest since facing South Africa in the 2024 autumn internationals, added: "

“It’s difficult to be positive at times when you look at the scoreboard as it is.

“There are elements, definitely, that we can take confidence from, particularly the set-piece, the scrum, the lineout, which I felt worked well today. Defending the mauls, on the whole, it was pretty decent.

“They’re a top side, a very dangerous side. When you look at that first half, there were a few scores where, you know, you talk about slowing the ruck speed up and slowing the ball down.

“It’s hard to do that when the ball is being kept alive, and there’s no ruck. So they’re a top side, and they’re able to keep that ball alive, and it’s difficult to defend.

“They cause every team in the world issues, problems in that area. But there’s definitely a lot of learning for us. We keep talking about building and the journey we’re on, and as players, we’re all behind that fully.

“At the end of the day, you just got to keep rolling your sleeves up, keep believing, keep trusting each other, keep getting better, and it’ll come.”

These brutal defeats came as no surprise to many, particularly due to the position Wales found themselves in the world rankings. In their last four matches, they have played the top four sides in the world.

In those contests, it has displayed just how large the gap is for Wales to climb back up to claim those honours in the rankings once again. A climb that seemingly unlikely for the foreseeable.

But in head coach Tandy and Dewi Lake’s immediate post-match press conference, the pair were clinging on to the positives. On the importance of turning the slender positives into results, Elias added: “You got to look at the performance, as I said the scoreboard not great.

“But if you look at the performance and there’s definitely aspects of that performance, which was a step in the right direction from last week, albeit it was a totally different test.

“They have different strengths to what England had last week, there’s positives to take from it and you got to take any bit of confidence and belief and take it into Scotland.

“Obviously, that is going to be another difficult challenge. They proved that against England, so it’s going to be a physical one, I know that.