In all the weekend’s excitement (not to mention work…) I almost completely forgot to write something about Wales’s extraordinary run to the final of the Hong Kong sevens.
Wins over Australia and Argentina in the pool stage (as well as a heavy defeat to South Africa) saw Paul John’s side top the group, and they easily saw off first Canada in the quarterfinals and then top sevens side Kenya in the semis.
Wales came so close to being crowned champions of Hong Kong
It’s getting hard to keep up with an almost unprecedented level of success for Welsh sport, with football, rugby and cycling in Wales all competing to trump the others.
But, after yesterday’s FA Trophy win at Wembley for Wrexham, football could have the upper hand again.
Andy Morrell’s side currently sit third in the Football Conference (one place ahead of Welsh rivals Newport County), but yesterday’s shoot-out win over Grimsby in front of more than 35,000 people at the home of English football ensures that, following Swansea City’s 5-0 win over Bradford City in the League Cup final last month, every English trophy won so far this season has gone to a Welsh club.
With Newport and Wrexham challenging at the top of the Conference, and Swansea City settling into the top half of the Premier League – and with their sights set on a European campaign next season – this season would already be a success for Welsh football even without the national side’s 2-1 win in Scotland.
Oh, and Cardiff City, who sit on top of the Championship, with a nine-point automatic promotion cushion. Barring a spectacular (though, for Cardiff, hardly atypical) late-season collapse – if Cardiff were to reach the play-off final and make it a hat-trick of Welsh teams at Wembley this season, it would be very disappointing from their point of view – it could turn into just about the perfect season for Welsh football.
As if Welsh sport needed more good news after this, this, this and this, the International Paralympic Committee this week announced the 2014 Athletics European Championships would be coming to Wales.
Ahh… Been itching about this! Swansea win the bid for the IPC Europeans next year! A big comp on welsh soil! #buzzin
— Aled Davies MBE (@AledDavies2012) March 22, 2013
From the Olympic Stadium to Swansea University…
The championships will be held at Swansea University, which is quite a coup for them – especially if the national media embraces the six-day event with a London 2012-inspired zeal.
Among those who could be competing in Wales will be ParalympicsGB stars David Weir, Richard Whitehead and Welshman Aled Davies as well as the world’s fastest Paralympian, Jason Smyth from Ireland.
I believe Swansea, Wales is to host next years @paralympic European Champs. Bring it on! Should be a great championships.
— Jason Smyth (@smyth_jason) March 21, 2013
And because I’ll use any excuse to put a video of it here, let’s have another look at Richard Whitehead’s outrageous gold medal at London 2012:
Another weekend, another battle of Britain, another Welsh win.
After the glorious thrashing of Grand Slam-chasing England, Wales’s footballers ground out a 2-1 win at Hampden Park against Scotland yesterday.
The World Cup qualifier followed much the same pattern as the reverse fixture last year: in atrocious conditions, Scotland went 1-0 up before two late goals secured the three points for Chris Coleman’s side.
But, this time, instead of Wales being reliant on the world’s third best player Gareth Bale, it was a penalty from Aaron Ramsey and a header from Hal Robson-Kanu which propelled Wales to third in qualifying Group A and sent the dire Scots to the bottom of the table.
Wales are still some way adrift of group leaders Belgium, and it would be a massive surprise if they were even able to make it into the play-offs for a place in Brazil next year.
But for Wales to have won their third game in their last four is a positive step, and if the form continues it should at least sets us up for an easier group in qualifying for the 2016 European Championships.
And if Wales can beat Croatia in Swansea on Tuesday…
Dan Lydiate was the player of the Six Nations last season according both to a poll here and also on the Six Nations’ official site.
It was a disastrous tournament for the French, but they have two representatives on the shortlist of 12 (two more than Ireland)
But with the Wales flanker absent this year through injury, who has been the stand-out performer in this year’s tournament?
The shortlist of 12 is my own, so apologies in advance… but you can always suggest someone else if you feel they deserve it.Note to English fans: votes for Steve Walsh won’t be counted.
Of the dozen on my list, there are four Welshmen – bear in mind I am Welsh – three Englishmen, two each from France and Scotland and an Italian.
No Irish players unfortunately, although Simon Zebo looked like he might well have made the list had he played more than one single game (what a performance it was by the winger in Ireland’s solitary win, on the opening weekend against Wales).
By Andrew Curry
I’d just like to say congratulations to Wales for winning the tournament. Superb display against England, Leigh Halfpenny was just phenomenal.
But do you think it throws up more questions than it answers? I should probably admit here and now that I am an Englishman and a die-hard England supporter through thick and thin, but I don’t think this was as good news for Wales as it has been made out to be.
Wales still have to prove themselves against southern hemisphere opposition
So the things you said in that post, I thought I’d reply from an England point of view (and nowhere near an expert one!!) Adam Jones as player of the tournament? No. Your scrum was OK in 4 of the 5 games. It was decent against Italy when Castro struggled and they didn’t have Parisse adding some shunt. But it was average against Ireland and went down like a cheap hooker against Scotland. Yes, yes cue Brian Moore and everyone else chirping away about how ‘streetwise’ and ‘canny’ AJ and GJ are but if you think that’ll work everytime you’re having a laugh.
JPR Williams suggests that Dan Cole has been banished to the midweek team. I doubt it. He scrummages very well and often legally (which isn’t very common) and is ferocious in the loose… I make only the suggestion that had we had Corbisiero fit and a different ref then the scrum would have been even. The result would not have changed (Wales were on a different level) but at least Dan Cole would not have his reputation unfairly attacked by parochial bandwagon jumpers.
Tuilagi and Barrit are not the answer. We didn’t need a 30 point mauling to tell us this.
Tipuric was very good. Warburton was excellent. Robshaw was superb. If you want an answer as to how Warburton and Tipuric respond to playing on the back foot, go back and watch any of Wales’ games since 2011. Invisible to a man. Watch Robshaw against South Africa (a game we lost by one point due to his ‘poor captaincy’) and you’ll agree he was the best player on the pitch by a country mile. Scavengers are like scrum halves. The great ones are great when your pack is going backwards.
Wales were unbelievably good from 1-15 but any Welsh fan who realistically saw that result or that performance coming is as big a liar, as short of sight and with as many screws loose as the Kearney selectors you mention. Wales have been pretty mediocre since this fixture last year. Escaping Twickenham with a win was impressive and we all know about the 8 defeats on the bounce. Needless to remind you that they were to a light Australian team, an out of sorts Argentina and Samoa. Plus the embarrasing capitulation to New Zealand. Why is it that Wales play to their strengths ONLY when everyone writes them off OR when they play England?
Don’t give me the same rubbish that idiot JPR Williams (greatest player to grace the game but shocking pundit, almost as bad as Clive) spouts about the nationalities. IF that’s truly the reason then you’ll never be more than bit part players. sneaking as many England defeats as you can and failing on the great stage. I read once that ‘Wales play on confidence, they desperately need momentum whereas England think they can win even when they’re crap.’ When are the Welsh going to realise that they are good enough to beat the best? England aren’t the best, nowhere near and, for once, we don’t actually think we are. That win against NZ was a freak. a one off from a team that flatters to deceive. This result, in the cold light of day, should make Welsh fans LIVID. You’ve got the bloody players! You’ve got one of, if not, THE best tight fives. you’ve got THE best full back IN THE WORLD, you’ve got a terrific openside in Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric would get edged out by Dan Lydiate in my opinion but talk about top class problems! Mike Phillips can be unbelievably good when he wants to be and with front foot ball and the type of stand off that the Welsh valleys can muster you could cut teams to shreds on a whim BUT YOU DON’T.
Wales-France this year was a travesty. Coming from an England fan who watched England under Andy Robinson you know when we find a game boring it must be of glacial pace but that was utterly dire. Where was your Welsh flair? Where was your passion for the game then? Oh look, you’re playing the ‘arrogant English’ with nothing to lose in your own back yard. Now you play amazingly well. Please don’t take this as sour grapes, I don’t mind that we lost. I can think of few teams in world rugby who would have stood up to THAT onslaught at scrum and breakdown. but i can think of even fewer teams in world rugby that would have elicited such a performance.
String a few games with that type of performance together and I will admit that this Welsh team is the greatest your country has mustered (as all your stats suggest). Fail to do so and Wales will always be the plucky underdog, tussling for scraps off the southern hemisphere’s table…
An Early Bath 