The perils of being a Welsh fan in Leicester

I spent all day yesterday in Leicester, watching the Six Nations games in a pub then heading off to watch the Premiership clash between the Tigers v Saracens at Welford Road in the evening.

And it was a good rugby day out, set up by a Welsh victory in Italy which means it’s now four consecutive away wins for Wales in the Six Nations.

The first half was not pretty, albeit in torrential Roman rain, but Wales never really looked like losing.

“Well it wasn’t a bad little bantamweight skirmsish that, was it…but we can’t condone a punch on the international field.” – Huw Llewelyn Davies in his previous incarnation as a BBC commentator

Unfortunately, the pub I was in had no sound for that game, meaning I only found out at half time (via Twitter) commentator Andrew Cotter decided he was sick of the game just 10 minutes in. The lack of sound was a shame, because I like listening to Jiffy, who stood in for Cotter, and particularly Huw Llewelyn Davies, who was drafted in from S4C at the interval.

I sometimes listen to commentary on S4C when it’s Huw Llewelyn Davies behind the mic simply because the sound of his voice is for Welsh fans (me at least) almost akin to Bill McLaren. As a side note, I mentioned HLD’s name in passing in a blog post a couple of weeks ago after I watched a re-run of France v Wales from 1999, and as a result of his promotion yesterday, I had one of the most popular days on this blog ever.

Anyway, the Wales game was satisfactory, especially as it meant a group of English fans were not able to point and laugh at us, as they threatened to do each time Italy went forward.

So in that context, you’d have thought they wouldn’t have reacted as angrily as they did to us politely applauding a superb solo try from France’s Wesley Fofana during “Le Crunch”.

But no, an almost-perforated eardrum as the large Englishman screamed in celebration directly into my good ear following the Manu Tuilagi try tells a different story. At that stage, I didn’t fancy pointing out to him the try should blatantly not have been awarded for a clear offside as the ball was hacked through. Coupled with his interpretation of the breakdown and after the 2011 World Cup final, the French would be forgiven for thinking Craig Joubert once suffered an Andrew Cotter-like reaction to garlic snails during a trip to Paris.

This from Stephen Jones of the Sunday Times:

Just off to Paris for the Freedom of the City ceremony for Craig Joubert

— Stephen Jones(@stephenjones9) February 23, 2013

@ppblackman he was absolutely shocking and all one way

— Stephen Jones(@stephenjones9) February 23, 2013

 

Even so, the best thing about the English victory is that it sets up what could be a Six Nations showdown in Cardiff in three weeks’ time – and even if Wales would probably have to win by at least 20 points in order to win the title, denying England a Grand Slam would probably be sufficient for most of the Millennium Stadium.

Rugby has changed so much since Wales’s win in Paris in 1999

If you haven’t yet seen Scrum V Classics’ look back at Wales’s 34-33 win over France in Paris in 1999, make sure you do (it’s available until Saturday).

It was first of two one-point victories in that season’s Five Nations – the final edition of the tournament – but, being only 10 years old at the time, I have a hazy memory of it. In fact, I can only remember Thomas Castaignède’s 82nd-minute missed penalty, and I still get nervous as I watch him line it up.

But having just watched the extended highlights, I was struck by quite how much rugby has changed in a decade and a half:

• Defences were ill-disciplined and, frankly, quite poor: witness the first 15 minutes of the game, during which Wales could have scored about four tries. Games may not be as exciting these days, but rather than increasing weakness in attack, it is primarily because fitness levels are so much higher. Professional rugby was only a few years old in 1999, and concepts such as the Welsh trips to ice chambers in Poland would have been completely alien to those players. Dafydd James (6ft 3in, 15st 8lb) was a big winger, and in that respect was a bit of a freak. For reference: George North is 6ft 4in, 17st 2lb and Alex Cuthbert is 6ft 6in, 17st.
• When was the last time an international game saw nearly 70 points without one side running away with it? I might have forgotten a really obvious recent one, but I have no problem thinking of low-scorers. This weekend, we’ve seen France 6-16 Wales and Ireland 6-12 England. A few weeks ago, I shivered in front of Leicester 9-5 Toulouse. In the 2011 World Cup, we saw New Zealand 8-7 France, France 9-8 Wales, Australia 11-9 South Africa, Ireland 15-6 Australia…
• Kickers then – the metronomic Neil Jenkins aside – were much less reliable. Give away a penalty in your own half against pretty much any of the top sides today, and you’re likely to concede three points. But Castaignède missed three relatively straightforward kicks in that game in ’99, and even Jenkins couldn’t convert from further out. Now, with defences meaner, the importance of kicks at goal has intensified: in the France-Wales and Ireland-England games this weekend, only one try was scored.
• Scrums were less of an issue. This is possibly my biggest bugbear at the moment. More than eight minutes of the France-Wales game this weekend was eaten up at scrumtime; it’s a huge chunk of the game to be wasted, and it happens at every game at every professional level. I don’t really have a clue about whether penalties and free kicks given at scrums (11 out of 16 on Saturday resulted in one of the two) are justified, so I don’t know if the referees themselves know. But it is a mess, frustrating and pointless. I don’t know what can be done to stop the wasting of so much time at scrums, although decent pitches would help – I’m looking at you, Stade de France and Millennium Stadium – but I would like to see the IRB decide the game clock should stop from the moment a scrum is awarded until the ball is out of there (or a similar variation). This might well be the subject of a future post all of its own.
• On a fairly superficial level, the players’ kits were baggy, long-sleeved and look pretty cumbersome. No high-tech jerseys back then; indeed, no sponsors either.
• Obviously the rules, which are always adapting, were different; for example, TMOs were yet to be introduced. It was slightly strange seeing Wales’s number 17 showing off a bit of unlikely pace – until I realised it was Gareth Thomas. That number is now used for replacement props.
• I realised Huw Llewelyn Davies was, and is, a superb commentator.