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.