Wales make it painful viewing for Red Rose

KICKING off at 9pm this Friday (May 8), S4C will fill the rugby void by rerunning the first of three Wales-England matches, all of which ended in tears for the Red Rose. The Welsh-speaking channel’s ‘Classic’ series starts at Twickenham more than 30 years ago when the visitors picked not one fly-half but four. The main man, Jonathan Davies, had three other tens outside him, one at full-back, Anthony Clement of Swansea, and two more in the centre, Mark Ring and Bleddyn Bowen. A non-fly half, Adrian Hadley, ran in both Wales’ tries from the left wing. While they will enjoy the replay, three of England’s team from that second round of the 1988 Five Nations will probably prefer to give it a miss. For Mike Harrison, Kevin Simms and Les Cusworth it brought their Test careers to an abrupt end. As well as giving Chris Oti his first cap for the next match, the selectors recalled Will Carling and Rob Andrew with Nigel Melville succeeding Harrison as captain, albeit briefly. S4C are also dusting down the tapes to show England coming to grief in Cardiff in 2005, when Wales were under Mike Ruddock and again eight years later by a record margin, under Rob Howley. Wales-France from 1994, when Scott Quinnell ran riot, will also be featured. Two programmes devoted to World Cup matches from yesteryear will feature a more recent dose of English pain, as inflicted at Twickenham during the 2015 tournament. Had it not been for Lloyd Williams’ matchwinning touch as an emergency left wing, who knows, Warren Gatland could have ended up out of a job instead of Stuart Lancaster.