CLASH OF THE TITANS
THOUSANDS of excited rugby fans flocked to Cardiff yesterday to enjoy one of the most nail-biting fixtures on the rugby calendar. The Six Nations clash with England saw tens of thousands of supporters descend on the city, heading to the match or to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the occasion in one of Cardiff’s watering holes.
After optimistic predictions, sadly all the guts and determination in the world from Wales ul- timately wasn’t enough, with Wales being beaten 21-16 by England at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. With an atmosphere hours before the game that is undeniably unlike any other in the tournamentt – or even in the world of rugby – there is certainly something veryy special about the rivalry.
Welsh fans came out in their r numbers as the home side played their second fixture of this year’s Six Nations, following a win against Italy last weekend.
After some parts of Wales woke up to a dusting of snow yesterday, the weather certainly meant fans had to wrap up warm to combat the chilly temperatures – especially since Eddie Jones had decided the roof of the stadium would be open for the game.
Congestion was reported on many major roads as people poured into the Welsh capital, with the A470, M4 and A40 all seeing delays, and Cardiff council enforcing a full city centre road closure to cope with the volume of fans making their way round the city.
Fans from both home and away made the most of the atmosphere in the streets,
pubs and restaurants of Cardiff. They could be seen enjoying drinks together, indoors and outdoors, while traders made the most of the low temperatures to sell scarves, hats and gloves. Excitable fans were seen getting face paints on busy St Mary Street and near Cardiff Castle.
With the occasion and rugby rivalry unlike any other, supporters didn’t bat an eyelid at seeing countless dragons wandering around the city centre in search of a spot to enjoy the game, or at seeing grown men covered from head to foot in daffodils, or at seeing an English knight and Welsh dragon walking shoulder to shoulder as they headed to the game.
One of the most dramatic moments in the approach to kick-off was the arrival of the England team bus. Arriving at the Principality Stadium to the sound of boos, hundreds of fans lined Westgate Street to give a somewhat cold reception to Eddie Jones’ team.
It followed a week of antagonising comments from the England coach, in a week which saw Jones predicting dirty tricks from Wales in the build-up to the game, even suggesting traffic controllers in Cardiff would do their best to make sure the English were late.
He also insisted England would be ready for a hostile reception from Wales fans, saying: “You go to the hotel and unless you do things, players get rung incessantly through the night. Those things happen.
“You go to the ground and the traffic controller drives slower than the traffic’s going to make sure you’re late.
“You get to the ground and there’s something wrong with your dressing room – there are lights off or the heater’s switched off. Those things happen regularly in those sorts of countries.
“If they start throwing daffodils during the warm-up, or make us stand out there for 15 minutes, we can cope with all that. We are not concerned with what they do before or after. All we are concerned about is that we control them during the game.”
So it was, perhaps, unsurprising that fans turned out to let Jones know how they felt about the pre-match talk. Once inside the stadium, some fans were undoubtedly casting their minds back to the dramatic 2015 Wales v England stand-off that gripped us all – dubbed “Tunnelgate” since then.
But there was no such delay this time round. Both teams exited the tunnel to rapturous applause. They paused for a moment to remember South African legend Joost van der Westhuizen, who died on Monday aged 45 after battling motor neurone disease for six years.