We’ll soon be back on top

AFTER watching the Scotland match I have concluded what is wrong with the Welsh team: coaching. No,not coaches but coaching itself.

There’s far too much of it about I say. Let’s get back to the good old days when the team just met for a “run out” on the friday afternoon.

Barry shouts to Gareth “you throw it lad (the ball),and I’ll catch it”. Then after discussing a few lineout calls it’s home (by public transport). Then, on match day it’s down to Cardiff (by public transport). Dai (for it is he) clutches close to him the old kit bag which his tadcu brought back from the Great War. It contains a pair of red socks specially knitted for him by his old nain, even with her arthritis.Before the match the players are given their jerseys by an old Welsh international who is slightly worse for wear, having spent too much time in what passed for a “hospitality suite” (an old shed round the back of the North Stand). He tries to rouse the boys by talk of great moments in Welsh History:Owain Glyndwr, the Welsh archers at Agincourt,and Bois Y Castell (Llandeilo) winning at Llangollen. Then onto the pitch. Some of the boys (heavy smokers) are already out of puff. The crowd is singing not “Hymns and Arias”, but “Peter West hah! hah! hah! Bill MacClaren is commentating, but looks a bit silly as television hasn’t been invented yet. The Welsh captain knocks out the Irish captain in front of the Prince of Wales. Wales

lose, but the captain is offered a bout with Tommy Farr. After the match it was none of this fancy showering stuff, but a tin bath with an inch of mud in the bottom. No water just mud. And none of this fancy banqueting and prosecco. No, pie and chips down Caroline Street, followed by Brains dark down the Splott arms (next to the old Cardiff Royal Infirmary). Then Dai gets on the bus with the supporters (he forgets he came by train). They sing all the way back. Once home it’s strait to bed and dream of Triple Crowns. Then on the Monday buy the Western Mail to read JBG’s analysis. Yes,get rid of all that coaching nonsense and we’ll soon be back on top. Dr Cleanth Jones Rhuddlan