Carolyn Hitt,
IF YOU can’t wait for the Six Nations to start today, get in early and savour the build-up the WRU is laying on to avoid crowd carnage and ensure supporters’ safety.
Enhanced security measures are in place at the Principality Stadium which presents the logistical challenge of getting 74,500 fans through the turnstiles in a three-hour period from gates opening at 11.15am.
As the stadium bosses have stressed: “Put simply, around half that number must be seated in the first 90 minutes of opening to ensure everyone gets in for kick-off.”
That’s a big ask, but fair play to the WRU, they have the answer.
When they were urging fans to arrive early in the autumn, there were whinges from some supporters about being a captive audience with nothing to do before kick-off.
But today there is a programme of pre-match entertainment in place to stoke the atmosphere for Wales’ campaign opener – from music to sporting nostalgia.
Only Men Aloud will be delivering a set-list that ranges from U2, Tears for Fears and Tom Jones covers to classic rugby hymns, while the entertainment on the stadium concourses has also been ramped up with Merthyr singer-songwriter Jack Mason, Rhondda group The Pitchforks and indie folk band Ofelia all performing.
The usual choirs, regimental band and goat combo will of course be in attendance, with Blaenavon Male Voice and Cor y Penrhyn doing the honours this time.
But perhaps the biggest incentive to get in early will be the very first “performance” on the bill – an as-live screening of an iconic Wales v Scotland match decided upon by the fans themselves in an online poll.
They would have been spoilt for choice. The Cymru-Caledonia clash has arguably produced more colourful – and occasionally surreal – spectacles than any other meeting of nations in the long history of the tournament.
We’ve had bizarre records like the 111 line-outs of 1963, which spawned not only a change in the kicking directly to touch law but created the legendary joke about Clive Rowlands never passing anything… not even the salt.
The 2013 contest in Murrayfield saw a record penalty count of 18, but the most memorable kicking performance produced by the meeting of Three Feathers and Thistle has to be Paul Thorburn’s mighty 70-yard-eight-and-a-half-inch hoof in 1986.
“That kick alone almost led to me having an American Football career,” said the big-booted fullback.
Max Boyce reckoned the ball soared so far it was picked up by NASA.
There have been superb solo tries – and not just the Gareth Edwards 1972 classic that had Spike Milligan calling for a cathedral to be built on the spot. 1988 was the year Ieuan Evans seemed to sidestep the entire Scottish team – plus the ref – to score a try that left Bill McLaren purring: “Merlin the Magician couldn’t have done it any better.”
At Murrayfield in 1997 Arwel Thomas produced his Forrest Gump special. Welsh fans panicked the little maestro would run all the way to Haymarket station before grounding the ball.
And in 2008 Shane scored a corker, curving through the Scottish defence and slipping tackles on an explosive run. Only Nikki Walker lunging for his legs could shackle his progress.
So he showed his circus skills, sending his pins skyward and his right arm the right side of the corner flag. Emerging with an appropriate layer of greasepaint on his cheeks from the whitewash, Shane knew his acrobatics had done the trick.
There have been tight Celtic encounters decided at the death.
“An unforgettable contest that has just about everything one could wish for in a rugby union international… a match full of enthralling action and quality of interplay that left an indelible imprint on the memory of those fortunate enough to witness it” – that was the verdict on Scotland v Wales 1971, the classic match of its era famed for John Taylor’s “greatest conversion since St Paul” which clinched victory in the closing minutes.
There have also been matches in which Wales have simply dismantled Scotland.
An estimated 40,000 supporters took the high road in the Grand Slam year of 2005. They were rewarded with one of the most dazzling 40 minutes of rugby Wales have ever played.
From the moment a rampaging Ryan Jones started and finished the move that produced the first try, there was the sense that Ruddock’s men would score every time they touched the ball.
2009 produced a Welsh performance against Scotland – complete with a quartet of tries – that even Jeremy Guscott described as “perfect”.
And in 2014 Wales just smashed them.
The first half dismissal of Scottish full-back Stuart Hogg – as a yellow card turned to red on the slo-mo replay – contributed to the visitors ending the second half on the end of a record 51-3-hiding.
But who can forget 2010 – apart from the fans who left before the whistle, convinced Wales had lost.
They are the only ones who can’t picture that incredible finale which saw Shane seal victory in the dying seconds…and Andy Powell celebrate later with his M4 Munchies Expedition.
And this is the match that got the vote to be shown as today’s curtainraiser.
It has also inspired the BBC Wales trail plugging Wales’ opening game, with fans and players alike reliving the quite incredible drama of the closing minutes.
Looking back on the Scottish match of 2010, it was a bizarre Six Nations weekend from start to finish.
Friday night saw Derek the Weather talking about cold fronts on a live forecast from Glynneath RFC, oblivious to the fact a kilted Hawick supporter was exposing his own warm backside on Wales Today.
Newsflash took on a whole new
meaning…and tens of thousands of hits on YouTube.
Sunday morning saw Andy Powell stopped by police after steering a golf buggy down the M4 in search of a full Welsh breakfast.
But sandwiched in between, the events of Saturday afternoon brought the most sensational story of all in the shape of one of the most surreal last-gasp triumphs sport has ever seen.
At 75 minutes Wales were 10 points down. At such junctures eight years ago, the favoured cunning game plan was simple – Just Get The Ball To Shane. Standing still he took it and set off on an attack through a Scottish defence disrupted by injuries and a sin-binning.
From Lee Byrne the ball came to Leigh Halfpenny, who curved towards the posts as far as he could to set up the swiftest conversion Stephen Jones has ever taken.
With a minute on the clock Byrne looked set for a certain try, but Phil Godman took him out with the trip Andy Robinson would bitterly dispute.
Against the backdrop of 74,500 nerves shredding, captain Ryan Jones took a decision.
He would later amuse the press pack by describing it in graphically humorous terms…let’s just say Ryan put his, well, nether regions “on the block”.
Would Wales take the draw with the equalising penalty or was there time for the greater prize?
“The referee said we had time for more rugby,” Ryan explained. James Hook, suave in his post-match Eden Park garb, underplayed the drama of the decision. “We knew we had 10 seconds,” he twinkled, as if it was all the time in the world.
But when the clock is ticking with desperate urgency Just Get The Ball To Shane.
Forced to re-start with 13 men, an overwhelming red wave of attack washed over Scotland.
Before the crowd had time to gasp that Stephen Jones’ kick might land in opposition hands, Leigh Halfpenny gathered it safely, almost scoring himself before sending it left and keeping it alive for Shane to collect and ground with a triumphant arm raised to the open sky.
Some fans were so sure Wales could not come back they had exited early, depriving themselves of one of the greatest I Was There experiences in Welsh rugby history.
Those who remained streamed up the aisles smiling and shaking their heads at the wonder of it all.
Through fans, coaches and players there was a sense of privilege that we had shared in such an astounding sporting experience.
Spanning agony and ecstasy, emotions ran high on both sides.
Close to tears, Andy Robinson’s voice almost broke as he ended his interview urging the Scottish nation to take pride in their players. Gatland described it as “one of the most amazing games I’ve ever been involved in as a player and a coach” while his captain joked “any more like that and I’ll be as grey as Warren and as bald as Shaun!”
“Fortune favours the brave,” smiled Alun Wyn Jones when asked for his reflections on the extraordinary turnaround.
He expanded on the excitement of having a direct role rather than watching from the wings.
“We’re all fans, that’s how we start. It would be great to be on the outside looking in but to be on the inside is the best place of all.”
Yet as Welsh supporters hit the bars of Cardiff in delirious mood that year, they were thrilled with their bitpart in a drama that still resonates in the rugby memory.
Alex Todd-Jones a 26-year-old teacher from Pentre, Rhondda, described how the climax of the game had a bigger meaning.
“It was the life of a Welsh rugby supporter summed up in five minutes,” he grinned, “from down in the dumps to ecstatic heights in no time at all!”
Reliving that remarkable victory inside the stadium before this match is a great incentive for fans to arrive in time for the security measures to go smoothly – and let’s not forget they’re only in place in the interests of our own safety.
So come early. But Wales as you attempt to meet the challenge of the resurgent Scots, for the sake of the nation’s collective blood pressure, don’t leave it as late as 2010!