Wales have the world at their feet
With 12 wins in a row, this classy team can’t stay under radar
The greatest Welsh team in history? Mind games. everyone agreed. When eddie Jones talked up the opposition prior to arriving in Cardiff, he was merely trying to mess with their heads.
Flatter them into complacency, or make them feel pressure. he was trying to turn them english. Trying to give Wales the issues his england team live with daily.
Warren Gatland summed up the difference. Wales, he said, had been allowed to travel under the radar, england came expected to win by 15 points, maybe more.
Yet Wales had already equalled a national record of 11 consecutive wins that had stood since 1910.
england had delivered one very impressive performance against Ireland in Dublin, and beaten a flaky French team at home.
how can that be? how can history-makers, as Wales now are, exist in comparative obscurity? Why is so much expected of england? Boom or bust, Jones called it. ‘It’s part of english sport,’ he said. ‘You guys love it. That’s what you’re about.
‘You’re happy when it’s bust and you’re happy when it’s boom. I can’t control that. We’ve got to be good enough to see the truth, the reality of it.’
Yet asked what that reality was, Jones’s reply was unenlightening. ‘That we weren’t good enough today,’ he added. ‘I don’t know how many times I’ve got to say it.
‘They were too good for us, and there’s no shame in that. There was no lack of effort, no lack of tactics. We just weren’t good enough but we’ll learn from that.
‘These things happen. Sometimes you get beaten by a better team, and you’ve just got to lick your wounds and get on with it.’
Yes, except it’s World Cup year, and england are running out of time to lick wounds and get on with anything. Gatland’s appraisal of a group who have fallen short on some big occasions of late seemed nearer that reality.
The win in Ireland appeared a turning point but not if that level cannot be maintained.
england are a good team, and any good team will deliver good results on an ad hoc basis, but great teams win World Cups, and great teams are those who go out and win over and over again: 12 times, for instance.
Now all sorts of caveats can be placed against Wales’ streak. It can be said that the 12 games do not include a fixture with the best team in europe (Ireland) or the best team in the southern hemisphere, New Zealand. One of those tests is ahead, as the climax to this Six Nations Championship, so we shall see.
Yet the run does embrace three other leading nations — South Africa, Australia and Argentina — and now england.
One third of the matches are against countries who have won a World Cup, and five are away from home, including one on neutral territory. It might not equate to the finest Welsh team, given some mighty predecessors, but it is consistent and meaningful, and establishes Wales as World Cup contenders later this year.
except few view them as such. It is one of the anomalies of Celtic rugby.
There is a reason, it is said, that Celtic players have such passion for the British and Irish Lions. It is because they know it will be the pinnacle of their careers.
This presumes there will be no World Cup glory, even for Irish players who have won two of their last three meetings with the All Blacks; even for Wales, who reached the semi-final in 2011.
Yet why should that be? Why are england in contention after backto-back wins, and Wales hiding their light after 12 straight?
It cannot be about the Welsh media, or its public, as Jones implies, as neither are exactly shy in announcing their rugby prowess. They did not view their team as underdogs when momentum built in that second half.
And, indeed, why should they? Any XV who can keep the ball live through 35 phases of play as Wales did to score the go-ahead try through Cory hill, are a force.
Any team who can resist england’s physicality, who can soak up their aerial pressure, who can force Owen Farrell and Ben Youngs into kicking mistakes have at least a chance against any nation in the world.
If Wales can defeat Ireland in Cardiff on March 16 then the lineage, at least, is impressive.
Ireland beat the All Blacks, so if Wales beat Ireland, there is a glimpse of the possible end game in Yokohama.
That was certainly the feeling when england won in Dublin, so why would it be any different?
‘Give Wales credit, give them a big rap,’ Jones instructed, as if somehow this could diminish them. But he’s missing the point: it’s what they deserve.
Dan Biggar, a game- changing presence and finisher in the truest sense of the word, encapsulated the essence of this Welsh team.
‘We’re in a good spot at the moment,’ he said. ‘ We’re fully aware of the World Cup so we’ve got to keep delivering.
‘Winning is a habit and even when we’ve not been at our best we’ve found a way.
‘england are strong, they’ve been in really good form. But when you play them, all that matters is getting across the line. If we didn’t win, england would probably have gone on to take the Grand Slam fairly comfortably.
‘So it was a bigger game for us than it was them. We kept within a score and managed to grind. We battled them physically.
‘Five of our 12 wins have been away from home, so that means we’re building real depth now.
‘ To go toe- to- toe with this england team — I think it’s as good an england team as it’s possible to play against — shows a real hunger from the boys. Physically, in that last 20 minutes, we really matched up against a huge pack. For some of those boys it was their first victory against england, it was really big for them.
‘We enjoy playing rugby together. We know what we are about.’
As will we all if Wales can go to Japan as the No 1 team in europe. Win the third Grand Slam of Gatland’s time as Wales coach — the winning run will then be 14, and include victories over every nation in rugby’s top seven bar New Zealand — and there will be no more under the radar.
A Welsh team with this potential cannot remain a well-kept secret in World Cup year. Nor should they.
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