Davies on the scoresheet as Wales see off Scotland
DODDIE WEIR has been standing out in crowds most of his life but never more poignantly than yesterday in the city where he first stood tall almost 30 years ago.
The mere presence of Scotland’s stricken Lion, all smiles as usual in courageous defiance of a cruel disease, brought a dignity and a point to a phoney fixture, one taken out of its natural Six Nations habitat with the sole purpose of making money.
The Scots earned £1m for their trouble and Wales at least twice as much thanks to another massive demonstration of public support. The fans turned out in their hordes to see their team make a winning start to an Autumn series for the first time in 16 years and to salute one of the game’s best-loved characters.
Given the amount generated by their attendance for a so-called Test match, it almost beggars belief that the Unions involved had to be coerced into making a donation to Weir’s charity for research into Motor Neurone Disease, their joint contribution of a ‘sixfigure sum’ made in belated reaction to public criticism.
Thrust into the limelight by the inception of the Doddie Weir Cup, the man himself was never in the slightest danger of breaking the habit of a lifetime. He rose magnificently to the occasion, as he had first done in Cardiff almost exactly 27 years ago during his Test apprenticeship.
When he left Wales that night after helping Scotland run the All Blacks close for third-place in the 1991 World Cup, the ‘mad giraffe’ would never have imagined that one day he would return as the star of the show without having to do anything more demanding than present his trophy.
He came resplendent in a brand new red and blue suit sporting both Scottish and Welsh tartan, his self- deprecating humour, as always, shining through the affliction of an incurable disease. “As Bill McLaren once said, I’m all ears and nothing else,’’ he told the BBC from centrefield alongside his wife and three sons.
The crowd acclaimed him at every turn, cheering even when he expressed the hope of giving the trophy to Scotland’s Stuart McInally. Given his country’s unerring knack of going to extraordinary lengths to keep losing at Cardiff, he probably suspected that it would end up in Welsh hands.
Where they had been famously unhinged eight years ago by the genius of Shane Williams, the Scots were undone this time by something far more prosaic, a red wall. For most of a match that rarely rose above the ordinary, they kept smashing into an unyielding defensive line and getting precisely nowhere.
It amounted to a personal triumph for the man at the heart of the operation, Dan Lydiate. He went into the match anxious to make the most of an unexpected chance to contradict fears that the next World Cup would be one too many, aware that his return had been facilitated by injuries to Josh Navidi and Ellis Jenkins.
Twelve months after his last start for Wales and a painstakingly long recovery from a knee reconstruction, Lydiate responded with a tour de force. By the time he had been withdrawn ten minutes from time as a sacrificial substitution prompted by Elliot Dee’s yellow card, the blindside was back in his natural environment at the top of the tackle count.
He made 23, missed none and, as if to show there is more than one string to his bow, forced an early turnover in the finest Sam Warburton fashion. Wales will also take heart from novice tighthead Dillon Lewis lasting longest of the four starting props, from Justin Tipuric as probably the most multidimensional flanker in the game, not least as a reliable front-of-the-line jumper.
As for the new pair, Jarrod Evans managed two minutes at the end in another of those meaningless substitutions, except his carried a cap. The strangest of baptisms for Luke Morgan must have left the Osprey wondering what this Test rugby lark is all about.
One pass came his way and that after waiting for more than an hour. His substitute, Steff Evans, took over in the 79th minute and still had time to be on the receiving end of the pass into space which never came Morgan’s way.
A very different beast awaits Wales next Saturday. They will not need to be told that Australia, if given the same amount as possession as Scotland enjoyed for the last half hour, will make it 14 straight wins.
Nor will Wales delude themselves that they buckled only once, their resistance in the face of a driven line-out splintering for Stuart McInally to cut the Welsh lead to four points just before half-time. Once Jonathan Davies had marked his return with the try that almost trebled Scotland’s deficit, Wales spent most of the last 33 minutes on the back foot.
Twice Scotland had tries disallowed – Jonny Gray’s for a double-movement and Peter Horne’s for a knockon, a shame from a neutral perspective considering the invention of his brother George in making it possible.
At least it ensured a winning start, as expected from a team ranked third in the world. The challenge now is to justify that against those beneath them in the current pecking order, Australia next week and South Africa a fortnight later.
As for the bigger global picture of the World Cup, this really meant nothing. The weekend video dissection will show Wales in graphic detail that both their tries came from
defensive aberrations by one player.
A stampeding George North takes some stopping but Huw Jones will be embarrassed when he sees how easily he allowed himself to be brushed off before half time and again afterwards by Davies.
Up in the stand, the manof-the-moment may have groaned inwardly, not that anyone would have known. Doddie Weir kept smiling to the end and Murrayfield will give him a rapturous reception in the New Year when Wales defend his trophy in the serious business of the Six Nations.