Humble pie

by Chris Bertram on March 15, 2008

Well how wrong I was. When started “a prediction thread”:https://crookedtimber.org/2008/01/28/six-nations-2008/ at the beginning of the 6 Nations, I didn’t even mention Wales. But they’ve been magnificent, and “deserved their victory today”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/welsh/7295598.stm . There were so many great moments too: Skrela going backwards from the restart; and Wales winning that scrum against the head near the end. I expect the streets of Cardiff will be, er, interesting, tonight. Here’s hoping England sack Ashton and offer Shaun Edwards a lot of cash.

{ 12 comments }

1

dsquared 03.15.08 at 11:47 pm

I am soo bloody drunk right now.

2

Paul M. Watson 03.15.08 at 11:56 pm

I wouldn’t have backed Wales either. My Irish friends are out of humour for their team. Ashton may survive but Eddie won’t. Glad I am a South African ;)

3

Andy 03.16.08 at 12:17 am

I am really quite drunk too, but I would like to claim credit for commenting on the original thread that Wales having Gatland as coach put them back in play……

Wales is basically a county of England, and has been since the Norman conquest (apart from North Wales, which is part of Liverpool), so as an englishman, I am deligthed that my fellow englishman from the county of wales have won.

I loved the Mark Jones’ run. 3 more yards and he would have scored the greatest try ever….

England have had a dreadfully mixed season. Great against France and Ireland. Awful against everyone else, and absolutely, abysmally dreadful against Scotland. Hopefully things will change under central contract once the team have time to train together, and I would like Ashton to have at least one more season in charge to see if he can make the new system work.

4

P O'Neill 03.16.08 at 12:35 am

So why were they shite in the World Cup?

5

monkey.dave 03.16.08 at 1:46 am

Hey, Scotland managed to avoid the wooden spoon by limiting their loss to Italy to only three points. I think I need to get drunk tonight, too, but for the opposite reason of d^2.

6

bernarda 03.16.08 at 11:26 am

I would just like to point out, that in my comment # 30 at your link, I gave Wales heads up.

The France/Wales game was very entertaining. Shane Williams is amazing in how he can be at the right place at the right time. Martyn Williams was certainly the man of the match. As the Guardian says, “At the epicentre of everything was Martyn Williams, try-scorer, inspired defender, scavenger and all-round great rugby brain. And he did not even want to be part of it at the start of the season. Hopefully for Wales, he will not have foolish notions like that again for a while.”

What I like about the Welsh team is that they are not afraid to take risks, but they are reasoned risks.

7

Andy 03.16.08 at 5:29 pm

I’d just like to apologise to Welsh readers for my comment above. What can I say? I get obnoxious when really really drunk. And my judgement goes. What on earth was I thinking when I said Ashton deserves longer!?!

8

Toby 03.16.08 at 5:51 pm

Oh, the irony!

Eight years ago, Eddie shafted Gatland out of his job.

Fair play to Gatland, he’s a way better coach now then he was then. Its Eddie who has not moved on.

Who’s crying now?

9

sharon 03.17.08 at 8:17 am

p o’neill: bad management; poor discipline; lousy defence; terrible tactics (eg, trying to play sevens against Fiji, for chrissakes); dubious selection decisions (marginalising some of the best players); general complacency. Crashing out of the World Cup was the kick up the arse that everyone from the players to the WRU desperately needed. And I think England would have been better off now if they’d done the same thing.

10

Thom Brooks 03.17.08 at 9:36 am

Now we know the answer to the question “which Irish team will show up?” The answer is “both.”

11

jay bee 03.18.08 at 6:08 pm

Eddie to be gone in 10 days or so at a cost of €750,000 according to 1F in yesterday’s Star

Just Rejoice

12

shteve 03.18.08 at 10:57 pm

Eddie didn’t shaft Gatland – he took over a team with a 50% winning record and boosted that to 70%.

Wales a county of England? More like an alien culture, with Scotland as a face-hugging Star Trek parasite, and Ireland the mother ship with a malfunctioning nuclear core.

Agree that the best moment was the scrum against the head for Wales in the France match – a strong dose of reality added to the “Wales Way” potion.

Web Ellis is coming home in 2011 … if you shift location a few miles across the Severn.

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