Wales 11 v England  9

Picture 2003 - copyright of Mozbath  

What a fantastic atmosphere today for this match. The singing of the Welsh Choir, the patriotic passion on the faces of the Welsh fans both young and old was a sight that will be remembered by both English and Welsh supporters for a long while.   For today the Welsh Dragon finally awoke and roared the fire we knew it could and England fell on the battered turf of the Cardiff Millennium Stadium to the revitalised Wales, under the guidance of their head coach Mike Ruddock.

Both teams had a nervy start during the first 10 mins or so but it was Wales who played the rugby and kept the pressure up on England not allowing them quick ball.  If we are to be honest the score flatters England as Wales should have had far more points on the board had Steven Jones not missed a couple of kicks, plus Wales had many opportunities out wide that went begging.  Luckily for England!

Gavin Henson BBC Man of the Match, was outstanding!  This young man has so much swagger he reminds you of a swashbuckling pirate and the hair what is that all about?  Seriously what a star player he is, surely to be a Lion in the summer.  His tackle on Mathew Tait and his hand off of Julian White, was just ( and here is that word again) yes AWESOME.  However the clincher was his match winning kick in the 76th minute of the game.  He said after the match

"I knew I was going to kick it. I’ve been kicking them all week. It’s been going really well recently and I always knew I was going to step up if it was a long range one."

England need a re-think before the game against France at Twickenham, they did not look at ease, they looked slow and Danny Grewcock was lucky not to be red carded.  Lewsey, Tait, Noon, Cueto even Robinson never got off the mark, they hardly ever got the ball and when they did, half the time it was static.  Dawson looked old and I am sorry to say so did Rowntree.    England perked up when Harry Ellis, Ollie Barkley and Phil Vickery came onto the field and for just three minutes in the match England went into the lead 8 v 9, until that wonder kick of Hensen.

This is not making excuses, just trying to assess what happens next because something has to happen next and fast.  I said in the match preview that I hoped we had not been kidding ourselves about our strength in depth.  Well I don't think we have however, I am not sure that the management know what they are trying to do with the players they fielded today.  It is easy to say we made more mistakes than Wales but at times we did not seem to have a clue and some players hardly touched the ball.   So what is this  'Head up Rugby' the management have been banging on about?  All I saw was mass panic at times.

We have two years and England defend their Rugby World Cup Title - The thing I try to keep hold of in my mind is that Sir Clive Woodward also went through a similar experience when building our Rugby World Cup Winning side.  So let us hope that things can only get better.

Well done Wales and good luck with the Triple Crown and Grand Slam.

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