French Polished Off

Those of you who have read previous posts, will know that I am not too enamoured about the 8pm Friday kick off for the Wales v France game. We decided to go down to Cardiff on the train quite early and have a “high tea” before the match. This was a great idea and a drop of red wine with “le lunch” put me in the right mood for “le crunch”. When we got into the ground there was time for a pint before we took our seats. We were treated to some excellent Welsh choral singing on the concourse but all the talk was about the late withdrawal of Alun Wyn Jones. After the Irish game, we were not exactly confident of victory and this gave us another reason to worry.

My first thought when we made our way to our seats was that we had somehow taken a wrong turn and ended up in a night club. There was subdued lighting and loud music. As my eyes got used to the semi-darkness I realised that what had looked like a dance floor was actually the pitch. Even more gimmicks than normal - if someone from the RSPCA was there I’m sure that they would have reported the WRU for cruelty to the goat. At least we didn’t have to rap the national anthem.

As it turned out, “le crunch” didn’t live up to expectations as, rather like Wales in Dublin, the French didn’t really turn up. They were “le bunch sans le punch”. Wales, for their part, played with plenty of aggression and passion and ran out comfortable winners. The forwards in particular were unrecognisable compared to their low-key effort in Dublin. We left the stadium with a warm glow.

All we had to do now was to get back to Newport and I had “le hunch” that this was going to be frustrating. We took our place in the ever-increasing queue for the train and waited ….and waited….and waited. In the end we waited for over 45 minutes to get on the first train back to Newport. It was a good job we had won and that, for once, it wasn’t raining. It seems strange that there wasn’t a train waiting at the platform ready to whisk people away as soon as it was full. After all it is pretty easy to predict when the match will finish with a good degree of accuracy. It was a bit like that feeling when you come back from your holiday and have to wait an hour to reclaim your baggage at the airport - it takes away a bit of the feel-good factor.

Saturday was a TV rugby day and the matches were a lot closer. I enjoyed the Italy v Scotland game which, despite being littered with mistakes, was close and exciting with the Scots just about deserving to win. That match served as a light starter before the heavyweight main course. The England v Ireland game was a fierce encounter up a few levels from anything in the Six Nations so far. England just shaded it but a draw might have been a fairer reflection of the way that the game went. It was thunderous stuff. It’s a shame from Wales’ perspective that we are not playing England next weekend as a game like that will take a considerable recovery period. England look mighty impressive and Wales will have to go up another level in intensity if we are going to run them close. England will certainly be ready to counter “Gatland ball” and will be hell-bent on exacting revenge for last season. I’m hoping against hope that my English friend doesn’t come up with a ticket for me and make me sit next to him as I fear the worst.

Whilst I was languishing on the couch, Pooler were playing a friendly against Aberavon. By all accounts the Premiership side were just a little too strong for us and we lost 0-17. This is certainly a lot better than the earlier encounter and will serve as good preparation for the rather daunting visit to runaway league leaders Ebbw Vale next week.