North South Divide

Sitting in the stand at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon at around 5.00 pm I felt quite pleased. The news of a thumping win for Pontypool at Newcastle Emlyn plus a decent measure of alcohol certainly helped but so too did the first half display by Wales against South Africa. We had more than matched them in most aspects of the game and even had the temerity to have a narrow lead. We had given away a few too many penalties otherwise our lead would have been a little bit more comfortable but a chat at halftime could surely put that right. Of course I am the veteran of many such promising situations when Wales take on one of the Southern Hemisphere powerhouses. Mostly they have ended in tears and this, as we all know now, was to be no exception.

South Africa did the vast majority of the attacking in the second half and it was only fantastic defending that kept Wales narrowly ahead until the fateful last few minutes. Yes it happened again - the Boks pinched it right at the end with a well-worked try and our hearts were broken once more. It happened right in front of me and I still think that South Africa should have been penalised at the fateful breakdown rather than being given the put-in at the scrum.

So Wales exit the RWC. My abiding memories will be that marvellous win against all the odds against England and the tremendous effort required to hang on against Fiji when the team was absolutely knackered. There was some pretty awesome defending too in losing battles against Australia and South Africa which almost brought victory. Whilst the defence was world class, the attack was pretty limited and at the end of the day we did not score enough tries to be a true contender. The enormous injury list amongst our backs is well documented and that surely restricted our options but even in the Six Nations Championship last season we struggled to score tries apart from the Italian match where we simply had to throw caution to the wind. There will be plenty of videos to pore over in the dark winter nights and the way that the All Blacks, Australia, Argentina and Japan turn pressure into tries would be well worth watching.

If Wales felt heartbreak, then spare a thought for Scotland who had their quarter final against Australia all but won. A famous victory was snatched away with a pretty dubious last gasp penalty. Knowing Australia as we do, I wouldn’t have put it past them to score from the attacking scrum that should have been awarded rather than a penalty. Australia certainly looked like scoring a try every time they had any continuity and had already scored five tries in the match. It was pulsating affair with Australia uncharacteristically making errors and even presenting Scotland with two gift wrapped tries from a charged down kick and an interception. We can certainly expect the Scots to be a handful in the new year.

The other two quarter finals saw thumping victories for the All Blacks and Argentina against France and Ireland respectively. Maybe the fact that the Irish and the French had been bashing lumps out of each other the previous week had something to do with it but their southern hemisphere opponents looked pretty impressive and thoroughly deserved their wins.

So the semi-finals are a Southern Hemisphere lock-out as they say in Formula One. I suppose it is no great surprise to see New Zealand, Australia and South Africa there but Argentina have gone quietly and effectively about their business. Both the All Blacks and the Pumas exploded into life in the quarter finals and look to be building momentum at just the right time. The Aussies and the Boks will need to recover from two pretty ferocious games. Australia will have faced England, Wales and Scotland on successive weekends and will not find it easy against Argentina.

There’s no more traipsing up and down the M4 to London for me. I can now get back to proper rugby and the Welsh Championship. Pontypool have strung together some good results and climbed to third place in the table. Next week finds them at home to Bridgend Athletic. There is a clash between that and the New Zealand v South Africa semi-final in the RWC. The question is can I record the semi and get home without knowing the result.

A big “well done” to the Welsh team who have given everything they could. It’s a real shame we couldn’t sneak a win on Saturday but at least we beat the English.

Come on Pooler!