Wales Walloped

Wales as expected lost heavily to the World Champions South Africa bringing a soul destroying Autumn Series to an end. The gulf between the two teams was cruelly exposed in a 12-45 loss with Wales shipping seven tries. There was not a phase of the game that the Boks did not boss as their powerful players out-muscled Wales. Things could have been a lot of worse if Wales had not given their all in defence and there must be some very sore bodies in the Welsh camp this morning. Botham, Morgan and Lake put in heroic shifts but at times the Springboks were just irresistible. The Springboks have brought the physicality of rugby to new levels but have also added a cutting edge that is supplied by their back three.

So where do Wales go now? That is twelve losses on the bounce and no real signs of the dire run ending.  Next up will be France away in the first match of the Six Nations’ Championship – a tough assignment if there ever was one. Then there are England and Ireland at home and Scotland and Italy away to follow. Having watched Italy ruffle the all Blacks’ feathers last night there is no “easy” fixture for Wales to target to end this losing sequence. Surely heads must roll but whose heads? The burning question of course is will Warren Gatland still be in charge? If he isn’t then who is? Whoever it is has a mammoth task ahead as they will have to turn a squad of young hopefuls into a competitive outfit in short order. Wales have the now infamous “black hole” in terms of big powerful specimens to contend with.

Congratulations to the Welsh Football team that are making positive progress under Bellamy despite not having a large pool of experienced top flight players to choose from. Maybe there are lessons to be learned from this.

Pontypool were due to resume their season with a match against Aberavon yesterday but storm Bert put paid to that. Next Saturday it will be Cardiff Rags away in a double header that sees the Dragons take on Cardiff afterwards. Hopefully we will see some truly competitive Welsh rugby matches as we try and forget about the national team’s trials and tribulations.

Come on Pooler!