Rugby / Six Nations

Six Nations Blog

Roadblock for our fan

In spite of all the plans, we didn't venture to Scotland after all. I woke up on Saturday in the hope that we could risk it, but as I opened the curtains and saw Alltwen covered in the white stuff, and saw that the Severn Bridge was closed, I realised the dream was over. (I saw the news about the bridge on TV, not from my window, by the way). If I'd been Martin Luther King, I'd have said: "I have a dream… but the snow has just ruined it." I felt really flat, to be honest.

It was really hard watching those hundreds of supporters in red walking down Princes Street in Edinburgh, and me stuck at home. but it's just made me even more determined to go out to Paris or Rome. So if anyone from the WRU is reading this, and you need a boot carrier, or even a porter for the bags full of fake tan for Gav, Hook and Byrne, I'm there. Thinking about it, I wonder who washes the shirts after a game? Interesting thought!! D'you think the players' mums or wives take them home like when we were at school? I can see Gav now, going home to Charl with 15 sets of dirty rugby shirts: "Char, it’s your turn to do the kits", "Forget about the kits, Gav what about the kids?! Dexter’s already started shaving his legs"!!!!

Anyhoo… Did you enjoy the feast of rugby over the weekend (except the England game, which was more of a snack than a feast)?? I watched Wales with four girls who are huge rugby fans, and one of the boys (thank goodness) in Walkabout in Swansea. Struggling with Saturday's hangover, we were all on the colas, but you couldn't tell from the noise! One of the girls went all swoony when Hook came on: "Oooooh, he's lovely!!" Remind me to watch the game with more lads next time.

Wales won quite comfortably, didn't they? They dealt well with the pressure of being favourites. The last-minute injury to captain Ryan Jones could have affected the team, but the boys played brilliantly. The Welsh looked twice the size of the Scots and seemed to cross the gain line with every run, especially Jamie Roberts. I'm sure Shaun Edwards will not be happy to have conceded a try, but apart from that, the Welsh defence was solid and the scrum was amazingly powerful. The ruthless attitude of the players was really obvious, which was great, because that's been missing for a long time in the Welsh team and is one of the reasons New Zealand has succeeded for so long.

The only downer was seeing Shane having to leave the pitch because of an ankle injury. I hope he'll be fit to play the old enemy on Saturday – his talent and his skills were so clear to see against the Scots. I'll keep an eye on the situation for you.

I'd best be off – it's getting late and I've got work in the morning. Time to dream of beating England by 40 points – who knows, the dream may become a reality…

Rhys

This blog has been translated from Welsh.