Eddie Jones’s creative chaos appears to be working well in World Cup buildup as experimental team end grand slam winners’ record unbeaten runThese World Cup warmup games mean nothing, of course, but it does not stop us searching for significance. No one had to look very hard here. Wales could have gone to No 1 in the world rankings with a win and extended their record unbeaten run to 15. And they picked a team to suggest these were landmarks that meant something to them. Alas, either they did not mean enough, or Wales are not ready to claim them.The latter, surely. They have moved on to the shoulder of New Zealand at the top of the rankings courtesy of...
Ross Harries’ entertaining new book ‘Behind the Dragon’ delves into World Cup preparations and the role of team bondingIt is about now in a Rugby World Cup cycle, with just over 40 days and nights in the phoney war wilderness still to endure, that the truth starts to emerge. There is only so much iron you can pump in a gym: if anyone hoping to lift the Webb Ellis Cup is not fit by now they never will be. You cannot fake it at a World Cup and expect to have a realistic chance.With a slew of warm-up Tests shortly commencing for all the European nations, nevertheless, those seeking clues about the prospects of Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy...
In Moscow in 1957 Llanelli players were in a match marred by ‘hideous violence’. They could not have known their more silky skills would leave a lasting legacyOf course rugby has an old law about what goes on tour. Which is why, 62 years later, we can’t be sure exactly what happened when Llanelli went off to play in Moscow at the height of the cold war. The Scarlets were “honoured guests of the Reds” one Welsh paper said, at the third International Friendly Youth Games. Only the competition seems to have been, at points, just a little less friendly than the name suggested. The Soviets did not have a national team themselves but, Llanelli’s then chairman Handel Rogers explained,...
Wales, England and Ireland have a chance of glory in Japan – the Six Nations trumps the Rugby Championship for preparationBefore the start of the Six Nations this month, Ireland were regarded as Europe’s prime challengers in the World Cup. Then it was England after their emphatic victory in Dublin and denuding of France at Twickenham, but in the third round the odds on the favourites New Zealand becoming the first team to win the Webb Elis Trophy for a third consecutive time shrink.Wales’s toppling of England in Cardiff, together with Ireland’s scratchy win in Rome, is perceived as making a second European conquest of the world more possible than probable. “Wales won by default in ‘rubbish’ Six Nations clash...
With three of the four top-ranked teams in action and Japan 2019 looming, focus and intrigue will be at fever pitchIn January spring still feels far away, never mind the summer beyond it. But the start of the Six Nations, like the first green shoots, is a sign they are on their way. The tournament starts with the first snowdrops and finishes with the first swallows. When this year’s edition is over, the World Cup will be only six months and six days away, and the six teams, their players and coaches, will have a handful of August warm-ups left to finish getting ready for the tournament they have been working towards these last four years and which, if they...