As Euro 2016 gets ready to kick off , and Roland Garros takes spring into summer in the leafy boulevards of Paris, England and Wales end their exhausting seasons with three test series’ in Australia and New Zealand respectively.

So as Wales head to the land of the long white cloud, it’s worth bearing in mind that even though I am fifty eight years of age, Wales have never beaten the All Blacks since i came into the world.

In fact 1953 was the last time the men in red were victorious over the men in black.

The nearest thing I’ve experienced to a win was the when Wales won the Haka stand off in 2008, but that just made the All Blacks angry, and they beat us yet again.

It’s been a familiar tale throughout the years , even the great Welsh teams of the 70s could not defeat New Zealand, although a memorable day at Stradey Park, Llanelli, in October 1972 was a huge consolation for us Carmathenshire folk.

This tour sees Wales take a vastly experienced squad that have regularly won Northern hemisphere honours, and tasted World Cup knock out experience, but wins against Southern Hemisphere teams have been few and far between.

There is no doubt that there has never been a better time to face New Zealand, now that Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, Conrad Smith, Ma’a Nonu, Kevin Mealamu and Tony Woodcock have all retired, but the task is still daunting to say the least.

The All Blacks have not played since the Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham last October, so surely Wales best chance lies in that first test on June 11.

Wales will have to be at their very best just to be in with a chance of a victory in the the three match series, and that is the challenge for a team that have a reputation for being notoriously slow starters.

The first test sees the men in red return to a familiar RWC 2011 venue, Eden Park, in Auckland, before visiting Wellington a week later.

In between the first two tests Wales will be warmly welcomed in Warren Gatland’s home town , Hamilton, where they will face Super Rugby outfit the Chiefs, before ending their tour with a third test in Dunedin.

The  Weekend
As I write, the Welsh squad, and entourage are assembling at Heathrow, DVT socks at the ready, for the long flight to Auckland.

Their final run out took place in front of 81,128  sun drenched spectators at Twickenham, on Sunday, where they faced an England team devoid of any Saracens and Exeter players, who played in the Aviva premiership final the previous day.

Wales started brightly and with pace , racing to a 10-0 lead before everything started to slowly unravel, resulting in a 27-13 win for the home team.

Paying the price for not selecting a specialist “7” Wales conceeded twenty turnovers, the other damning statistic is the twenty one tackles they missed.

A team with so much talent at its disposal is having far too many off days, and this is something that Wales clearly have to address.

A Dan Cole knock on ,missed by the officials, and the TMO resulted in a try for England at a crucial point of the match ,with the score at 15-13 to the men in white.

From then on in, Wales played with greater inaccuracy and as their set piece started to creak,they never looked like closing the gap.

George Ford only landed one kick out of seven attempts, which puts the scoreline into perspective.

The weekend saw the Lyon Kings, Saracens defeat Exeter Chiefs in front of 77, 109 at Twickenham in a pulsating final, on a hot and sunny Saturday afternoon, whilst a more modest crowd of 34,450 ,witnessed the Connacht dream season end with the men in green crowned champions after defeating Leinster at Murrayfield.

It has been a long hard season, and whilst the curtain falls domestically , a whole new production is about to premier globally

Let the games begin !

Summer is nearly here,  so it’s time to dig out the factor 50, or turn up the thermostat on the central heating, depending on which part of the UK you live.

In a season that seems to have no beginning and no end, the rugby circus packs up it tent, and heads to all parts of the world, bringing you the clowns, the Lyon tamers and the exhausted players walking a tightrope.

There are twenty two major internationals to be played in June, stretching from Sacramento to Suva, from Tokyo to Tucuman, and from Cape Town to Calgary.

As a fan the prospect is stirring, from a player welfare point of view it is bordering on the insane.

The one big plus is the fact the the so called tier two nations are getting a look in at last, with meaningful fixtures, and to give them a chance to experience Pro 12 refereeing at first hand.

But this article comes with a warning !

Plan your barbecues, family days out and holidays with care, one simple error and you could miss not just  a game, but the Euros, Wimbledon and Roland Garros.

Saturday June 11 is a prime example of the doomsday scenario that can occur if you do not plan properly, here is my recommended itinerary 

0830 New Zealand v Wales

1100 Australia v England

1500 South Africa v Ireland

1700 Wales v Slovakia (Euro 2016)

2000 England v Russia (Euro 2016)

And Saturday June 11 is just the start, so to prepare you, here is a list of the summers major international matches.

 Also next Sunday May 29, England face Wales at Twickenham , with a team devoid of any Saracens or Wasps players, who will be competing against eachother the previous day in the Aviva Premiership final.

Now I would go and watch Wales play England at needlework, but this surely has to be the most meaningless encounter in the rich history of matches between the two nations.

Wales fly out to New Zealand the following day, and I will be previewing the tour in a special Bank Holiday roar next Monday.

Le Weekend

A pulsating match in Dublin last Friday night saw Leinster beat Ulster to reach the Guinness Pro 12 final in Murrayfield on Saturday, where they will meet Connacht who defeated Glasgow Warriors to set up an all Irish final.

In the Aviva Premiership semi finals Saracens beat Leicester and Wasps were defeated by Exeter in draughty Devon to set up a thrilling  showdown at Twickenham on Saturday.

In the season that never ends the rugby just keeps on coming.

We have all marvelled at the sight of the international rugby player, in his natural habitat, roaming the hybrid playing fields of the world.

But there is genuine worry that this species is being hounded into premature extinction due to an intolerable work load.

Beasts of burden they appear to be, but today I launch an International appeal, in order that these magnificent creatures may be preserved for future generations to enjoy.

SOS…. Save Our Stars !

This season started with intense Rugby World Cup training camps, followed by domestic  league games, European tournaments, a Six Nations tournament and now come the summer tours.

The players are being used mercilessly, how else can you describe the utterly futile England v Wales international, taking place on Sunday 29 May, as nothing other than a money-making exercise.

I have spoken to several international players in recent weeks, and they are on their knees.

I cannot name names, but these players will barely get a break, before plunging headlong into next seasons circus, that culminates with a Lions tour to New Zealand.

The intensity and physicality, of rugby these days, is equivalent to a car crash, some players can barely get out of bed without regularly taking anti inflammatory tablets.

The time has come to stop summer tours, and enforce a proper summer break.

Allowing players to recover fully from a seaons worth of niggles, and undertake a proper pre season programme,  will prolong their careers.

Surely it is quality, rather than quantity,that we all want to witness as rugby fans, and player welfare must now take priority.

It took the great Gareth Edwards eleven years to reach fifty caps for his country, between 1967 and 1978, and they were all achieved without missing a single match to injury.

Compare that to Australia’s Michael Hooper, who made his Wallaby debut in 2013, and reached his 50th in 2015, a staggering period of 3 years and 4 months.

The only way a top player can get a decent break these days is through a lay off with injury, this cannot be right.

Do we really need four Autumn internationals ?,  particularly  now that a June international of one sort or another seems common practice.

Let’s drop it to two, cut the Pro 12 to ten teams,  ciao Italia

It’s a painful blow to Italian rugby, and  I shall suffer repercussions for my views on a local level,when my Italian coffee shop owner reads this, but I am prepared to suffer a contaminated latte or two, in order to preserve the rugby life span of these magnificent beasts.

I’m not a huge Tesco fan, but they are quite right when they say every little helps, even a reduction of two internationals and four club games a year is a start.

There are opinions in some quarters that, rather than increase the six nations, why not reduce it back to the old Five nations , assisting players welfare further, and maybe even making it possible to include a short winter break.

Sadly the common suffering denominator in all this is Italian rugby, I don’t have the answer to that conundrum, but I’m sure there is a solution out there.

As I write this article Bill Beamont has been installed as the new chairman of World Rugby, and he is already talking about moving the 6 Nations back a month,in order to accommodate a global season from 2019.

Other proposals include moving June tours to the Autumn, and creating a two month window for for home internationals in October and November.

Whatever the discussions, and whatever the outcomes, player welfare must be the priority.

When all is said and done the game has always been about the players and it always will be, so we really need to take care of them.
 
The European finals have been written about in great depth elsewhere,  so I would just like to offer my congratulations to both winners.

Honours were divided equally between South Africa and England,  with Montpellier and Saracens taking the titles.

One man who will not be having a quiet week this week is the Racing 92 physio, who saw most of his thoroughbreds pull up lame in Lyon.  

I was at the Paris Sevens at the weekend so I will leave you with a few “snaps” 

Don’t miss next Monday’s Roar for a complete guide to all the summer international fixtures.

Many of us, of a certain age, hark back to what we think we remember to be the halcyon days of rugby, but were they actually as wonderful as we remember ?

The mind is an amazing machine, we convince ourselves that the sun shone every day throughout the summer, that it snowed at Christmas, and Mars bars were much bigger than they are today, also we convince ourselves that our sport was a wonderful free-flowing game, where the spirit of rugby shone through like a beacon of hope, for society to grasp as a template for life.

Now I admit that I was first in the queue when the waxing lyrical genes were handed out, but after sharing a flat white, and a chat,  with my literary hero, Stephen Jones, it got me thinking in more realistic terms about the past.

I will never lose the childhood memory and the thrill of watching David Duckham, his long blonde hair, blowing in the wind as he swerved his way around spread eagled defenders, or Gerald Davies side stepping and weaving past despairing defenders, and I could go on and on, maximising my waxing lyrical gene, with the likes of Serge Blanco, Denis Charvet, Barry John, JPR et al.

But to be perfectly honest the experience of attending international matches as a spectator in those days left an awful lot to be desired.

The matchday experience today is incredible, the comfort is incomparable to the torture  we were subjected to in the sixties and seventies.

I’ve stood at Twickenham in the old South stand, in freezing cold and pouring rain ,two hours before kick off, to get a view of England v Wales that consisted of a quarter of the pitch, the people standing behind you, would deposit warm water, which would splash against the backs of your legs, (If you get my drift), and sadly you were actually glad of the experience because it actually warmed you up for a split second.

One of the other  myths the nostalgic mind produces is that the game was more free-flowing, and that every match was played in the spirit of the Barbarians v All Blacks classic of 1973.

Well I can put you right on that one, England v Wales in 1978, at my trouser soaked Twickenham, consisted of five penalties, and a 9-6 victory for Wales, the highlight of which was 50 yard (metres hadn’t been invented then) kick to touch by Gareth Edwards.

A match between Scotland and Wales at Murrayfield in 1963 included 111 line outs, nearly all of which were created by kicks to touch from Wales scrum half  Clive Rowlands.

The story goes that in Clive’s house, ever since that game, they never say “Can you pass the salt” , it’s always “Can you kick the salt”.

I watched a re run of Llanelli’s epic 1972 win over New Zealand recently, I could not believe my eyes, there was every form of physical assault possible taking place, at regular intervals throughout the match, there were more attacks on view than you would find in an entire episode of Crimewatch !

The playing surfaces of today are a joy to behold, the new hybrid grass systems make the top-level level matches immune from the hippo like swamps, that were familiar to older readers, apart from the permanent divot that is the Stade de France, of course.

In fact I have decided that I’m going to lock away my waxing lyrical nostalgia gene for good, as I think of the magnificent stadia that exist today, my goodness the Principality stadium even has a roof !

In comparison, the Cardiff Arms Park pitch that hosted Wales v England, in 1969, had eight blades of grass on it, and looked more like an NCP car park than a sporting arena.

So let us revel in the brilliance of the game as it is today, sure there are lots of things on and off the field that are far from perfect, but when I lock up my waxing lyrical nostalgia gene, I thrill at visiting The Principality stadium, crammed into the centre of Cardiff  like a Giant beetle clinging to the flats and offices of the city, I delight in days at Twickenham, Murrayfield, Dublin and Paris, not only for the rugby but also in the joy of knowing that I, for the most part, will be returning home with dry trousers.

 
The issue of player safety, in rugby, has never been more rigorously scrutinised than at present.

There are calls for the sport to be made safer at scrum time, in the contact area, and for the increasingly violent collisions to be neutralised

But this column would like to make a stand against the silent injury threat, the issue that no one talks about.

Yes the time has now come  for World Rugby to take action against the blight of our game the “wedgie”

The full definition of this horrific act, underlines how imperative it is for the sport’s governing body to act, and act now.

A wedgie occurs when a person’s nether underwear or other garments are wedged between the buttocks. While a wedgie can be created naturally, the term is usually associated with a prank or as a form of bullying. When a person is on the receiving end of a wedgie, his or her underwear or other garment is forcibly pulled up by a second person.

Judgement Day IV

A record crowd, sun filled clear blue skies, and fourteen tries, the Judgement on Judgement day was that it was a rip-roaring success.

West proved to be best, as Scarlets and Ospreys gave Cardiff the Blues, and extinguished the fire of the Newport Gwent Dragons.

£6.60 to get into Wales ! Scandalous ! But actually the cost of the Severn Bridge toll was worth every penny to witness Judgement Day IV (or 4 if you don’t happen to be an ancient Roman)

It was made even more worthwhile by the bright sunshine that greeted me on my arrival, I wore sunglasses, in Wales, for the first time since 1978.

To clarify, you only normally wear darkened glasses in Wales if you have an accompanying Labrador.

The Principality Stadium With its roof  wide open, hosted a record crowd for a Pro 12 match.

68,262 were treated to a day of rugby with European and play off places at stake, as well as derby day bragging rights that would echo across the width of South Wales.
But Far from being a parochial affair, tickets were sold to buyers in Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Monaco, the Netherlands and Spain

The record crowd topped the previous highest Pro 12 attendances by a considerable margin

After dismal attendances at Pro 12 matches in Wales this season , it just shows what decent marketing, and competitive ticket pricing can achieve.

Coupled with the spirit of glasnost, that currently exists between the WRU and the Regions, and the fact that all the regions star international players were on view, the build  up to this event has been nothing but positive, and will no doubt inspire further such initiatives.

Ospreys saw off Cardiff Blues European champions cup hopes, with a six try bonus point win.

After a breathless fifty-one point filled second half, where the lead see sawed back and forth, with tries raining down , Blues defensive sloppiness cost them dearly, as Rhys Webb pulled the strings, and scored two tries himself, to keep the Ospreys hopes of a champions cup place alive going into the final Saturday.

In the second match, the Scarlets guaranteed their place at Europe’s top table, with a bonus point win against the injury hit Men of Gwent, who refused to give in, and battled until the very end.

Scott Williams was a revelation for the Scarlets, his first game since suffering a serious knee injury, against England in the rugby World Cup, he inspired the Scarlets with his delicious angles of running and sleight of hand, scoring the opening try after only nine minutes, he looked like he had never been away.

His creative spark has been sorely missed by Wales and the Scarlets this season.

Victory was never really in doubt for the West Wales outfit, even when Pete “The Meat” Edwards was yellow carded for a no arms tackle, the Scarlets try threat was always visible.
Welsh management will be concerned that Sam Warburton and Samson Lee suffererd shoulder and head injuries respectively.

This was probably one of the finest days for regional rugby in Wales,the success of which must be built upon.

Perhaps a season opening double-header, as adopted by the Aviva Premiership, would be a good place to start ?

As the Principality stadium emptied yesterday, we were shading our eyes, quite aptly, from the glorious golden sun, setting in the west.

Maybe a bright new dawn is on the horizon, in the long-range forecast for regional rugby in Wales.

When I was growing up, Props were a very different breed from those that inhabit the Earth today.

They bore absolutely no resemblance to the finely tuned athletes that grace the front rows of the modern game.

The props of yesteryear had many differences, the first one being anatomical, they had no neck, in fact their head was attached directly to their shoulders, scums never collapsed in those days as a direct result of this genetic mutation.

Loose head and tight head were cranial descriptions of their afflictions , and had no bearing on front row positional terminology.

Whereas Props like Gethin Jenkins can kick and chase, and show and go, in the old days the only way you could tell that a prop was actually running, was by the expression on his face.

There were some great English props around in the 70s, “Stack” Stevens, for example,(now there’s a proper props name if ever there was one), Fran Cotton, and a gentleman called Colin Smart ,who defied the dictionary definition of his surname, by drinking a miniature bottle aftershave, given to him at a pre match dinner following a France v England international at Parc des Princes.

The rest of his evening was spent in the company of a Parisian stomach pump, the only upside being, he didn’t suffer with bad breath for around seven to eight months.

But today’s props are an incredible tribute to what nature can produce when you mix protein shakes with Nandos.

Uini Antonio, the French international prop, is 6ft 6ins and weighs 22st 4lbs, he was born in Timaru, New Zealand, and rumours abound that he had to travel as cargo, when flying from Auckland to Charles de Gaulle airport, in Paris.

In contrast, Graham Price, the legendary Wales prop of the 1970s, weighed in at 15st 2lbs and reached 5ft 10 in height, most backs are bigger than that these days.

Cosmetically, Props have never been at the forefront of grooming and skin care.

The French front props of the 70s had faces only their mothers could love, I will never forget the great Bill McLaren referring to one of them as “Having a face like a bag of chisels”, the sales of post shave balm and moisturiser were not high in Mont de Marsan and Tarbes.

The man who straddled the evolutionary transformation period of the prop was Adam Jones.

I was fortunate enough to meet him at a  pre RWC 2015 media event, which took place in a capsule on the London Eye, as the two of us combined to challenge the safe weight capacity of the pod, I had plenty of time to glean from the great man himself, some of the dark arts, and technical subterfuge, that the front row warriors employ.

Sadly due to having the signed the Official Secrets Act, I cannot disclose this classified information.

In his autobiography entitled “Bomb” Adam Jones writes :

“My Mam says I looked like a prop when I emerged from the womb on 8 March 1981”.

“I was a big lump , my nose was squashed against my face, and she felt she had to warn visitors about how ugly I was ,before she allowed them to see me”

“Lucky for her I eventually blossomed into the handsome charming man that I am today”

The book written in conjunction with Ross Harries is a brilliant read.

So Props are arguably the antithesis of the spirit of rugby, at grass roots level they continue  in shape, size and personality as they always have done, and it is important that the law makers, in their quest for entertainment and financial reward, remember this.

Rugby must continue to be, at grass roots level, a game for all shapes, sizes and abilities .

If your head is loose, or tight, and the only reason your shorts have pockets in is to store your cigarettes for half time, then there should always be a place for you in the game.

The scrum still has ongoing issues but the laws as they are written, if refereed accordingly, would address  most of the current problems.

I bumped into Adam on a wet Friday night last season playing for Harlequins against Grenoble, in the European Challenge Cup semi final, which they won 30-16.

There is no doubt in my mind that his Wales career ended much too soon, his influence on and off the field is massive.

The last of a dying breed, at elite level, he is still going strong, the number one prop idol.

MISSING PERSONS PLEA

I start today’s blog with a missing persons plea.

Stade Francais are desperately seeking the safe return of their South African born fly half Morne Steyn.

His disappearance has baffled the authorities, and there is genuine concern for his welfare

Mr Steyn is 31 years of age, Caucasian, is 6ft in height, and weighs 14st 5lbs.

When asked if Mr Steyn had any enemies, we were referred to the 2nd test in 2009, between the British and Irish Lions and South Africa, where the aforementioned came off the bench, to successfully kick a 53 metre penalty, that won the match, and the series for the Springboks.

To complicate matters an unconfirmed sighting of Morne Steyn was made in Leicester, on the afternoon of Sunday 10 April, at Welford Road.

The authorities have dismissed this sighting as a hoax , as although the physical similarities between the two were striking, the individual seen in Leicester did not posses any basic rugby skills, and looked totally unfamiliar with the game in general.

BOKS BARBEQUES AND BORDEAUX

The balance of trade in France is at its most unbalanced for some time, as imports have dramatically outstripped the export market.

This has been mainly due to the CITES regulation relaxation on the sale and transportation of Springboks.

Whilst the four legged versions have strict controls to preserve their existence, the larger two legged versions are not subject to any such restrictions, and have been imported into France at an alarming rate.

Their is an upside to this tale however as the sale of charcoal and state of the art barbecues has increased tenfold , over the last few years, improving  the profit margins of many of the large supermarche chains.

The traveling Boks have swapped the vineyards of Stellenbosch for Sancerre, the Cape for Chablis, and there are now more Du Plessis’s in Montpellier than there are Du Ponts.

There are far too many roaming the Gallic fields to list them in their entirety, but here are few:
Bryan Habana, Juan Smith, Duane Vermulen (Toulon)

Morne Steyn, Meyer Bosman, Willem Alberts (Stade Francais)

Janie Du Plessis, Bismark Du Plessis (Montpellier)

Juandre Kruger, Johannes Goosen (Racing 92)

And there are many others, including  Pedrie Wannenburg at Oyonnax, Gurthro Steenkamp at Toulouse and Heini Adams at Bordeaux.

BEACOUP DE EUROS

Whilst on the subject of the Top 14 and its bulging wallet, I have accessed rugby’s equivalent of the “Panama Papers” and can reveal the incredible amounts that have been paid to the top players in recent years.

In 2014 Johnny Wilkinson was paid £56,000 a month at Toulon, whilst Jamie Roberts during his stint at Racing 92 received £380,000 per annum.

Johnny Sexton was paid £500,000 pa during his somewhat unhappy stint in Paris.

It is no secret that Dan Carter is getting £1.4 million a year at Racing, but next in line in the chain of big money earners are Toulon’s Matt Gitau (£900,000 pa) and Leigh Halfpenny (£600,000 pa).

Big money Toulon also paid Bryan Habana (£474,600 pa)

The top French national money earners appear to be Morgan Parra at Clermont (£436,000 pa) and Thierry Dusutoir at Toulouse (£408,120 pa).

Finally with the European Champions and Challenge cup semi finals coming up this weekend, it seems very strange to note that there is no Irish representation in either competition.

The strength of the Aviva Premiership and France’s Top 14 appears to be reaping rewards and unless the Celtic nations can provide a domestic competition with greater intensity then I fear this could be the shape of things to come.

With no Irish or Scottish representation and Newport Gwent Dragons flying the solitary flag for Wales for the second successive year, it paints the Pro 12 as very much the poor relation of domestic European rugby tournaments.

Enjoy next weekend I will be on duty at Harlequins v Grenoble on Friday night , but sadly so will Irish referee John Lacey.

See you next Monday for another Roar !

The Sportsdragon’s Monday Night Roar Is Published Every Monday  At 6pm

I was born in 1958, and since then Wales have never beaten New Zealand.

A staggering statistic when you consider that even The great Welsh teams of the seventies could not quite manage to overturn the All Blacks.

In fact the last time Wales beat New Zealand was on the 19th December 1953, at a packed Cardiff Arms Park.

In June of this year, Wales undertake a three match test series in New Zealand, and it is quite evident that their best chance of a victory will come in the first test in Auckland on June 11th… Let me explain why !

Nehe Milner-Skudder had been ruled out of the series after undergoing shoulder reconstructive surgery.

Brodie Retalkick had broken ribs and will not return until May.

Jerome Kaino and Israel Dagg are currently on the sidelines due to injury .

These factors, together with the retirements of Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Conrad Smith, Ma’Nonu and Kevin Mealamu mean that Wales will face a very different side to that which won the 2015 Rugby World Cup at Twickenham.

I know it’s all relative,  but there is no doubt that this is Wales best chance for a long long time to gain an historic win.

Whatever team the All Blacks put out June 11, Wales will have to be at their very best, but this is a chance that may not come again for this golden generation.

One thing for sure, Wales cannot afford to start as they did against Ireland and England in this years RBS 6 Nations.

So, at 7.35am on Saturday June 11, put the television, iPad, radio, and coffee on, then settle down to, hopefully, watch history being made in the land of the long white cloud.

Wales Tour to New Zealand 2016 (All matches live on Sky Sports) All times are local
June 11 v New Zealand (Auckland).        7.35pm

June 14 v Chiefs (Wellington).                  TBA

June 18 v New Zealand (Wellington).   7.35pm

June 24 v New Zealand (Dunedin).         7.35pm

June 25 v New Zealand (Dunedin).          7.35pm

It’s now Tuesday night and the pain has not gone away , I’m still reliving that first half at Twickenham, when my burst from the sofa to the Nespresso machine, whilst side stepping the cat, had more gusto, enthusiasm and elan, than anything produced by Sam and the boys.

Another 6 Nations title goes begging, and I can’t help but think that this golden generation should have had a lot more titles than they have achieved, these days will not be around forever.

We are now used to Wales competing with the very best, our expectations are higher than ever, and so they should be with such a talented group of players at Wales’ disposal.

I am old, and was lucky enough to have lived my adolescence with the back drop of Grand Slams, Triple Crowns and legends in red, despite my acne, these were magical days.

JPR, JJ, Gareth, Barry, Phil, Swerve, Bas and Reames were my heroes, and I thought it would last forever.

But Then came the 80s and 90s, when losing to England, France and Australia by ten points was an occasion to celebrate.

So we are  disappointed, sad and emotionally bruised, but let’s look at the positives of this current crop ,and these generally rosy days of Welsh international rugby.
In the last 5 years we have lost 5 matches in the RBS 6 Nations

We won the title in 2005, 2008, 2012 and 2013 including 3 Grand Slams

We have reached the World Cup Semi and Quarter Finals in 2007 and 2015 respectively

We currently have a humble, honest, down to earth squad who smile, speak politely to you and make you feel proud to be Welsh.

Before last Saturday’s defeat Wales had gone 7 games unbeaten in the 6 Nations

Next season Leigh Halfpenny and Scott Williams will be back from injury to give us more attacking options and more positional strength and flexibility

I feel better already !

Believe me no one gets more upset when Wales lose than me, but let’s celebrate, our players, our fans, our anthem , our stadium squeezed in to our capital city that makes it all so special .

Win or lose I wouldn’t want to be a supporter of any other team other than my country of birth.

Enjoy the Italy game give the boys all you’ve got because they will be hurting even more than we are !