Peter Jackson: Welsh mood swings high ahead of England visit

Mon, 15 Feb, 2021 - 07:00

On a routine Monday at Dublin Airport as a dejected Wales team shuffled through security, fans from the fanatical fringe of the Red Dragon Brotherhood greeted them with a spontaneous sound. They burst into a song, not of praise but damnation.

“We’ve got the worst team in the world,” they chanted ad nauseum to the tune of the old spiritual ‘He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands’. The public shaming of their players that morning 19 years ago followed a fearful hammering at Lansdowne Road where Ireland decorated Peter Clohessy’s 50th appearance with six tries and 54 points.

Graham Henry, in charge of the Lions in Australia the previous summer, resigned as head coach, not quite on the spot but within 24 hours when the mocking sound of the makeshift male voice choir would still have been ringing in his ears.

Another encounter at the same venue, at a time when some began to wonder whether the Welsh grew Grand Slams on a tree in a subterranean arboretum hidden in a disused coalmine, underlined the Welsh capacity for extreme mood swings.

Heading for the duty-free, a familiar voice from behind posed a rhetorical question: “Why are we so great?” It belonged not to a supporter from the valleys who had paid his own way but the president of the Welsh Rugby Union.

It’s forever been thus with the Welsh and their rugby, either the best or the worst and nothing in between, an ecstasy-or-agony which sets them apart from every other rugby tribe. A Nations’ Cup series shambolic from start to finish provoked a mood of such widespread despair that the Six Nations would be reduced to a scrap with Italy over finishing rock bottom.

Now, after two chaotic rounds, they are the only home country still in with a shout for the Slam. Nowhere has that come as more of a surprise than among the fanatical fringe whose favourite means of killing time in lockdown was to speculate on whether Wayne Pivac would last the season.

The head coach is still there only now he’s two from two with England next up in Cardiff, arguably their least favourite place in the world with the sole exception of Edinburgh. That Pivac’s team have been aided and abetted along the way by successive red cards has done little to dilute a general sense of incredulity.

Nobody will ever know for sure but there can be little doubt that the Six Nations table as it stands this morning would have looked very different had Peter O’Mahony not brought about his own dismissal. Against fully-loaded opponents, Wales would have done well to escape with a losing bonus point.

Zander Fagerson’s unwitting sabotage of Scotland’s flying start with virtually an action replay of O’Mahony’s offence paved the way for a Welsh revival completed by their electrifying novice on the right wing. Zammit’s pizzazz is the new wonder of the Six Nations.

All Wales need now is for an English red card when the tournament resumes on Saturday week. The prospect of playing France in a winner-take-all Grand Slam decider next month still seems a touch too preposterous for words but who knows? At least two of Pivac’s management team, attack coach Stephen Jones and manager Martyn Williams, know only too well how the Welsh mood can change.

They were both there at Dublin airport that Monday morning 19 years ago.

Will this be the most concussive Six Nations of all?

HEAVY GOING: Ireland’s Billy Burns takes the brunt of this tackle on France’s Gregory Alldritt at the Aviva Stadium. Picture: James Crombie

Another round, another back row forward wiped out. Jack Willis lasted for six minutes at Twickenham, long enough to score a try before a horribly smashed knee ended his season, just as something similar ended Dan Lydiate’s a mere 12 minutes into his comeback for Wales the previous week.

Elsewhere, the head injuries keep piling up. Five more in Round Two on top of the five during the previous round threaten to make this the most concussive Six Nations’ of all. Regrettably, Ireland have suffered most.

Having lost James Ryan and Johnny Sexton in Cardiff, fate had it in for them again yesterday. At a time when the whole world outside France willed Billy Burns a triumphant response to all the social media abuse, the gods decreed otherwise.

Instead he succumbed to another Head Injury Assessment, as Scotland flanker Blade Thomson and Wales full-back Leigh Halfpenny had done at Murrayfield on Saturday evening. Just when it surely couldn’t have got any worse, it did.

Iain Henderson and Cian Healy had to be helped off like a pair of bleeding heavyweights who had taken one slug too many at Madison Square Garden.

To their credit, they returned suitably stitched up but it will have made more alarming viewing for World Rugby’s most strident critic on concussion, Dr Barry O’Driscoll. An international in his own right and uncle of Brian, the Cheshire GP has long called for tougher action.

“These are brain injuries we are talking about,” he says.

“There is no test that can be done on the sideline in 10 minutes which rules out a brain injury. If you come off, you should stay off. There is a price to be paid in later life which we have seen all too clearly with recent examples of players in their 30’s and 40’s suffering from the early onset of dementia.”

Memories of Tony O’Reilly’s star debut

Joe Zammit used to play a bit of American football as an enthusiastic amateur at a time when Vince Lombardi was all the rage for what he’d achieved with the Green Bay Packers.

Joe’s wife, Maxine Rees, represented Wales at netball. Her brother, Paul, alias Pablo, was a Wales B full-back from the same Cardiff RFC back division as Danny Wilson whose elder son, Ryan, played a bit for Manchester United.

Wales promoted Louis Rees-Zammit (pictured) to their squad last year when he was 18 and in the process of tearing up the English Premiership on behalf of Gloucester.

The family couldn’t understand why Wales kept their boy waiting until eight days ago for his Six Nations initiation.

His daring conversion of a lost cause at Murrayfield deserves to be put in a historical perspective. While comparisons are being made with 18-year-old Keith Jarrett’s fairytale debut for Wales against England in 1967, Rees-Zammit will have evoked older memories still of another 18-year-old.

Tony O’Reilly’s debut for Ireland, against France at Lansdowne Road in January 1955, caused such a sensation that a Hollywood agent reputedly offered him an audition for the title role in the religious epic Ben-Hur. The gig went to Charlton Heston by which time O’Reilly had set off on a stellar business career in the US as the global leader in tomato ketchup.

Sad state of affairs

Some England players take a knee at Twickenham Stadium. Picture: David Davies/PA

England’s Anthony Watson took to social media to explain "the importance of kneeling to raise awareness of social injustice. To see people on social media trying to discredit its importance, I can’t let that slide."

A shame, isn’t it, that he found it necessary to defend his action.

Pearce breaks language barrier

Top marks to English referee Luke Pearce for taking a leaf out of the Wayne Barnes book of communication and speaking to the French players in their native tongue.

Pearce, born in the rugby crucible of Pontypool, goes about a serious business as if he is enjoying himself.

Top marks, too, for his eagle-eyed assistant, Christophe Ridley in spotting Bernard Le Roux’s sly tripping of Keith Earls, so sly that hardly anyone else saw it, other than Earls who certainly felt it.

A look at the video will show Pearce that it doesn’t pay to turn his back on the kicker after a penalty award. Five minutes before half-time, Mathieu Jalibert stole at least five metres in finding a longer touch than he deserved.

My team of the weekend

15 Stuart Hogg (Scotland)

14 Louis Rees-Zammit (Wales)

13 Chris Harris (Scotland)

12 Gael Fickou (France)

11 Jonny May (England)

10 Mathieu Jalibert (France)

9 Antoine Dupont (France)

1 Wyn Jones (Wales)

2 Luke Cowan-Dickie (England)

3 Andrew Porter (Ireland)

4 Paul Willemse (France)