Holidays 16.5 - Summer Rugby

Perhaps it is programmed into my partly Welsh genes (courtesy of the paternal grandfather whose moniker I share) but this Englishman is a sucker for the Welsh anthem and I've head it twice today. First up it was the rugby against New Zealand this morning and forty minutes ago it was a resounding rendition at the football in Bordeaux.

We did take a strenuous (at least that's how it felt to my aged legs) stroll round to Moelfre Sailing Club but most of the day has been taken up with watching test rugby from the southern hemisphere. The Welsh were more ambitious that has been their norm under Gatland and led the All Blacks for three quarters of the match but there was something inevitable about the Blacks pulling cruelly far away at the end. New Zealand have lost a phalanx of the great to retirement after the RWC triumph but they still have all the elements required at the best test level: athleticism, technique, fitness, persistence and deftness. In the final count it is that deftness that Wales fall most obviously short in. That is not to say that Faletau and Liam Williams did not have strikingly good games. One imagines that New Zealand will be the better for today's match and it might turn into a long thankless couple of weeks for the Welsh as they face the remaining two tests.

King for a day

England downed Australia 39-28 in Brisbane. Another cracking good test match and a notable scalp for Eddie Jones' men, but he will know that there is much still to work on, not least dealing with Australia's waves of runners and sorting out kick-offs (both taking and receiving). James Haskell had one of those games that the gods allow to precious few - simply massive. Expect next week in Melbourne to be thunderous as the Aussies throw it all at England.

Even more stunning and as this very post has been written, Ireland have played the Springboks for sixty minutes with only fourteen men (their imported South African, C.J. Stander sent off) and have beaten them at Newlands. Now that really is what I call a result. And Wales are 1-0 up in the Euro 16 football. Time for this Englishmen to roll out his heritage and cheer on the land of his (grand)fathers.