Me and 76000 Others

It was a record attendance at the Millenium stadium. By the start of the match you couldn't spot an empty seat anywhere. Just to our right were a whole load of France supporters and, it being rugby rather than football, everything was good natured and friendly. Sitting there waiting as the stadium filled up you could feel the tension mounting. France had elected to have the roof closed (visitors get to chose), it must have been a tough decision, open and raining or closed and volume of noise. They went for closed and may have regretted it, I should think they felt trapped.



The match was incredible. The first 25 minutes Wales dominated but then the French started to come back. The Welsh defence was solid. One of the reasons can be seen in the photo below, France overcommiting into the rucks and mauls, Wales happy to wait, not scared to let France have the ball because they were confident that their defence was not going to be broken and knowing that France would make a mistake and then Wales could capitalise. It must have been a frustrating time for the French. And then, in the dying moments of the first half Gavin Henson was yellow carded, in to the sin bin for 10 minutes. Fair decision by the ref, it was a high tackle.

So the second half starts with Wales down to 14 men. The defence still holds. They keep pinning France back into their own half. No opportunities for France to break loose. France only get 3 points despite their advantage. The tension is now getting unbearable. The noise deafening. Welsh voices shouting, singing, screaming. It's 9-9, effectively after so long we are back to an equal footing points-wise between the teams. But France are bereft of ideas. They are getting slower and slower. When they have the ball in the maul they aren't cycling it quickly, they don't know where to go, the scrum half and fly half are standing discussing what they can do. And the red line remains strong. When Wales get the ball it is fast, moving through the line, Shane Williams is hopping from foot to foot, blistering speed with the ball and chasing it. Martyn Williams working overtime. Gavin Henson always there, always in the thick of it. Everything says Wales have it in them. They have the initiative, the ideas. Looking for that moment. And finally it comes. Shane Williams scores, from a French mistake he is able to hack on, chase the ball, a kind bounce takes it over the line and Williams is on it in front of two frenchmen. Martyn Williams scores the other try to seal it for Wales and to get man of the match, and to think he had retired before being brought back by Gatland.

The celebrations were unbelievable. Everywhere you looked there were beaming faces. This made up for a diabolical World Cup. And possibly is the beginning of a great future, after all, Gatland says he has a five year plan and this is what he has managed to do in 5 months. Wales scored 13 tries in the Six Nations matches, they only conceded two (the least ever since Italy joined the group). Yes they made mistakes. Yes they can improve. But they deserved this.