John Meredith's Blog » Wales

Thoughts on the Eve of Battle

John — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:18:08 +0000

Remember when you fell in love? Or when you had your first baby? When every quiet moment you had, something popped into your mind. Not all consuming or conflicting. Not so much that you could not work or do what needed to be done. But there, nonetheless, in the background until your mind fell fallow, and it was brought to the fore.

I feel like that. But this time, my thoughts stray to a few thousand miles away. To 15 Men in Red, and their exploits on a field of play in the South Pacific Ocean. I think it odd, but never the less, I am silently frantic. Waiting. Tomorrow cannot come fast enough.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow, when Sam’s Army walk out to face a conflicted rabble of French. Tomorrow, when the weight of a Nation that so often revels in the self imposed misery of pessimism and defeat Prays for Glory. For Greatness. For Victory.

Good luck tomorrow, boys. You have already done Wales proud. But a couple more victories would not hurt.

GWLAD!

Cornish pasties awarded protected status

John — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 06:29:17 +0000

So you can no longer make Cornish Pasties outside of Cornwall. Good. I’m not a fan…
Now onto being parochial about Welsh things.
1. Cannot make daffodils outside of Wales.
2. Welsh cakes are only to be made in Wales to a traditional recipe….no JAM!
3. Rugby failure at a professional level is exclusively a Welsh skill. This only induces rugby bosses to ignore common sense and think it’s ok to get 1500 gate for a Scarlets match.
4. Making toll bridges to get back into your country is mandatory and no other country is allowed to be so stupid.

Not included:
5. Capitulating at a Rugby World Cup is still Kiwi skill. Wales have nothing to do with that.

Wales Finally Claim Scalp

John — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:50:46 +0000

Wales fullback Lee Byrne (top) celebrates with Andy Powell after beating Australia in Cardiff. Photo / Getty Images

Well, it’s about time but Wales finally overcame their demons to claim a southern hemisphere scalp for the first time under Warren Gatland’s reign by beating Australia 21:18 at the Millennium Stadium. And it was a good match, although my heart could not take any more drama.

I don’t mind Wales losing as long as it is a good test, and that’s the way I feel about losing to the Kiwi’s last week, but this time Wales could hold on. The odd thing is that Australia seem to be the southern hemisphere team that Wales an consistently have a good match against. It the Boks and Kiwi’s that seem to have some major boogey-man mojo against the Dragons.

Not that this win was easy – it should have been far more convincing with a string of horrible errors that led to at least one Martyn Williams try being fouled up (twice!) and poor concentration that once again saw a last minute try for the opposition that dented the Welsh performance. That said, a win is a win which is more than can be said for the rest of the home nations.

And even the New Zealand Herald thinks this is worth reporting!

New Wales Rugby Strip

John — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:45:41 +0000

Yellow is the colour. And yellow is an odd choice.

I have been wondering what this jersey will look like for a while and now that it has been unveiled the main home strip is predictably red and white. Not too different visually and what I would call safe, with most of the changes appearing in the shirt’s construction opposed to anything else (fancy sciency stuff about the stitching and other bits…). The ‘Away’ strip is a different kettle of fish…

Yellow? I blame the football. I don’t know where the Hell this colour has come from but it is an odd choice to say the least. I don’t think it looks bad, but I just wondered where the idea came from…unless the writing is on the shirt and Brains had anything to do with the SA Gold sponsorship.

I think there must have been a very decisive move to stay away form the darker colours that have plagued the WRU over the past few years. 2005′s debacle of “Wales in Black” had the team foolishly thinking they were up to the task of beating the All Blacks, or even being the “All Black’s Of Europe”. 41-3 later hammering from the Kiwi’s, and very dodgy showings against Australia and Fiji put the kit to bed for good. Wales were not ready to be All Black.

The next strip was a gun metal grey, which I will be honest, thought was pretty cool. I even bought the 2007 World Cup strip (as it was £14 is Sports World). There’s nothing I can do about the World Cup logo, but the kit is nice to wear down the cinema.

So I think that yellow is to be seen as new and vibrant, just like the attitude brought in by King Gatland. We will have to see how it performs against the Canucks on November 14, but I am pretty sure it will do well.

However, it will be highly doubtful that I will ever buy the ugly thing.