here is a doctoral thesis to be written on the psychology of Wales v England rugby fixtures in Cardiff. Hope, anxiety, fear, claustrophobia … and that’s just the cross-border trek to the Principality Stadium on big match days. Contractual small print and player powerbut Wales’s fattest bonus should probably go to anybody who can finally sort out the Brynglas tunnels.
Then again, at least there is still a live game to attend. Imagine, for a moment, if the threatened Welsh players’ strike had gone ahead? Tumbleweed blowing down Westgate Street, sad empty pubs, Valley Girl T-shirts back in the wardrobe … it would have been an utter financial and PR catastrophe. Thehas weathered various storms over the years but nothing to compare with the bleak symbolism of Wales declining to lace up their boots to play the English.
It all leaves a significant question mark hanging over this most partisan of occasions. Who will be best able to put this week’s uncertainty behind them once the game starts? So much talking, arguing and brinkmanship has gone on that some have overlooked the shorter-term imperatives. Wales have lost both their previous championship games this month while England are already staring down the barrel of a bottom-half finish. There is pressure on both sides to perform.
It will become harder, certainly, for one or two of Wales’s established players to retain their well-paid status if the dragon cannot at least flare its nostrils and breathe some kind of fire. Eleven defeats in their past 14 Test matches is a grim sequence and Warren Gatland and his players have not always seemed to be harrumphing from the exact same hymn sheet in recent days either.
There is an argument that nothing papers over cracks quite like a win over England and that one decent 80-minute display, in terms of Welsh rugby’s future health, cannot be allowed to mask the far-reaching reforms still required elsewhere. Right now, though, Wales badly need their shop stewards to deliver back on the factory floor.