Game Week

Alun Smith

No, I’m not about to start researching pheasant recipes, and I’m not about to start chasing grouse either (not unless they come in wee drams and are famous). No, this is far more exciting!

The rugby is back! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise be to the oval ball and the great and good gods Ruck and Maul. Apologies to you round heads but the fated egg takes precedence.

Wales will play the Barbarians on Saturday at Twickenham. HQ. The home of The Red Rose, strawberries and champagne, what what!

This is because this is a ‘home game’ for the Baa-Baas, and besides, there’s a little known beat-combo playing at our house. What was it…Metallurgy, Motorhome, Metallica, that’s it. That’s the one. Don’t worry if you can’t get up to The Big Smoke, S4C has your back.

So dust off your jerseys and your scarves…actually, scrub that, dust off your WRU vests, sweat-bands and budgie-smugglers and let’s go Wales! Let’s forget about the drama at the Senedd and Westminster for now, let’s forget about Messi, Mbappe, Modric and …Kane.. momentarily, because on Saturday the 27th of June 2026 at 2pm London time…Nothing Else Matters!

Here is your Wales squad to play in what is always, always a fast, loose and exciting match-up against the Baa-Baas :-

Murray, Rogers, James, Hawkins, Mee (no, not you Alun, calm down), Edwards, Hardy, Thomas, Lake, Lewis, Carter, Williams, Plumtree, MORGAAAAN, Waino.

The bench looks thusly :-  Elias, Barratt, Warren, Woodman, Keddie, Morgan-Williams, Costelow, Grady.

Why am I so excited about this squad? Well, let me explain. This is, as settled a side as Steve Tandy could have picked for a game that falls outside of the international window.

There are many players unavailable to him for this uncapped game. Tomos Williams, LRZ, Ollie Cracknell, Dafydd Jenkins, Rhys Carre (a sublime winger), to name but a few.

Then add to that list the likes of the overlooked Adams, Reffell and so on and add to THAT list people who are not in the squad like the rested Thomas Francis or the desperately unlucky Rio Dyer. Now look at the starting 15 again and you begin to see why I’m getting ahead of myself.

Wales’ long, long journey out of the darkness is nearing an almost inevitable conclusion, we’re back, and this time we have some solid depth across the positions.

With all of that in mind, and notwithstanding that we are still looking for a bit of quality at tight-head, I think we can win this game. No, I’m expecting Wales to win this game.

Tangible belief

If that happens, that’ll be the first time in a very long time that we would have won back-to-back matches (after our heroics against a resurgent Italy at the back-end of the 6Nations), and it will be the first time in a while that real, tangible belief will start to kick in.

It’s important that Wales win this, regardless of the status of the match itself, because we need to rock up at the Cardiff City Stadium to face the Flying Fijians with our scales rippling and our tails unfurled.

So, that’s why I’m excited for Saturday. It’s because I believe, if we get this right, this could, just could, be the start of something very special indeed. I can almost hear the commentary now in my minds-voice:-

“A turn of pace, a burst of power, Wales have got it won within the hour….”.

Come on Wales!!