Rugby’s back baby!

Alun Smith

It’s not all politics you know.

The extended Wales squad for the inaugural Nations Cup was announced this afternoon.

This is a new tournament and it replaces both Wales’ traditional summer tour and the November internationals. It’s a seismic shift in the annual rugby calendar for all teams concerned and it’s designed to pit the very best of the northern hemisphere against their southern counterparts.

The European teams that make up the Six Nations tournament will represent the north and those representing the south of the world are made up of New Zealand, Australia, S. Africa, Argentina, Fiji and Japan.

The tournament begins on the 4th of July with the opening melee featuring Les Bleus of France and the All Blacks of New Zealand. Wales’ first match-up is at 2.10pm when Steve Tandy’s Dragons face the formidable ‘Flying Fijians’ in Cardiff. Wales then head off to San Juan for a date with The Pumas of Argentina on the 11th and conclude their summer with a trip to Durban to face the mighty Springboks of South Africa on the 18th.

Prior to that lot though, the Barbarians, affectionately known as The Baa-Baas, will be commandeering England’s HQ of Twickenham at 2pm on the 27th of June to give Wales a thorough examination prior to the main event.

An event which promises to be a fascinating new format for our beloved game. So, it’s going to be a set-piece summer, a smiling, shimmering, scrummaging, shouting summer and an autumn to match, muscle-bound mauls, mazy runs and matchday mayhem await.

Bring it on bois, I, for one, can hardly wait.

As with all squad announcements, and particularly, I think, in Wales, reaction is swift, passionate and almost always neatly framed within regional loyalties.

“Why has Dai Jones from Tonyrefail been picked mun, he couldn’t catch a cold”? Always met, of course, with an equally flabbergasted and affronted “Dai Jones is the best lock-forward in Wales right now, and if you can’t see that, then you don’t know a rugby ball from a debutantes ball”. “Yeah, well, you don’t know the difference between a leather egg and a chocolate one…”.

And so on and so forth until we discover that the original commenter was referring to Dai Jones the scrum-half and not his considerably taller, more lumbering team-mate Dai ‘the tree’ Jones.

Meanwhile, the fictional and increasingly confused ‘Dai Jones’ of Tonyrefail will probably get injured in a freak training ground accident and will be turning out for Abercwmbucket RFC 2nd’s, in a bid to return to fitness!

It’s all in good fun and it’s one of my favourite times of the year. Even the social media shenanigans that my fellow fans engage in is rarely anymore combative than the above example. I wish people were as engaged with and as polite about, their politics.

Derbies

My take on it is that, as an ‘all-Wales’ supporter, I actually get quite uncomfortable when we have to play derbies, because I want them all to do well. Silly, I know.

On a serious note, the head-coach, Steve Tandy has said that the door isn’t closed to any player at this stage and it’s a long, long tournament. Selection has to be staggered, due to end of season commitments, player welfare (as is the case with Tom Francis), injuries, short and long term, and player management and development. We know what some players can do and we know less about others.

The 2027 Rugby World Cup is just around the corner now and new players need to be brought into the international environment early, to learn and get a feel for things.

Talent

That way, when we head off to Australia for the World Cup next year, we’re going to be fully armed. The step-up from regional rugby to international rugby can be a bit of a shock to the nervous system and Wales, whilst blessed with talent and legacy are still a smaller rugby nation with a smaller playing pool. Things have to be done carefully.

Have no fear though, Wales will, as always, punch well above our weight, will shock some pundits and some naysayers, will give everything they have for their country. They always have, and they always will.

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

Rugby’s back baby!