Daily Mail fears England’s ‘depressing’ national anthem will put them at a disadvantage against Wales

A Daily Mail journalist has said that he fears that England’s “dull” and “depressing” national anthem will put them at a disadvantage against Wales when they play tomorrow.

Wales and England will face off in World Cup Group B with both teams hoping to clinch a place in the last 16 at 7pm.

But writing in the Daily Mail, Dominic Lawson said that the Welsh are guaranteed a “devastating victory” in one regard – the battle of the anthems.

He called on England to consider adopting a different anthem such as Jerusalem or Land Of Hope And Glory instead, now that the Queen had passed away.

“We already know one outcome of the World Cup match tomorrow between England and Wales,” he said.

“When the players line up before kick-off at 7pm GMT, the Welsh football team (and their supporters in Qatar’s Ahmad bin Ali stadium) will achieve a devastating victory against their English rivals… in the battle of the national anthems.”

He said that the “point is that our cousins across the Bristol Channel have an absolute stonker of a melody for their anthem”.

“When this was being thundered out before the start of Wales’s first match in Qatar against the U.S., it made a global impact.”

‘Winners’

Dominic Lawson added that one of the problems with England’s present anthem was that its words were so “uninspiring”.

“You don’t have to be a republican to regret the fact that what we call the National Anthem does not celebrate the nation at all, but whoever happens to be the monarch — unlike Land Of My Fathers, which celebrates Wales, its landscape, and its language,” he said.

“While the late Queen was alive, the British National Anthem at least evoked the fervent wish on the part of most of her people that she remained healthy and on the throne. But it simply doesn’t have that feeling now, after a gap of 70 years, that it is once again God Save The King.

“In fact, even when his mother was alive, the anthem was not popular.”

Dominic Lawson added: “But there is a serious point, when it comes to the anthems we sing at great national sporting events. Shouldn’t the English, like many other nations, have one which sends tingles up the spines, not just of our own people, but of all those listening or watching, across the globe?

“Meanwhile, tomorrow evening, we English will watch the Welsh team and supporters thunder out ‘Gwlad! Gwlad!’ and know they are the winners, whatever the result of the match.”