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Sean Davies

Driven crazy by the opening exchanges (38)

It鈥檚 been a frustrating for the armchair supporter of the home nations.

I鈥檓 not talking about the less than inspiring wins over the , , and .

It鈥檚 those damn with the imbecile supporters from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Some of the banter therein has been bad enough. Have you seen the one where the Welsh guy insists on ordering chicken tikka massala in the French restaurant?

The fact is that we appreciate proper French grub west of the Severn, and I personally like nothing better than a plate of snails, frogs legs and . So long as it comes with chips.

But what's really got me wound up more tightly than a spring is the driving situation.

Why the hell does the Englishman drive everywhere while the muppet Celts have to sit happily in the cheap seats?

Such national insults have clearly distracted the Welsh people from the tectonic shifts in perceived rugby lore that the national psyche has had to absorb after the win over Canada.

Coach Gareth Jenkins - having been vilified by the fans and even upstaged by his own pet poodles - has suddenly emerged as a tactical genius.

The introduction from the bench of Stephen Jones, Gareth Thomas and Colin Charvis changed the game, averting potential disaster against the Canucks.

Consequently, James Hook - the darling of the fans for over a year now - has been .

What's more, has opened up for Jenkins' men.

All they need now is a victory over Australia on Saturday, followed by a quarter-final triumph over England.

After that, they鈥檒l be facing a French side, the hosts haggard after a thrilling quarter-final victory over the under-cooked All Blacks in Cardiff.

So then it鈥檚 a first World Cup final for Wales, a rematch against a limping Wallabies team, hamstrung by a bruising quarter-final win over the Springboks.

Wales to win the World Cup it is then. Who鈥檒l be in the driving seat then鈥?

Sean Davies is a 大象传媒 Sport journalist based in Cardiff.


Comments  Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 08:27 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Mutt wrote:

Best piece of speculative fiction I've ever read :)

  • 2.
  • At 08:58 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Mike wrote:

I like the Peugot ads - aspecially the one where some one say - Right, Right..... the driver says I have gone right and the other replies I mean drive on the right. Like the blog, though it is rather stereotypically celtic, full of ridiculous optimism and over sensitive inferiority complex.

  • 3.
  • At 09:19 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Philip Jones wrote:

spot on prediction except the quarter final against England. If wales get a result against Australia I expect them to play samoa in the QF ;)

  • 4.
  • At 09:36 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Dave wrote:

Surely the driver is the one who doesn't drink! Who wants to drive?

  • 5.
  • At 09:54 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • nathan sealy wrote:

i too quite like the peugeot ads.

nice wishful thinking about wales getting past the pool stage...

  • 6.
  • At 10:03 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Paul F wrote:

Lovely optimism Sean, but I think the driving seat you will be fighting over, will be the team coach back over the channel.

  • 7.
  • At 10:10 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Douglas wrote:

Funny how if an Englishmen vents anything against the Celts there is national out-rage, compensation, rebellion, uprising you name it. The Welsh probably try and reincarnate Owen Glyndwr with a weegie board. Wales will crash and burn just like all the other home nations, it is the sad truth.

Wales beating Australia? Well, lets wait and see.

  • 9.
  • At 10:36 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Anonymous wrote:

Douglas,

As a Welshman I totally agree. I think that all the NH teams will crash and burn, sadly were back to the dark old days of Southern Hemisphere dominance.

As for Wales beating Australia...... Dan Brown wrote better fiction and he was cr-p.

  • 10.
  • At 10:44 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Sion wrote:

that's OWAIN GLYN DWWR , not Owen Glendower!!!

  • 11.
  • At 11:08 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Sean Davies wrote:

Now I can take flak about Celtic over-sensitivity, hopelessly optimistic predictions etc. But I just can't accept that there's anything remotely entertaining or worthy about those damn adverts!

  • 12.
  • At 11:19 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • keith wrote:

After the less than honest display by the Azzuri against Australia in the soccer WM I am hoping that they get far enough to play Australia!!!!! Nothing else needs to be said.

  • 13.
  • At 11:19 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • G Odd wrote:

You are the reason the Welshie isn;t driving

  • 14.
  • At 11:29 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Tom Howard wrote:

Sadly Mike is right; it鈥檚 another example of our 鈥渙versensitive inferiority complex鈥. I wish my fellow Welshmen wouldn鈥檛 cheapen our identity by being so bothered about petty issues.

  • 15.
  • At 11:30 AM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • wrote:

I am delighted that we don't get the silly Peugeot ads in Japan, we have quite enough of our own thank you!

After John O'Neill's reported silly whingeing recently about having to play in Cardiff - as if that was news - I hope that the Welsh give the Aussies a sound thrashing...and then forget to turn up against the uncomplaining and long-suffering Japanese on Sept 20th! (I won't forget by the way.) ;-)

  • 16.
  • At 12:12 PM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Oliver wrote:

Sion, it's not Owen Glyndwwr, mate. It's Owen Glyndwr with a little hat over the w. I know we Welsh love 'em, but there's just the one double-u.

  • 17.
  • At 12:39 PM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Oliver wrote:

ooops, tripped up by own pendaticism (is that a word?), that should of course be Owain Glyndwr. Ahem.

  • 18.
  • At 01:06 PM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Angus wrote:

The Aberration of 2003 will be never be repeated. No Home Nation will ever be able to field such a once-in-a-lifetime set of Forwards again.

Southern hemisphere dominance will resume. All-Black Springbok Final.

  • 19.
  • At 04:14 PM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Daniel wrote:

Somebody has eaten too many Chicken Tikka's!!!!

  • 20.
  • At 06:19 PM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • wrote:

Lets be realistic, unless the southern teams are suddenly struck down by some kind of paralisys our lot are one stage above the minnows,
Sorry to be a pessemist but what else on the evidence can we be?

  • 21.
  • At 06:24 PM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • wrote:

Lets be realistic, unless the southern teams are suddenly struck down by some kind of paralisys our lot are one stage above the minnows,
Sorry to be a pessemist but what else on the evidence can we be?

  • 22.
  • At 06:43 PM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • ian wrote:

far more irritating to myself is the fact that on the opening night of a spectacular worldwide event, the first thing we were "treated" to was 3 englishmen's opinions on england!!

  • 23.
  • At 07:16 PM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Tom Shepherd wrote:

I'm happy with an inferiority complex, much less likely to be obnoxious than the superiority complex across the border....

  • 24.
  • At 08:19 PM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • neil wrote:

Those adverts are extremly irritating but at least theres some balance in the adverts with all four nations being shown, which you would'nt know from the woefully bad ITV pundits who seem to be confused by Georgia's flag and think that everything revolves around Engalnd.Come on ITV this is a WORLD cup

  • 25.
  • At 08:29 PM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Colin Isaacson wrote:

How frustrating it must be to write a blog replete with heavy irony and then find that most of the comments are from people who cannot recognise this.

  • 26.
  • At 09:02 PM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Renton wrote:

I love the one, where all the guys are caught against the fence by a unimpressed french lovely girl cycling who says 'Bonjoouuurr'...then silence till the welsh guy shouts boonnjjoouurrr...

Advertisements and pundits are quite biased, but at least there is some humour in the ads.

  • 27.
  • At 09:25 PM on 13 Sep 2007,
  • Tez wrote:

ITV - abysmal isn't it. During the Georgia game on Tuesday night, how many times did Murray Mexted call the Argies ... "the Argies"? How do you get away with that on mainstream(ish) tv? Also during the first half, with Les Rouges mounting a quite spirited attack on the Pumas line, I'm sure he said "... like fleas round a honey pot". Highly annoyed that Setanta's coverage is not available to UK subscribers, otherwise tonight I could have watched a replay of Ireland's shambolic performance against Namibia ... then again every cloud

  • 28.
  • At 03:15 AM on 14 Sep 2007,
  • BrucieB wrote:

The "dark days" of southern hemisphere dominance have not returned ... they never went away! 2003 was simply a momentary aberration. There are only 3 teams capable of winning this Cup, and they make up the Tri-Nations. End of story.

  • 29.
  • At 08:04 AM on 14 Sep 2007,
  • Mike Towl wrote:

Ah yes the answer why the Englisman drives. Simple, it saves time for the jock if they pass a pub, saves time for the bog trotter if they pass chip shop and time for the boyo if they pass any sheep!
Wales to win the World cup eh? You need to put more water in it!
Mike Towl
Lagos, Portugal

  • 30.
  • At 08:20 AM on 14 Sep 2007,
  • Rhys wrote:

That's nothing...one commentator refered to 'the Jap's' although I suspect he was a Kiwi..special dispensation is required!

Pipe down bums...wales will win this Sat. you just mark my words!

  • 31.
  • At 09:03 AM on 14 Sep 2007,
  • Chris wrote:

Lets forget about the adverts and basiclally admire the game.What i have seen of the smaller countries isthey are making the tournament more exciting by competing well against the bigger teams and then hopfully they will cause a few shocks in years to come,so lets just cheer our team on and enjoy the moments while we can

  • 32.
  • At 10:37 AM on 14 Sep 2007,
  • Aaron wrote:

i do hope im not the only Englishman who is rolling around at the irony of the welsh blokes up top discussing your their ridiculously complicated language spells owen wilson or however you spell it... at first i thought someone had stolen the vowells from Sions' keyboard... :D glad to see that you're all still arguing about the truely important things in life...

funniest thing i've read since Sean Davies' world cup prediction... or our performance against USA... which reminds me... im due at my psychiatrists for treatment following that match.... bye all

  • 33.
  • At 12:11 PM on 14 Sep 2007,
  • Euan wrote:

To Mike Towl #29

Shouldn't that be 'Tool'?

Or have you heard that one before?

  • 34.
  • At 12:54 PM on 14 Sep 2007,
  • Mike Evans wrote:

Glyndwr/Glyndwwr/Glyn Dwr/Glendower who cares? Can he play at 12??!!


I may be dense but I don't get that bonnjjooouurrr "joke".

  • 35.
  • At 01:08 PM on 14 Sep 2007,
  • Matt wrote:

Welsh a ridiculous language???

Its far simpler than English, its written as its spoken and as for the vowels - well its a different language so the vowels are different, try looking at Welsh with English eyes thinking of 'y' and 'w' as vowels all will become clear

  • 36.
  • At 01:54 PM on 14 Sep 2007,
  • Sean Davies wrote:

Ah I suppose I was asking for such wildly off-topic ramblings given the subject of the blog! Hope you all appreciate it's all in fun. Have to say that Murray Mexted's commentary on the Fiji v Japan game was one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time!

  • 37.
  • At 01:58 PM on 14 Sep 2007,
  • sion wrote:

lol!!!! wish I could learn to proof read my messages before hitting the post button, especially when having a dig!!!

roll on the weekend!!

Sio^n

  • 38.
  • At 03:43 PM on 14 Sep 2007,
  • Matt Turner wrote:

the bias the ITV coverage is showing towards england is unbelievable - there are 3 other home nations taking part you know.

so far it seems to be that of the half hour build up before each game, the first 15 mins (at least) will be to hear the latest from the "england camp". and then during half time we have another update and hardly any analysis of the game taking place :(

i'm betting that in the latter stages of the tournament once england are knocked out we'll still be getting pieces on "where it all went wrong" or "now it's over to guy at heathrow where the england team have just landed"...

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