Well, there’s no getting around this, we were beaten by the better side on the day. Wales very nearly won the game. They lost by a few feet, which is the distance by which Stephen Jones’s last minute penalty kick failed to get over the crossbar. The game was that close.
However, Ireland scored two good tries, while Wales never looked like scoring. They also wrecked the Welsh lineout. It was really only their own indiscipline that allowed the score to be so close.
As everyone else is pointing out, the last time Ireland won a Grand Slam was 61 years ago. Wales achieved that feat most recently in 2005 and 2008, so it would be churlish to deny Mr. O’Driscoll and his colleagues their moment of glory.
Next year, on the other hand…
Before that, however, there is the small matter of the Lions tour of South Africa.
So happy – We did it.
Yeah, I don’t think Wales did deserve to win. I thought Henson had a terrible game and the loss of Lee Byrne(sp?) early on was a bit of a disaster. I can’t believe that in missing the kick they went from potentially winning the triple crown to coming fourth…
( We met a while back btw at Wagamama’ s in London I think – I hope you don’t mind my commenting.)
Nicky:
If I didn’t want people commenting I would not have a blog, would I? 🙂
Of course telling the world that I eat at Wagamama’s could be construed in some circles as besmirching my reputation, but it’s not because I’m a yuppy, honest. There was a time when it was one of the few places you could get decent noodle soup in London, and I missed it after living in Australia.
Yeah, well there is that : )
if it’s wagamama it has to be the culturally recursive chicken katsu curry
off the top of my head this dish in it’s current form is a modern anglo-chinese interpretation of a Japanese version of a dish based on Indian spicing introduced to Japan at the time of the British Empire / Raj and was therefore already an anglo interpretation of curry.
i’ve always thought the cultural evolution of katsu curry should feature in a William Gibson book…
and on the rugby i think the result went the right way – especially when considering tries scored / try scoring chances created on either side.
now for the Lions – there won’t be very many englishmen [for good reason] but the interesting issue will be how many players, currently outside of johnson’s squad, get chosen by the wasps mafia…