Wales is a great historic world rugby team. His glorious recent and distant past, symbolised by the generation of Warburton, Roberts, North, Biggar and Edwards, JPR Williams, Barry John, remains in the memories of lovers of this sport.
A great team in the 70s. A courageous and titanic team in the 2010s. No doubt. Wales is part of the Six Nations Tournament landscape.
And this current team symbolises the current slump that the Welsh rugby Union and this sport in general is going through in the Principality of Great Britain.
Over-indebted, guilty of sexism and amateurism in its management, the Union recovered Warren Gatland in 2023 urgently, to save his World Cup in France and deceive appearances.
Because that’s what it’s all about.
Wales has prepared the world cup in France by a preparation in commando mode, taking advantage of its latest installations that have allowed players to reach an impressive form peak that was effective in the pool stages.
But in reality, Wales can no longer play rugby as before, has a generational deficit that is scary, has catastrophic results in the United Rugby Championship and European Cup.
It was very easy to take advantage of its financial superiority and its « Tier 1 » status against smaller teams without means such as Portugal, Fiji or Georgia, who play rugby but do not have the means to prepare under the same conditions for a Rugby World Cup.
A backlash for Wales, which shows its true face. A very average team, without much imagination or technique, that will try not to « win » the wooden spoon against Italy this Saturday in Cardiff on the last day of the Six Nations Championship.
Beauty of the calendar. It is Italy, the team that has won the wooden spoon the most since 2000 and its entry into the Six Nations (12 in total), that will try to leave this anti-trophy to the Welsh. The last time Wales lost all its games in a Tournament was in 2003.
Perhaps Welsh rugby needs this slap in the face of realism to get its ideas back on track, and try to get up to become a great world rugby nation again.