No point in us Welsh getting excited at world cups

In 1987 Wales were finally starting to build for the future after all the legends of the 70's were becoming a distant memory. They were starting to produce another squad of superstars the most famous being Jiffy. Wales finished 3rd in the first ever rugby world cup & followed it with a triple crown in 1988. Unfortunately the game was not professional in Wales yet, there was little money on offer & all the best players buggered off up north. Since then world cups have not been a pleasant experience for Wales

1987 - beat Oz to come third
1991 - Abysmal (cheers Samoa)
1995 - even worse
1999 - the big Graham Henry letdown (Samoa again)
2003 - Slight Improvement (NZ 53 - 37 Wales possibly the most exciting match ever)
2007 - Worst squad selection ever (worse than 2005 lions squad). Fiji match was a beauty for the neutral but a nightmare for Wales

2011???

Gatland says this Wales squad is one of the fittest ever. I will reserve judgement on that as Jenkins said the exact same thing in 2007. Wales have looked fit in their warm ups & finished all 3 games well but South Africa is another level.

Krusty - a decent post and no poll !!
Thank you.

It isn't complete without a poll...

Forums need characters and you are one of them

Anybody getting excited?Not me.If we reach the semis I may get interested.If we are 20 points up at half-time in the Final I may well start to get excited.If we win the thing I will be in A&E.

Why thank you Cymroglan, but I think you should address that comment to Krusty.

Yeah great post Krusty, I wouldnt be to down hearted about Wales record to be honest.

1987, Wales werent expected to do anything, yet beat Australia, England and Ireland on the way to coming third. The team went on the win the triple crown in the 1988 5 nations and only losing the grand slam to a point to france. Though whole team went to rugby league afterwards.

1991 - ok a bad one, but to be fair we had no idea who samoa were and the fact that 5 or 6 of this side went onto become all blacks says it all. Wales did lose to a very dodgy try where robert jones touched down a kick and a samoa player dived on it afterwards but gave the try anyway. disgusting decision and it would never happen in modern rugby.

1995 - ok we didnt make the quarters but we were in a pool with ireland and new zealand! were moaning about a group of death this year, but new zealand and ireland are harder. We lost the ireland game by 1 point and thats despite suffering a raft of injuries and changing coach a week before the tournament.

1999 - Wales won 10 straight games before losing to samoa, we just expected to run them off the park and came unstuck through being over confident. got knocked out in the quarters to australia

2003 - Wales had a very young team and werent expected to do much, we pushed new zealand hard and gave england a real fright.

2007 - ok the Fiji match, but if you watch the game then youd be disgusted at the foul play going on, 2 late and dangerous tackles on popham were ignored by the ref. in fact fiji only had a player yellow carded when he kneed stephen jones in the groin. im not complaining wales lost but the ignorance of the referee in some of the foul play was a disgrace, the forearm across the throat of peel could of been a straight red, yet nothing was done. it's no wonder wales have made sure they have strict refs for the samoa and fiji games this time.

7 posts and no mention of Shane Williams being the third greatest try scorer of all time?

Are the Welsh all sleeping in today?

Taffineastbourne wrote:Anybody getting excited?Not me.If we reach the semis I may get interested.If we are 20 points up at half-time in the Final I may well start to get excited.If we win the thing I will be in A&E.

As ever the optimist I always get excited, am starting to know just for the fact that we have loads of rugby on Tele for a concentrated period.

I always travel to Twickenham excited about the game even through the dark days of the 90s

TheGreyGhost wrote:7 posts and no mention of Shane Williams being the third greatest try scorer of all time?

Are the Welsh all sleeping in today?

well, 1st of all it's not true, there's a Japanese player who's got that record, 2nd this is about our rubbish record in the world cup, 3rd you're absolutely useless at trolling, so why bother?

I said third best, not best.

see you didn't argue about the 3rd point.

GG you seriously rank Shane Williams as the 3rd greatest try scorer of all time... where is your national pride gone???

I'm sure you could provide a whole list of pacific islanders, opps I mean "kiwi's" who would trounce him every time.

Yes. I was being serious.

I'm sorry I don;t mean to be disrespectful of a players career, but can you really include Daisuke Ohata in the list with Shane Williams?
Granted he scored 69 tries which sounds magnificent but when you consider he scored:
8 tries Vs Taiwan in a 155-3 win.
6 tries Vs Hong Kong in a 91-3 win.
4 tries against Korea in a 90-24 win.
Hat tricks, in 2 games against Korea and Arabian Gulf.

Lets be honest if Wales played Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden we'd win by these scores and Shane Williams would be scoring like that too.
I just think you have to apply a bit of common sense.

i know i shouldnt get excited, it just leads to disapointment. but i am getting excited all the same. wales to make the semis

TheGreyGhost wrote:Yes. I was being serious.

Behind Chris Ashton and the New Zelaand interpretation of "flat pass"?

Isnt Chris Ashton the all-time leading try-scorer?

Well not yet, but he's one of only three thousand four hundred and twelve players who have scored four tries against Italy.

HE SCORED 4 TRIES AGAINST ITALY?!

This chris ashton sounds like he's re-writing the book on wing-play if you ask me.

on a side note who de we reckon will be this cups top try scorer?

Comfort wrote:HE SCORED 4 TRIES AGAINST ITALY?!

This chris ashton sounds like he's re-writing the book on wing-play if you ask me.

The greatest ever winger, that's what the press is saying.

He's invented this amazing new technique, of following the ball and giving support to the carrier, rather than just running up and down in a 5 meter track next to the side line.

It's revolutionary, is what they're saying.

Chris Ashton > Jonah Lomu

Jonah would never have run those supporting angles you describe.

Exactly. You should seem him too...

Instead of just putting the ball down. He does this amazing swan dive up into the air, and often runs the last few meters with one hand pointing at the sky.

It's just amazing. It's so exciting just watching him play.

A true legend of the game.

bedfordwelsh wrote:

Taffineastbourne wrote:Anybody getting excited?Not me.If we reach the semis I may get interested.If we are 20 points up at half-time in the Final I may well start to get excited.If we win the thing I will be in A&E.

As ever the optimist I always get excited, am starting to know just for the fact that we have loads of rugby on Tele for a concentrated period.

I always travel to Twickenham excited about the game even through the dark days of the 90s

Thanks ,Bedford.I had nearly erased those happy memories!Character building for those of us on the wrong side of the border.I'm sure your butties in Bedford did not gloat as did not my butties in Eastbourne

Comfort wrote:Jonah would never have run those supporting angles you describe.

He never needed too!
He was like a tank running over peas.

All Im saying is that Wales wouldnt have beaten Argentina if Chris Ashton had been fit.

TheGreyGhost wrote:Exactly. You should seem him too...

Instead of just putting the ball down. He does this amazing swan dive up into the air, and often runs the last few meters with one hand pointing at the sky.

It's just amazing. It's so exciting just watching him play.

A true legend of the game.

its often difficult to show real sarcasm with text but i think youve managed it there, ghost.

oh, you were being serious...?