Smiles return - at last for Welsh

By DAVID LEGGAT

For All Blacks of a certain age, something has been wrong with the international game in the past 20 years.

They grew up on, and in many cases took on, the might of Wales.

This World Cup has provided a clutch of heartening stories, but among rugby's traditional strongholds, the performances of the Welsh in their last two games, against the No 1 and 2 teams in the game, is a story of a once-proud nation once again having something to cheer about.

Welsh rugby of late has been littered with false dawns. They seemed for a time to come with every win by the national side.

But when they flew home on Tuesday, this squad left behind stronger signs than in many a year that maybe, just maybe, Wales are on the brink of a better rugby future.

In the last pool game they gave the All Blacks a real shake, coming from 18 points behind to lead until the third quarter, and posting their highest score ever in a 98-year rivalry.

As an encore they led powerful England at halftime in Sunday's quarter-final, outscoring their bitter foes three tries to one but slid to a 28-17 loss on the back of Jonny Wilkinson's faultless goalkicking.

The trick now is to make sure Wales do not fall back on the old stumbling blocks of factional rivalry in which clubs and regions have been driven by self-interest at the expense of the national team.

It will be done without their New Zealand coach Steve Hansen, who says he will not budge from his decision to head home at the end of next year's Six Nations Championship.

When the side were running up a tally of 10 successive losses this year, it seemed likely Wales would happily pack his bags for him.

Now he will leave armed with the knowledge that his team "put a smile on everybody's faces back home".

Hansen followed another New Zealander, Graham Henry, in the job. But the chief executive of the Welsh union, former NZRFU chief executive David Moffett, has indicated a Welshman will be next for the hot seat. It will need to be somebody with a tough hide who can take the best bits of Wales' cup campaign, ignore the provincial divisions and build on what has been achieved.

"Most importantly the people involved in rugby in Wales need to get excited and get in behind," Hansen said.

"We have to join together to become one nation with the support of the little villages. If we can do that then the tournament has been a tremendous success."

Hansen says the way Wales played their final two games was what had been planned for the past six months.

In the cup, Wales scored 17 tries in five games, some of them among the most brilliant of the tournament, such as those scored by Sonny Parker and Shane Williams against the All Blacks, and Stephen Jones against England.

They also played with a mix of passion and intelligence. The first, although at times misused, has always been a given for any team in the scarlet jersey, but not the second. Hats off to Hansen and his team for that step forward.

"From a coach's point of view you couldn't ask them to do any more. They've done themselves proud, done the management proud and done their country proud."

The key to any hope of Wales building on the past fortnight lies in the strength of character of the younger members of the squad. Plenty of them will be around in four years' time.

Players such as the bruising loose forward Dafydd Jones (aged 24), rangy Jonathan Thomas (20), rugged prop Gethin Jenkins (23), first five-eighth Stephen Jones (25), ball-winning lineout man Robert Sidoli (24), little speedster Williams (26), lively halfbacks Gareth Cooper and Dwayne Peel (24 and 22 respectively) and classy playmaker Iestyn Harris (26) should form the core of their 2007 team.

"A lot of these players will be around for a very long time," captain Colin Charvis says. "It's imperative they stay focused when they get home. Hopefully it will be the springboard for better results next year and that these young players will develop into a great team.

"If they keep learning and keep building, no longer will we just be content to be involved in these competitions. They'll be winning these games, and maybe taking home some silverware and restore a lot of pride in the red jersey."

As Hansen puts it: "You take the lessons that come from defeat and when you go home and don't feel like training you break those lessons and that pain out and make it work for you. That's what makes an average side good and a good side great, because the pain that comes with defeat motivates you to do what others wouldn't."

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