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An underdog France side did what French underdog sides have done to so many sides in the past, especially New Zealand, and claimed a memorable Six Nations victory against a possibly over-confident Wales side.
Wales was aiming for a record nine victories in a row in the fabled tournament that started nearly 100 years ago. But (to change the underdog metaphor), the side was harpooned and then gutted by a committed French side.
With minutes remaining in an enthralling, physically abrasive Six Nations classic rugby international, Wales pounded the French tryline. Despite throwing bodies at the line, the French were as stalwart as they were at Verdun in the First World War, in the great tradition of “ils ne passeront pas” (they will not break-through).
It was a heroic and close-run thing for France, though.
With four minutes to play. They had the throw-in to a lineout about 15m from their tryline. The throw was too long. Martyn Williams, Wales’ best on the day, snatched the ball and rushed towards the tryline.
Stop the TV picture. A try is inevitable.
Williams has nothing but a few metres of grass and no opponents in front of him as the startled French turn and try to understand what has happend.
Now start the pictures again.
Williams staggers slightly. He and the Wales side are extremely tired for they have done a huge amount of tackling with France making 80 passes in the first half alone. As he slows down ever so slightly, French players come from everywhere, the way a crowd gathers instantaneously at the scene of a crash.
There was still time for Wales to get their try.
But panicky play from Dwayne Peel in trying to run a short arm penalty instead of opting for a final scrum and more pressure from a set piece move allowed France to force a mistake, clear, and come away with a famous victory.
What this tremendous match tells us is that Wales are good but not as good as they and their supporters think they are. Really good sides win tough away matches.
France is always hard to defeat at Paris, and a French side that is being severely criticised and being written off before it takes the field is an even more dangerous beast – this poodle has sharp teeth when it is in a mood to use them.
In the context of the world game of rugby, the match was yet another vindication of the ELVs, despite the fact that only a truncated version of the variations are being played in the northern hemisphere.
There was terrific movement in the match with something line 250 passes made by the sides and nearly 200 tackles. The kicking was generally good. The ruck play was ferocious, and France’s dominance in this area was a factor in its victory.
The difference in the quality, intensity, spirit, skills and movement in the play and the dour and uninspiring 2007 Rugby World Cup final played at the same stadium provides a definitive answer to the critics of the ELVs.
Yet these know-nothing critics still try to maintain the fiction that the ‘old’ laws are best for the game. Eddie Butler writing before the match in an Observer rugby blog, The Breakdown, starts off a rant with these words: “At the risk of turning the ether blue with the very mention of the Experimental Law Variations …”
He then continues to make the criticism that the subjectivity and spotlight on the referee has not been removed from the referee without acknowledging (or perhaps knowing?) that the short-arm sanction under the hybrid ELVs being played in the southern hemisphere is not being played in the northern hemisphere.
I’ve made the point continually surfing the many discussions over the laws of rugby and the history of the game that the greatest impediment to rugby reaching its potential as a great game embracing physicality, skills, courage and exuberant running and passing is the British rugby establishment.
This establishment has for nearly 130 years opposed every attempt to make the game more attractive to play and more accessible to spectators to enjoy. This dismal, close-minded, joyless attitude has been revived once again with the diatribes against playing a Six Nations match on a Friday night.
It wasn’t so long ago that it was set in stone that all the Six Nations (then Five Nations) matches were played at the same time. So if you wanted to watch Wales-England you couldn’t watch Ireland-France, and so on.
Then the unthinkable was decided and the matches were staggered.
Remarkably the sky didn’t fall in. Huge crowds still turned out, and television audiences grew.
Now there is the experiment to extend the round from two days to three days: Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In theory you’d think that the establishment would welcome this. Journalists, at least, and others who could get tickets could see more than one game each round.
But what was the reaction?
The usually sane Mick Cleary, the rugby writer for The Telegraph UK, went berserk: “The travelling fans have been betrayed … Six Nations administrators are in danger of turning the fixture into a mere game … Poor put-upon players. Poor put-upon punters. The Six Nations has sold then short.”
The packed stadium at Paris didn’t seem to have read Cleary’s head-in-the-ruck nonsense. They clearly loved what was a memorable occasion, with the Welsh supporters have the rest of the night and the weekend in Paris to drown their sorrows.
Let’s hope that the IRB similarly disregards the British rugby establishment head-in-the ruck nonsense in May when they vote to bring in (hopefully) most of the ELVs.