The Game Is On

Hell yes. That's right. On Saturday, Edward and I sat down and watched an entire game of rugby together. It was (and I'm strangely proud to say this) the first time he has ever done it - Wales vs Australia was a historic match.

Of course, had Gareth Cooper not sliced his clearance kick in the 79th minute (or had the normally unflappable James Hook not hit the post from right in front with a penalty some twenty minutes earlier) it would have been an even more historic day, as Wales would have held on for their first victory over Australia in Australia since 1969. But he did (and he did) and we didn't. I'm not gonna lie to ya - it hurt.

Positives to take from the game? Colin Charvis was magnificent, a true old school blindside's game - he was everywhere, doing (as the old adage goes) his best work when you couldn't even see him. James Hook is (penalty miss aside) so good he makes me question my heterosexuality on a regular basis - the old fly-half factory has churned out another mercurial silky-handed wonder. And (and there's a big part of me that wants to write this in capital letters) Gav is back. The quickest hands on the field, the biggest boot on the field - one run where he fended off three Australians in quick succession was enough to get my juices flowing, and genuinely excited about the World Cup. A back-line of Peel, Hook, Henson, Shanks, Shaney, Mark Jones and Kev/Alfie should scare the crap out of any team out there - even the one that plays in black.

And yes, there were concerns - the line out's still not functioning, we were very scrappy in the loose, and both our tries were opportunist rather than crafted, but fuck it, we still scored them. I'm going to be positive - the chances for that have been few and far between since March 19th 2005, which remains the best day of my life.

Edward's view will appear soon - unfortunately this week's a bit busy with work stuff, but he'll get it up as soon as. There's no way he'd force himself through 80 minutes of 'sweaty wrestling' and then not write about it.

Personally I'm very excited: he made a number of incisive observations, including my personal favourite, "You get more beards in rugby than you do in football, don't you?"

It's going to be awesome.