Whole Six Nations should pray the Welsh revival is for real

Telegraph

08-03-2025

In this build-up, Adam Jones, the Welsh scrum coach, has made a valiant attempt of piling the burden on Townsend's side – 'all pressure is on them' – but if they are, as Jones, says 'the best Scottish team ever' then they will be too good for an outfit taking baby steps.
So what if it does come to pass and the outsiders revert to humble type. For Sherratt's final match – he is adamant that he will return to his role at Cardiff full-time – England at home would appear the perfect tonic and there can be little doubt that the Principality Stadium would be hymning and humming.
But a 17th defeat would equal the worst run ever by a tier one nation – Scotland 70 years ago – and those quotation marks will appear more necessary than ever. At that point the resurgence would be but a fleeting memory and the submergence would resume its inexorable effect.
Unless the Welsh Rugby Union acts decisively, there would be no coach and with the domestic game still mired in the shambles of an agreement with the regions that has yet to be published, the despondency could carry the national team to yet lower depths. Japan for the summer tour, anyone? New Zealand and South Africa on back-to-back weekends in November? By then, Wales's world ranking could feasibly be below not just Georgia, but that of Japan, Samoa and the United States.
The notion of Six Nations relegation would become increasingly louder. Of course that is a nonsense and those who propose it – wise judges such as Sam Warburton, who should know better – are making the mistake of judging the championship purely as a sports competition. It is so much more. In its 142-year history, it has emerged as a cultural phenomenon, as an annual jamboree that sees more violence-free travel between countries than any other international sports event.
Unless you have not been to the Principality Stadium and sampled the atmosphere that Brian O'Driscoll this week has labelled 'the best' or seen the Welsh fans make the trips in their tens of thousands, then you cannot deny what they add to the occasions. The support the smallest nation in the championship takes to Scotland has long been touted as the biggest away section in the Six Nations. 'It's a good place to play and the Welsh travel up there well,' Jones said, with a smirk. 'Max Boyce wrote a song about it, so it must be true.'
Naturally, Boyce is one of the Welsh clichés and while not up there with the team of the Seventies or of the No 10 production line, he is part of the allure. And that enduring mythical quality is why so many non-Welsh people welcomed the sight of the twinkle-toed underdogs frightening the life out of the unstoppable Irish champions.
It was a glimpse of the Welsh rugby iconography that under the highly effective but just as pragmatic Gatland had not been witnessed for years. Believe it, the Six Nations does not need a strong Wales but it will indeed shed priceless lustre if the Dragons are pathetically weak. It should not only be the Welsh wishing The Revival is for real – but the championship as a whole.