- Sean Davies
- 5 Sep 07, 02:54 PM
Cardiff
It鈥檚 been a strange sort of pre-World Cup fever in Wales, a summer sickness in the August warm-up games cooling the volatile passion of the fans.
Last year, Gareth Jenkins and his coaching team were talking confidently of .
It鈥檚 fair to say that the fans never really bought into that, yet, despite a record of just , the buoyant background mood inside the camp seemed to hold true 鈥 until last month鈥檚 .
Continue reading "A strange kind of fever"
- Alastair Hignell
- 5 Sep 07, 11:07 AM
Versailles
It is not every day that England hold media briefings in council offices.
Mind you, not every council office can compare with those in . Beneath three massive chandeliers, in a vast room decorated with huge paintings, lashings of gilt and ornate furniture, England head coach Brian Ashton produced some exquisite Lancastrian Franglais in response to a florid welcome by local dignitaries, before handing down his .
Continue reading "Saying it in style"
- Tom Fordyce
- 5 Sep 07, 08:57 AM
Day three 鈥 somewhere near
Lesson number 62 of motorhome camping 鈥 don鈥檛 leave the window and skylight open when you crawl into your bunk at night.
Someone 鈥 I鈥檓 not naming names, but since it wasn鈥檛 me, you can probably guess who it might have been 鈥 also inadvertently turned the electricity off in the middle of the night.
鈥淚 thought I was switching the lights off,鈥 was the mumbled excuse at dawn this morning, when the brutal reality of sub-zero temperatures in the van woke both of us up before the sun had even cleared the horizon.
Continue reading "Up with les oiseaux"
