I have always followed and loved the Six Nations Rugby or Five Nations as it was. I am not a great follower of sport; I don’t follow a particular regional team and tend to only watch big tournaments, like the world cup in football.
But the Six Nations is very special to me, as it was something as a young boy in the 1970’s the family would come together on the Saturday afternoons to sit and watch the rugby and importantly to watch Wales win.
Proud of my Welsh roots I was lucky to grow up in the 1970’s when Wales just won all the time (ok I know there was the occasional defeat but it was so rare as to not worry about!). Triple Crowns, Grand Slams and championships abounded, until that dreadful time in the 1980’s when Welsh Rugby took a slide downhill. We’d lost the household names of Barry John, Phil Bennett, Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams etc and new players were coming in who I didn’t really know. Of course in the 1980’s the pits were closing and the traditional Valley living experience was changing: as the pits closed local rugby teams disappeared and there was not the scope to nurture new rugby talent. We’re talking of a time, as JPR Williams said recently, when the team would turn up on the weekend, play for Wales and go back to their normal jobs on a Monday. The amateur game at its best.
I remember being taken by my dad and grandfather to Phil Bennett’s sports shop in Llanelli to get a Welsh Rugby Union strip for myself and my brother. As a tongue tied eight year old it was an awesome experience meeting one of my heroes, having my hair ruffled by him. I was deeply proud of that rugby strip and wore it for years, even when it was too small for me!
Recently the great commentator Bill McLaren, the voice of my rugby childhood died and I felt another link with that happy time gone. His voice and unbiased commentary was a fantastic combination and whenever I sit to watch any rugby I automatically think of his voice and wish he was still commentating.
I met my Welsh rugby heroes one last time at a benefit concert in Cardiff, in the early 1990’s. They were much older and less fit, but I still felt the same tongue tied excitement at being in the same room as Gareth Edwards, Barry John and Phil Bennett. I doubt it will ever change.
But this year will be touched with melancholy as it will be the first year I watch the tournament without any of my family who sat around our television in the 1970’s. My father died in the early 1990’s, my brother moved to France 11 years ago and my mother died in October last year. No more the trip to my parents’ house to enjoy an afternoon of rugby, in companionship and echoes of yesteryear.
So this year I expect Wales to win the Six Nations as a fitting tribute to all our happy years together and to kick off the years to come. I will raise a toast to the past next week when the tournament kicks off and look to the future as I enjoy the classic grudge match of the tournament, in tune once again with the Land of my Fathers: Wales v England.
--
Tim Davies
No comments:
Post a Comment