No Hair Combing!
This has been passed on to me from a New York Rugby email newsletter. It's quoted from "The Telegraph" but I can't find any reference anywhere from searching the web. But it's sound advise for both teams tomorrow night:
Not only was Gwyn Nicholls, captain of Wales in 1905, among the most revered of all Welsh players, he could deliver a belting speech as well. Let's eavesdrop in the Cardiff Arms Park dressing room 10 minutes before kick-off 100 years ago. Here are extracts of his pre-match exhortation, as reproduced by the Western Mail the following Monday morning.
"Gather around men. The eyes of the rugby world are on Wales today. It is up to us to prove that the old country is not quite barren of a team capable of giving New Zealand a hard fight.
"It has been suggested by some of the English papers that they come to Wales more or less stale; but as they played two English counties last week and won each match by 40 or 50 points with half their best players resting for today's game, that staleness is not very apparent.
"We have already discussed tactics. So it only remains for me to appeal to you to be resolute in your tackling. You all know what New Zealand are like if they are given latitude. They throw the ball about and their system of intensive backing up makes them very dangerous. So there must be no hair-combing. Every man in possession must be put down, ball and all."
Not only was Gwyn Nicholls, captain of Wales in 1905, among the most revered of all Welsh players, he could deliver a belting speech as well. Let's eavesdrop in the Cardiff Arms Park dressing room 10 minutes before kick-off 100 years ago. Here are extracts of his pre-match exhortation, as reproduced by the Western Mail the following Monday morning.
"Gather around men. The eyes of the rugby world are on Wales today. It is up to us to prove that the old country is not quite barren of a team capable of giving New Zealand a hard fight.
"It has been suggested by some of the English papers that they come to Wales more or less stale; but as they played two English counties last week and won each match by 40 or 50 points with half their best players resting for today's game, that staleness is not very apparent.
"We have already discussed tactics. So it only remains for me to appeal to you to be resolute in your tackling. You all know what New Zealand are like if they are given latitude. They throw the ball about and their system of intensive backing up makes them very dangerous. So there must be no hair-combing. Every man in possession must be put down, ball and all."
posted by Michael at
6:51 PM
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