THE WELSH GENERATE confidence quicker than any other nation on earth.
It doesn’t matter how many times they’ve been spanked, how long they’ve been in a rut, or how many other nations write them off; the good times are always just around the corner, and the 1970s glory days were only last week.
This sense that they’re eternally building towards something significant, that a few things just need to click and they will be the best again, is one of their greatest strengths.
The provinces think exactly the same way, the Ospreys in particular.
At the end of every season they mutter under their breath about targets not quite being reached, injuries going against them, that there’s a great young out half coming through, and all the progress made at youth level in the last few years is about to bear fruit – yet the Heineken Cup has still to make its way to Wales.
Cardiff on an international weekend is different to any other ground in Europe.
Green, green grass of home
Their fans get excited very early on in a move, when the winger is clearly going to be bundled into touch. The Irish, the French, the Scots – they wait until they’re sure their roars won’t be wasted on another doomed attack.
In Wales there’s no distinguishing between potential and end result. It makes for a great atmosphere, like an over-excited commentator who turns every mundane possession into a potential 80-yard try.
The innate optimism, the naivety, the lack of self-awareness, have helped them win two recent grand slams, and it got them to a semi final in 1987.
Its like a property boom – if you believe in it enough, it becomes real, and in this World Cup they’ve plucked some form from the ether.
It helps too that those at the centre of this surge have youth on their side, and expressions to match. Sam Warburton and Rhys Priestland lead the charge but George North, the free-scoring teenage winger who has emerged as a real force in the last few months, typifies it better than anybody. He goes at every tackler as though he’s going to go through them, he takes hugely ambitious support lines and aims for the killer move every time, with some justification.
He is yet to have the corners knocked off him (there will be a few Irish players with their hands up to take that job), and that can be a powerful element to have in your favour.
So far, not a single thing has gone wrong for North or Priestland or Warburton in this competition, and why would it?
They’re playing for Wales, who are on the brink of something special.
Great save by Kelleher near the end. Comfortable afternoon for him
Top player.
Super performance and result albeit against a woeful Watford. Unlikely to be a worse performance by any PL team this season. Salah is unbelievable and his goal was magical, give him the contract his performances and goals deserve. Great to see Firmino scoring. Though Kelleher had nothing to do he kept his concentration to make a very good save at the end. Gonna be a tight title race. Surprised Salah and Mane played the 90 minutes, Minamino could have done with game time especially against that Watford team.
Mo Salah is WOW!!! a pleasure to watch him…..Firmino not bad either : )
Time to sack Ranieri…….
@John S: dilly ding dilly dong
@Heckler davies: dilly ding, dilly gone
Class win and 3 more handy points. We will be hard to stop This season as we put last seasons blip behind us
Danny Rose will sleep tonight. Great performance against an albeit poor side!!
Give Mo all the money. Almost 0% chance of being able to replace him
Lewandowski and Salah are the best players in the world on current form.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a PL side as bad as that Watford side today….if they lost 10-0 it wouldn’t have been a surprise! Woeful…
@Ottomaaan: you forgot to mention that they were up against a solid side with a rampant front three, there, I fixed it for you…. :)
@Gordon Larney: no need to fix anything. That was the worst performance I’ve ever seen from a PL side, dreadful stuff and Liverpool could have put 10 past them.
@Ottomaaan: have to agree. I was at the game and never seen such a bad performance from a PL team.
Salah in great form. But how long canhe hold that form? He has 20-25 goals in him a season, but he’s up and down. If he held this form, he’d be close to 40 goals?
Bigger tests against Athletico and United on the way.
@Finn Faulkner: did you like your own comment…
@Finn Faulkner: how long can he do that. ? He has been doing it for the last 4 seasons. 104 goals in 166 games in the Premier league but you think he should score more. Okay so
@Finn Faulkner: you’re gonna need bigger bait on that hook ….
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: But by that metric 4 seasons at 40 goals would be 160 goals. He hasn t done that. But my point is that if he can keep that killer hat on his head for a prolonged period, and with our squad almost injury free, he could break records for us. I’m HOPING he keeps this lethal form indefinitely. He still can’t be put in the Messi/Ronaldo category until he starts being seriously clinical. I’d love to see him win the Balloon d’Or this year (or the next)
@len len: No, but seeing as you need likes, here, have mine. Have a lovely day.
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: you included his Chelsea stats there, it’s 102 in 153 for Liverpool
@Shane Roche: It’s still an amazing number of goals per season, but I think he can go even further, he needs to keep this current form. Biggest tests are against Athletico and then United.
That salah. Goal was pure roy of the rovers.. Pure art.. He must be a great dancer..
As good as Liverpool are, and they are really good. This in my opinion is all about Klopp.