Hell of a game

Wahay Wales for the World Cup! well perhaps not, but a hell of a game. The only thing certain during a game of that pace and intensity was that Mike Catt would probably pull a hamstring,after having to play 2 games in 6 days!! I don't know whether to be delighted or just relieved to get a win after winning only twice in the last ten games and those were against Canada and the Pacific Islands.
Wales were a little wasteful in a great opening twenty minutes and nearly blew it, the defence is still not convincing. The pack though, with Alun Wyn Jones in great form and to my mind the find of Wales' championship, were too much for England and Ashton must be gutted about that.
Wales' need was probably greater and it showed, they were more intense and more aggressive. This was likely to be the last true test with their best team on the park before the World Cup, as I can't see them taking key players to Oz. As for James Hook, what a game, what a talent but compared with what Stephen Jones had to play with, he did have a lot of high quality quick ball.
For Brian Ashton two players stood out again - Harry Ellis (Eng player of championship) and Martin Corry, but on top of that a lot of youngsters like Tom Rees, gained an enormous amount of experience at a top class level. Question has to be for England, Why wait so long? I would have liked Ireland to have snuck the championship but great end to the tournament.
By the way my players of the championship Parisse, Darcy and Ibanez.