WELSH SPORT IN REVIEW 2019
A year on the pitch, on the track and on the briny waves, on a page and distilled by Max Harvey.
When reviewing the year’s sporting travails, it’s critical to address the rugby first, particularly when it has been such a good twelve months for Gatland’s swansong squad. A nearly perfect run in fact, just ankle-tapped in the final 22, metres short of the metaphorical winning try line. A flawless year was agonisingly close.
On New Year’s Day 2019, if you’d offered fans a Six Nations Grand Slam, a stint as number one in the world rankings and a World Cup semi-final, I think it’s fair to say you’d have had your hand bitten off quicker than a hungry lion’s dentist. Looking at what’s been achieved in black and white, you have to be impressed, but that’s the thing with success, it always leaves you wanting more.
The year started about as well as it could for Wales. After a decade or more of hurt, this century has brought four clean sweeps and in March the latest Grand Slam was sealed, including a seemingly impossible comeback against the French (16-0 down at halftime, going on to win 24-19) and wins over Ireland and England, who themselves both scored some impressive results in recent tests.
Then, in August, Wales became (for a short time) the number one ranked team in the world. A 14-game unbeaten run had put the foundations in place and expectations for the World Cup were high. Close, hard fought victories over Australia and France brought Wales to within one win of the Final. The eventual winners, South Africa, beat Wales by just three points to deny them a showdown with England (who themselves fared less well against the Springboks in the final itself).
So the trophy eluded Wales, but there were many excellent performances, including Tipuric for his tackling, Adams for his competition-topping try-scoring and Alun Wyn Jones for just, well, being a legend really. Wales’ most capped player and a truly inspirational captain, Jones will take some replacing when decides to hang up his big boots.
After the heroics of Euro ‘16, then the disappointment of missing out on the 2018 World Cup, Wales’ football team, steered by Ryan Giggs, eclipsed what was in the main a fairly flat year by qualifying automatically to the 2020 European Championships. Two wins from their final two games, against Azerbaijan and Hungary, avoided the prospect of play-offs and set up a chance of repeating their French fiesta. Will the review for 2020 have another fairy tale to report?
Domestically, there’s not been much to cheer about. Both Cardiff and Swansea are locking horns in the second tier again, after recent forays into the Moneybags League™. It’s likely many fans will actually have a less stressful time as supporters however, as wins will be less rare, and both will genuinely feel they can challenge to rise up again. Not long before I put fingertip to keyboard, Cardiff said goodbye to Neil Warnock. With 40 years as a manager, endless ranting soundbites, a record eight promotions and the best name anagram ever), it will be a fond farewell, and a genuine challenge to follow after him.
Outside of the big two sports, there’s plenty to celebrate this year. We’ve seen Hannah Mills become a world champion sailor for the second time, Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones took the world title and Elinor Barker added a global cycling gold to her Commonwealth top spot.
A further brace of elite athletes and serial world-beaters remain unlikely to grace back pages that often – but when you consider that Hollie Arnold (javelin) and Aled Davies (shotput) both recently bagged their fourth consecutive World Para Athletics titles in Dubai, you wonder what more they can do to get their names known. It’s true that disability sport has seen an increased profile since 2012, when over 4,000 athletes graced the world stage, but there’s a way to go still. What is in no doubt, though, is that Wales has some of the brightest talent, and two who have underlined their total dominance in their field in 2019.
