Friday, June 26, 2009

Big Day for the Lions

Been out to the excellent Waggon and Horses in Newtown tonight for supper with two of our sons, and discussion turned to tomorrow's British and Irish Lions team to face the Springboks at Pretoria. Not unreasonably I think, I entered something of a 'told you so' mood. My team for the first test included both Adam Jones and Luke Fitzgerald. Better late than never I suppose. No argument with Mathew Rees being in for Lee Mears, which I didn't have in my team. With two Welsh props, it might as well be a whole Welsh front row. I hope Mathew's eye is in at the lines out. And no real argument with Simon Shaw either. The first test demonstrated the need for more power and bulk in the early exchanges. Alun Wyn Jnes and Martyn Williams can come on for the last thirty minutes to inject a bit of extra pace. I fancy our chances tomorrow.

2 comments:

Bonetired said...

15:09

Getting tense ....

8:16

Fingers crossed

Dr. Christopher Wood said...

Well Glyn I feel terrible - I met some very nice people from IBW (International Business Wales) and one of them invited me to join his friends to watch the match at a pub in Washington, DC. I've misplaced the name of the pub, lost his business card, and can't find his email address or phone number to get the info/location details. I just know it's a pub in DC and I should have been there over an hour ago!

(Btw, the IBW people have worked very hard to make the Wales delegation a great success – I met just about all of the team, they are doing Wales proud, I did my bit giving US-patent tips to Welsh businesses; there’s something cooking in the works too, maybe more about that later.)

Footnote: The First Minister gave what I thought was a GREAT speech at a British Embassy arranged reception at the official home of the Deputy Head of Mission in Washington, DC – reception held in celebration of Wales at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Anyway, I’ve penned a letter summarizing the speech which might find its way into Wales’s national newspaper.

“Fairs fair – and all that jazz”, the First Minister’s speech was great (essentially, an apolitical Obama-love-fest free speech) – Rhodri Morgan focused on Welsh culture – so it was, in the context of the Smithsonian Welsh Folklife Festival, a GREAT SPEECH.. The First Minister exhibited his flair for mimicking the stereotypical version of the Texas accent – I’ve been to Texas and was once in business with a Texan (but he was born in Vietnam – there’s no typical Texan anymore – multicultural society) – a topic that the First Minister covered when he mentioned that one of the world’s oldest Yemeni communities outside Yemen is in Cardiff, Wales. The First Minister also talked about Ellis Island and how it got its moniker from Samuel Ellis, a New Yorker of Welsh descent. The First Minister also referred to the Davis sisters – their art collection (bequeathed to the National Museum of Wales) is on tour and will be in Washington, DC in January 2010 – the collection includes many masterpieces of French impressionists, including Monet! So that is a ‘must see’.