Monday, September 10, 2007

Second only to Osama

In 2003, Welsh rugby player, Colin Charvis was voted second most unpopular man in Wales. He came in between first-placed Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
You're wondering what on earth he did to merit such hatred?
He refused to cancel a pre-arranged holiday to go training with the Welsh squad and, under his captaincy, Wales did very badly in the Six Nations tournament, losing their first game to Italy, who were very much the underdogs.
We take rugby seriously in Wales.
Anyway he's getting on a bit (for a rugby player) and most people thought that 2003 would be his last World Cup. Not so. He's there again this year. And how. Suddenly he's our hero. He fought back from the position of hate he was held in, is in the peak of fitness and playing as well as ever he's done. Fitting then this afternoon that he should be one of Wales's try scorers in our victory over Canada.
He might be the man most people want to see score, but I appreciate that he's not quite in the Remy Martin field when it comes to looks (although I'm sure his wife loves him).
So in tribute to yesterday's valiant effort by the US team of semi-professionals, here's one of their stars, Chris Wyles of Stamford, Connecticut.

12 comments:

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Umm - he's nice, isn't he? - That American hunk, I mean...

jmb said...

I see WCLC is appreciating the rugby stars, as am I.

Well my disappointment at the 42 to 17 defeat of Canada by Wales is somewhat softened by the Wallabies crushing those poor little Japanese 91 to 3. New Zealand also crushed poor Italy 76-14 and now South Africa blows away Samoa at 59 to 7. Those are some mighty scores for rugby.
regards
jmb

Puss-in-Boots said...

I agree JMB, those scores are wipeouts. As for the American guy...pity it's only a headshot. I'd like to see the rest of him before I give him any points.

Lee said...

The Aussie Wallabies are playing Wales next...I guess we'll be cheering different camps, Liz! ;)

Furtheron said...

Well after the first set of matches I'm afraid to say the Northern Hemisphere teams look like they are all going to struggle. The All Blacks just came out and bang, bang, bang .... "Oh well we can sit back now we've won this game. How much longer is there to play ref?" "About 70 mins!" South Africa look good too.

Hats off to the semi-pro/amateur nations. I thought Portugal looked brilliant considering they only have one or two professionals in the teams. Hang on though - with all the training our professionals have why aren't we that much better?

Liz Hinds said...

Ladies, I'll see what can I do about finding more shots of the players in action ...


The southern hemisphere teams are in a different league, and, yes, the underdogs have all put up real battles. There've been some entertaining, worrying, encouraging, depressing games so far.

Next Saturday's game for Wales against Australia will be very interesting!

mdmhvonpa said...

"We take rugby seriously in Wales."

EGADS! Does his villainy know no bounds! Surely his ranking is deserved for his traitors ways!

Oh, and "GO USA!"

:-D

James Higham said...

Swing low, sweet chariot ...

Mauigirl said...

I should see when these games are being shown on TV here in the States. I actually think rugby is a lot of fun, more interesting than soccer.

Lee said...

Btw..."Remy Martin" is my male cat's name..."Remy" to his friends! ;)

Anonymous said...

Chris Wyles went to the same school as me! He was pretty good at every sport you care to mention...even cricket, although I gather he preferred baseball, having been brought up in the States (I think).
Can't believe he now tackles the likes of Robinson and Lewsey, after supporting them for all those years! Great player.

Liz Hinds said...

mdm, go USA!

James, go En ... go Eng ... sorry, I can't bring myself to say the word!

Mauigirl, I much prefer rugby. So much more goes on, although the rules are beyond me.

Anonymous, that's interesting. The US team were really good against England.