Easily the most exciting game of Rugby Union I’ve ever watched, with Wales coming from behind to score 17 unanswered points in the last 10 minutes of the match – and turned on the sheer genius of Shane Williams – question is: why was Shane Williams not man of the match?
1. Wales’ first try was all his vision with an incredible sprint out wide to outflank the Scottish defence and institute a 2-on-1 scenario for Lee Byrne, of course offloading at exactly the right moment for the score.
2. Saved the last Scottish try by catching a huge Gary Owen in the Welsh Try zone and winning the mark – another try would have put the game beyond Wales.
3. Sets up the Halfpenny try also with some great support work.
4. Scored the final and crucial try – right between the posts
Scotland “was robbed” and it would have been heart-breaking for them after leading the entire match, often by more than 10 points – they scored as many tries as they have their last six tests apparently, and were on the cusp of their first away win for 4 years! To have two men sin-binned for the last crucial 10 minutes is more than just bad luck.
But you couldn’t have scripted the tension of the match with Welsh Captain Ryan Jones left with the decision on 80 minutes – kick the penalty for the draw or tap it for an attempt to win with a Try that might not come off, knowing you only had 40 seconds of play left. He opted for both and Wales won 31-24 having drawn level on 80 minutes. Apparently he said of that decision: “if I have to make many more decisions like that and I will be as grey as Warren [Gatland] or as bald as Shaun [Edwards]."
Apparently the 90,000+ crowd at the Millennium stadium went crazy with something across between relief and triumph – according to one journalist “it rained beer!”