Harping on is a hindrance, says captain

By WYNNE GRAY

Welsh skipper Gareth Thomas wants his nation to stop banging on about 50 years of rugby misery.

"We want to develop the ambitions of the current team," he said yesterday.

It was counterproductive to churn back through the history pages which showed the last Welsh win over the All Blacks came in the year Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Everest and the Queen was crowned.

Wales had been heartened after their narrow quarter-final World Cup loss to New Zealand but again, there was little to be gained from trawling through that occasion.

"I think as a nation, and I really believe this, it was a great day and a great game but it is like always, we are always looking back at things we have done and at the end of the day we also lost that game," Thomas said.

"It was a great game, a superb game to play in but I think to harp on about it constantly does the team last year and the management this year no good.

"I think we need to start looking forward, forget about things that happened in the past and looking to win games and beating the greater nations and stop harping on about what has gone on in the past."

Welsh coach Mike Ruddock accepted there had been a lot of debate about the All Blacks but they were a strong team with a number of world-class players.

This was an opportunity for his side to create history and everyone was up for it.


Technical assistant Scott Johnson thought Wales was the equal of the All Blacks for skill and it was a question of whether they could produce the physical intensity to compete at the highest level.