Monday 25 February 2013

Halfpenny, Dyer and James star in stellar weekend for Welsh sport

Leigh Halfpenny, Nathan Dyer and Becky James were just three names on the lips of Welsh sports fans this morning (February 25) after a memorable weekend for sport in the country.

It was a weekend that saw the Six Nations continue its upturn, the first British cyclist win four medals at one World Championships, and Swansea City become the first Welsh club to bring the League Cup across the Severn Bridge in to Wales.

There were glory tales all over the country, as Wrexham, Cardiff City and Newport County also contributed to 48 hours of celebration.

James kicked off the celebrations early with two bronze medals at the 2013 Track Cycling World Championships in Minsk earlier in the week, continuing the country’s love affair with the sport since the heroics at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Her first world title then came via a thrilling fightback to beat Germany’s Kristina Vogel in the sprint final on Saturday.

The 21-year-old from Abergavenny lost the first race but then levelled and memorably won the decider to send the travelling British contingent in to raptures.

“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “I can’t believe this has just happened to me. I’m world champion and I can't believe it!”

Meanwhile, in Rome, the Welsh rugby side were restoring their country’s faith in the national sport with a solid if unspectacular 26-9 victory over Italy to keep their hopes of a Six Nations title alive.

Leigh Halfpenny kicked 16 of Wales’ points – four penalties and converting tries by Jonathan Davies and Alex Cuthbert - which put Wales in a commanding position on the hour.

Then the defence stood up to the mark and continually repelled the Italian attack, who only registered three penalties through the boot of Kris Burton for their efforts.

The win secured Wales’ fourth successive away victory in the championship, a feat not achieved since 1979, and coach Shaun Edwards was delighted with the Welsh efforts in horrendous rain at the Stadio Olympico.

He said: “If you’d come up with that scoreline when I saw that rain in the morning, I would have bitten your hand off. It was such a wet day and we knew there were going to be a lot of scrums and I thought our scrum was outstanding.

“Whenever we don't concede any tries I am usually pretty happy.”

In football, Wrexham followed the lead of Cardiff City, Newport County and Swansea City in the past year by securing their place at Wembley.

Their path comes via the FA Trophy final, beating Gainsborough 4-3 on aggregate in the semi-final despite a 2-1 loss at the Blue Square Bet North side in the second leg.

Leading 3-1 from the first leg, Danny Wright extended that advantage with a 20-yard strike before the home side fought back to take the lead on the day.

Despite a second-half onslaught, Wrexham held firm to secure their first appearance at the English national stadium in their 120-year history against Blue Square Bet Premier promotion rivals Grimsby Town.

Player-manager Andy Morrell now wants the club to push on for a historic league and Cup double in the closing months of the season. He said: “York did the double last year so there’s no reason why we can't do it this year.

“The league is the priority so we’ve got to try to stay up the top. We’re still top after this weekend and it’s on to Tuesday and to Barrow away – there’s a comedown for you!

“It’ll be a very similar challenge to Gainsborough and we’ve got to be bang at it to get anything from it.”

Elsewhere, Newport continued to challenge Wrexham at the top of the Blue Square Bet Premier table, beating bottom side AFC Telford 2-1 at Rodney Parade to move in to third, just two points off leaders Wrexham and with a game in hand.

Christian Jolley and Danny Crow got their goals and it could have been more, with Jolley in particular a threat, and former Swan Scott Donnelley striking the post for the Exiles.

Manager Justin Edinburgh said: “I thought we were very efficient on a difficult surface, controlling the game from start to finish.

“I’m disappointed to concede the late goal again for the second week running, but overall I was pleased with the team’s performance.”

Then on Sunday, Cardiff continued the weekend of celebrations by returning their lead at the top of the table to eight points, with a game in hand over second and third, thanks to a tight 2-1 win over luckless Wolves at Molineux.

Frazier Campbell continued his incredible start to life at the Bluebirds with a brace to make it five goals in five games since his January move from Sunderland, before a deflected Bakary Sako free-kick signalled a late Wolves flurry the visitors had to defend against.

Cardiff received some of the luck that had evaded them in the midweek loss at home to Brighton, principally when Wolves striker Sylvain Ebanks-Blake somehow hit the crossbar from close range when it was probably easier to score.

Cardiff boss Malky Mackay was pleased with his team’s defensive efforts, saying: “It was never going to be easy here and I have never had an easy game at Wolves. They have players with Premier League quality and I was delighted with the way that we played and controlled the game to get our three points.

“We knew that Wolves would throw caution to the wind after half-time and they did, and I thought we handled that well. I was pleased with the way we saw the game out in the last 10 or 15 minutes.”

Then came the two biggest results of the weekend.

Swansea City defeated League Two side Bradford City 5-0 at Wembley to win the Capitol One Cup for the first time.

Nathan Dyer and Jonathan de Guzman both scored braces, while Spanish sensation Michu added the fifth to cap a perfect if bitterly cold day for the 33,000 who had travelled along the M4 to witness history.

It could even have been more had it not been for a combination of Bradford heads and feet, and even the crossbar at one point, but the winning margin was the greatest in the competition’s history.

The travelling Jacks were in fine voice throughout, and can now look forward to playing European football next term after securing a place in the third qualifying round of the Europa League – where they could even draw opposition from the Welsh Premier League.

Danish boss Michael Laudrup paid tribute to his opponents whose own run to the final added to the fairytale, saying: “This final will be historical, for us as well as Bradford, because I think what they have done this season is incredible.

“[To win] 5-0, and our first season here, I think it’s absolutely great. And now, [time] just to enjoy it!”

Then, finally, James came back to the fore by securing her second gold in as many days in Minsk to put the cherry on top of a sumptuous cake that Welsh fans had gorged on all weekend.

This time it was the women’s Keirin that brought victory as she fully stepped out of the shadow of Victoria Pendleton after the Olympic hero’s retirement from the sport.

She led from the front, fighting off continued attacks from her rivals to finish with the same number of medals as the entire French team for the event.

She was equally dumbfounded second time around, saying: “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it. Wow. It’s going to take a good week for it to sink in, or two weeks, or a month.

“I just need someone to pinch me and tell me if it’s really happening to me. I feel like it’s a complete dream, apart from the pain in my legs.”

The 12 months of 2012 were labelled as an unbeatable year for sport in Britain, but this cold, dank February weekend showed that Welsh sport isn’t ready to stop partying yet.

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