Welsh opening off key

Nice stadium, when it's finished. Nice opening ceremony, too. Shame about the match. As anti-climaxes go this one didn't quite fall flat on its face but it certainly left the main hosts with a little egg on their faces.

Despite being fitter and better prepared (as manifested by a vastly superior restart game), despite having far more potency amongst their backs and scoring the game's only two tries, in heavy weather the Dragons made heavy weather of putting the Pumas away.

By God, though, the Welsh know how to throw a singsong. And when it comes to rousing the spirits of 76,000 people under one roof, not even American golfers have anything on them.

In truth, probably no-one else but the Welsh could conduct an opening ceremony with such gusto, even if seasoned observers say it lacked the sense of occasion of four years ago. For starters, over 90 per cent of the crowd - all bar the most die-hard of drinkers - were rushing for their seats for the ceremony's 2 p.m. start. Can you imagine such promptness in Lansdowne Road?

After Shirley Bassey, resplendently draped in a dress of the Welsh flag (with poorer imitations de rigeur amongst her female compatriots), and then the manic Max Boyce had increased the decibel levels as the light was let in by the sliding roof, host of ceremonies Gerald Davies ventured: "Three minutes to the kick-off now."

Cue an almighty roar, and not even Davies's words could be heard above the din. After the matadors entered the arena, then came the real version of Bread of Heaven. Cue the 1999 World Cup, and what followed almost had to be a damp squib.

There were mitigating factors, well articulated by Wales coach Graham Henry afterwards. "There was a lot of tension for that game. The eyes of the world were upon us and the expectations of the Welsh public were huge. We would have liked to have played better, but in 13 Tests that was the first time we played in the wet."

Henry conceded that perhaps Wales should have adopted more of a kicking game to suit the needs of the occasion.

Certainly, that's what Argentina did, although so tortuously slow was Gonzalo Quesada in going through all his kicking routines that he had five chargedowns, somehow avoided coughing up a seven-pointer as a result, and was roundly jeered when routinely addressing place-kicks for all of 45 seconds.

Not that it stopped Quesada from landing six out of seven penalties (Neil Jenkins too missed one from six) against a Welsh side whose old ill-discipline and fractiousness resurfaced, along with repeated spoiling tactics on the deck which Puma coach Alex Wyllie was clearly annoyed about afterwards.

Although Roberto Grau was yellow-carded and Argentina penalised for his retaliatory flurry of punches, the unpunished Colin Charvis was a lucky boy indeed having unleashed a fair old flurry of his own against the prostrate prop.

The Pumas also mauled very well off their line-outs, and were again superbly orchestrated by the live-wire scrum-half Agustin Pichot, while the excellent Lisandro Arbizu at centre chased the up-and-unders and led the Puma midfield up quickly to squeeze the life out of Wales.

It only emerged afterwards that Scott Gibbs had been confined to bed with a virus up until match day, which may partly explain the home side's congested and off-key midfield ploys with the slippery ball.

The Welsh defence was just as watertight, however, their task made easier by the frequency with which they slowed down the Puma ruck ball. Scott Quinnell made his presence felt offensively and defensively at the point of impact while their speedy open-side Brett Sinkinson seemed to be everywhere; repeatedly supporting the ball-carrier close-in, or getting to the breakdown and generally being a pain in the ass for the Pumas.

With so much cancelling out going on, the scoring was made up totally of Quesada outkicking Jenkins by three penalties to two until first-half injury time, when the lively Shane Howarth and Gareth Thomas combined to put Garin Jenkins away up the right touchline. Comically, the hooker checked and slid onto his bottom. But, amid suspicions that he put his foot in touch, Jenkins did well to ensure the recyle, and with numbers aplenty Charvis barged through from Jenkins's pass.

Henry's interval pep talk still ringing in their ears, Wales upped the tempo upon the resumption. Despite a big follow-up hit by Arbizu on Thomas, Wales recycled ruck ball inside their 10-metre line and Daffyd Thomas took Mark Taylor's pass to skip round the over-rated Octavio Bartolucci, and draw Manuel Contempomi for Thomas to put Taylor away under the sticks.

Jenkins converted both tries, and landed a penalty to make it 23-9. Wales seemed out of sight, but naively kept playing the game in their own half and transgressing at ruck time. Quesada stuidously brought the Pumas back into the game, although a shock was never on.

Are Wales prospective world champions? Not on this evidence. But perhaps a dose of reality won't harm them.