Today is Wales day. Its official. Not St David’s day. Nor Welsh Independence Day, mainly because they’re not, never have been and never will be able to afford to be independent. But its just plain Wales Day.

So first there’s the rugby, Wales playing Australia. The teams who between them ruined the hopes and aspirations of my entire nation, play each other to see who qualifies higher than the other. Ok, its a bit meaningless, but sport is only ever minimally about the consequences, its always about the win. So it should be a great game. Which comes, fortunately, at my newly created afternoon nap time. Its my own bi-athlon. Rugby (watching) and sleeping. Only for the super-fit.

And if that’s not quite sufficient Welshness for one day, Wales play Bosnia at football a couple of hours later. How all those fans will make it from Twickenham to somewhere in Bosnia in 12 minutes is beyond me. But they’ll have to because there aren’t that many people in Wales, certainly insufficient to fill two stadia at the same time. There again, not my problem. I’m hardly Welsh.

A little bit, because Mel’s grandmother was Welsh and my (very) old bridge teacher was Welsh too.

But I’m sufficiently Welsh, for footballing purposes, to be thrilled if (surely its just ‘when’) they qualify for the European football championships next year. Just one point from the remaining two games will see Wales in a major international tournament for the first time since 1958. That’s over a hundred years ago. In ‘real terms’. All the Ryan Giggs years, wasted. All those Craig Bellamys and John Toshacks and Clive bleedin’ Colemans, all for nothing. Up steps Gareth Bale and drags that sorry bloody nation screaming into the finals. The debt of gratitude owed by the nation of Wales to Tottenham is quite honestly immeasurable.

England qualified too. In fact ages ago. And the fact we’ve won 9 out of 9 will only serve to heighten the inevitable upset and frustration when we lose in the quarter-finals, on penalties, to Luxembourg, or Monaco or Vatican State.

Happy Sports Day. Say that in Welsh.

A xxxx