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Original poster

To think that 'some' of the Welsh players were down right ignorant yesterday!

159 replies

mosschops30 · 16/03/2008 13:43

I went to watch the match at the millenium stadium with my (welsh) dh. It was amazing and I really wanted Wales to win, it was a fantastic day with great atmosphere.

However when we watched the tv coverage I noticed that half of the team didnt even acknowledge Prince William let alone shake his hand (although team captain and all round nice bloke Ryan Jones did twice ).

Now I know the welsh will say prince william shouldnt be there, but thats the way its working and even though I dont like the Royals myself, i think he's the best of a bad bunch. And if I had to be presented something by one of them I certainly wouldnt turn the other cheek because I have some manners.

I felt embarrassed by their ignorance, it was shameful. I get loads of abuse for being english living here and my general opinion of wales isnt great but this just reinforced the fact that some welsh people continue to be ignorant bigots where the english are concerned

OP posts:
Callisto · 16/03/2008 14:48

To answer the OP - I too watched the presentation after the game and I think that you're slightly missing the point. Wales (a team that you wouldn't have backed for a Grand Slam at the start of the 6 Nations) had just won a decisive victory over a team (France) that they hadn't beaten for 9 years. Not only that they had just won the Grand Slam in Wales. This was and is an immense achievement. They had just finished playing out of their skins, were exhausted and euphoric. I honestly don't think they knew whose hands they were or wern't shaking.

yorkshirepudding · 16/03/2008 14:48

Message withdrawn

Overrun · 16/03/2008 14:50

God this thread has annoyed me. Perhaps I was niave but when I watched them collecting their medals I wondered if some one of them forgot in all the excitment. Not sure how I feel about it if they did ignore the PW deliberately. Actually not that bothered really

As for the welsh speaking welsh when tourists are around, I am sure this is just an urban myth. I am learning welsh atm, but have quite an English accent having spent some formative time in England when I was a child (where I was routinely teased for my name and being welsh btw) I have never had a welsh person suddenly convert to welsh in my presence.
Nor have my English grand parents who have lived here since the late sixties.

beaniesteve · 16/03/2008 14:50

erm - sorry Yorkshirepudding... unless they were talking directly to you in a conversation with you - why should they have to speak English? I have been to pubs with English friends who think that it's incredibly rude when two of my Welsh friends start a conversation in welsh with eachother - why!? They are not talking to her, they are not talking about her, they are just talking in a language they find easier to converse in!

And in Arguments I am pretty sure that people would find it easier to talk in their first language!

beaniesteve · 16/03/2008 14:51

sorry - getting ranty now

will log off

pagwatch · 16/03/2008 14:53

I think this thread is hilarious .

And as an English person of Irish descent - well done Wales! A series of great performances. Well done indeed.

Freckle · 16/03/2008 14:53

But Prince William isn't the Prince of Wales. His dad is.

Is it a Freudian slip that I keep initially typing Ponce instead of Prince??

tinylady · 16/03/2008 14:54

FGS Most of us in this corner of the world are mixed anyway

beaniesteve · 16/03/2008 14:55

but he will be one day!

yorkshirepudding · 16/03/2008 14:57

Message withdrawn

Kewcumber · 16/03/2008 14:57

I watched the match too as a welsh/english hybrid living in England now, brought up in Wales. I can't say I thoughtthey were trying to ignore him frankly I thought they looked like they really couldn;t be bothered shaking anyones's hands - all those people in suits were a complete irrelevance. They just wanted to wave at the crowd and collapse into a heap. They were shaking the first mans hand because he was sticking his hand out at them and PW wasn't.

I think ascribing some kind of political point to some of the players not handshaking is vastly overestimating the ability of a rugby player who has played his socks off for 80 minutes and is in a euphoric haze.

Notice everyone who didn't play (they were the ones with white shorts) shook hands with everyone

MoreSpamThanGlam · 16/03/2008 14:59

Im English and fucking sick ot being despised for something I havent done and not allowed to say a word about it.

I dont dislike anyone for their race or nationality.

So - I suppose I should make sure I never go to wales or Scotland or Ireland or Australia (shall we include the French too?).

some of the views on here disgust me.

fairyfly · 16/03/2008 15:00

I am just Pure pure english, none of my family for 243 generations have ever spoken to a welsh person, or a scot, the were just not welcome. So we live in this little commune now where everyone destests us and we read books about Nazis for inspiration.

fairyfly · 16/03/2008 15:02

ivykatty, i just got a text off the shop keepers and they were saying this,,,,,,,,

roedden ni yn siarad am ti oherwydd rwyt ti yn twpsyn

pagwatch · 16/03/2008 15:04

Kewcumber
paying quite close attention to the shorts there ....

MSTG
please don't feed the muppet - she will only persist.
My son went to Ireland recently and people could not be nicer. Of course my parents are irish but they didn't know that and still managed to be nice to him and all the boys from his very very English school.

(Personally I think the 'everyone hates you ' comments smack of projection )

Tnog · 16/03/2008 15:06

Oh spam, you would be more than welcome to come and stay with me in Ireland in my home up a Wicklow hill.

Oldasthehills · 16/03/2008 15:18

I genuinely felt for both sides. I noticed that quite a few players seemed to avoid Prince W.
I partly think: Good on them! It's their day and they don't want to kowtow to a living symbol of English repression of Wales over countless centuries.
A slightly smaller part of me felt sorry for Prince W. I'm NO royalist but he is obviously a massive rugby fan and it's always a bit gutting to be blanked in public on tv with millions watching!
But it is now a free country and PW is going to have to learn that plenty of us are not that bothered about his enormously privileged and heinously tax dodging family!
( Yes I know she pays some tax now but it is not remotely comparable to the kind of tax we poor eejits pay!)

ipanemagirl · 16/03/2008 15:22

Excuse me, OP but:
TNOGU!!!!!!!!!!!
How are you?
Where can I scuttle to talk to you????????

mshadowsisfab · 16/03/2008 15:33

we went to wales for a holiday. it wasn't our best holiday because the weather was horrid.
the people were lovely.

donna123 · 16/03/2008 15:48

I thought that the Welsh players were very rude. PW could have gone to the Twickenham game but went to the Millenium instead to see the Grand Slam. And got ignored for his pains!
However, I must admit that he partly brought it on himself - he was not being assertive but was skulking in the background and making it very easy for players to by-pass him if they felt so inclined.

LadyOfWaffle · 16/03/2008 15:50

To the OP - I thought the very same, some turned their back on him. Utter twats IMO, no need for behaviour like that.

beaniesteve · 16/03/2008 16:04

see here www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b009hq38.shtml?src=ip_potpw one hour and 47 minutes in ... the first three certainly do shake hands with him, can't see from the TV footage if the fourth does, the fifth certainly does... infact the ojnly ojne who clearly doesn't is Hook.

If you watch it you can see that many of the players almost forget to get their medal, and also that Prince William is behind a podium. Really - I think anyone who thinks the players were staging some kind of anti English or Anti Royalty protest is really just looking for something to moan about

ALMummy · 16/03/2008 16:32

Music girl are you serious? Australians are welcome everywhere are they? Where I live they are considered to be the most ignorant, arrogant and anti social of us all and I live in an extrememly ethnically diverse area. Personally I dont understand why Australians come here and use our country like its a big toilet and then strut around saying the sort of things you said in your thread. Are you really so deluded? Note that I dont say you are not welcome here - everyone is welcome - just wish you had a bit more respect thats all.

TheHedgeWitch · 16/03/2008 16:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

branflake81 · 16/03/2008 16:44

Im half Welsh, half English, raised in England and speak Welsh. I have lived in France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Scotland and the only place I ever encountered "racism" and being made to feel unwelcome was...Scotland where, for some reason, everyone had a bee in their bonnets about my being English. I have lots of opinions about this, but that's perhaps for another thread.