There has been massive hype since they won the Grand Slam, but does beating five inferior teams really make you world-beaters? Wales will get found out when they take on the might of the Springboks.
'If anyone thinks the All Blacks, the Springboks or even the Australians are quaking in their boots at the sight of this Welsh team, they need to get their heads checked'
As I write this article it is four days after Wales won their first Grand Slam since 2005 and, as an Englishman living in the Principality, I can honestly tell you it has been torture.
There is no doubt Wales deserved to win - they played the best rugby, they were the most disciplined and fought the hardest. But the way everyone is reacting down here is like the 1970s have returned and Wales are the best side on the planet!
Just like the English and their football team, the Welsh tend to over-hype their rugby successes to the point of ridicule. First Minister Rhodri Morgan has been leading this crazed patriotic scrum by proclaiming: "What Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards have done is to turn the men in red into men of steel, just like the Welsh teams of the golden years 30 years ago."
To an outsider the clamour currently surrounding this team is madness. If anyone thinks the All Blacks, the Springboks or even the Australians are quaking in their boots at the sight of this Welsh team, they need to get their heads checked.
They have won one tournament in which England and Ireland seriously under-performed and France used as an extended training session to blood in younger players. The less said about Italy and poor, poor Scotland the better. And if you think I'm just a bitter Englishman having a rant, listen to what All Blacks legend Justin Marshall had to say about it: "Wales apart, it was a below-par Six Nations and the true test will come against the Southern Hemisphere teams."
For Wales, this championship was won by getting the basics right. Warren Gatland has done a brilliant job taking the team from World Cup also-rans to Six Nations champions and I don’t begrudge him or the team their success. However, all he has done is instil some mental toughness and get a previously shaky defence to start playing with some nous and belief (did I mention much of this defensive prowess was due to an Englishman by the way?).
To concede only two tries in the whole tournament is to be commended, but Wales were hardly facing the stiffest of opposition. Coping with truly world-class backs like an in-form Brian Habana or All Blacks star Dan Carter would be a different ball game altogether, and one with which Wales would struggle.
Throughout the tournament the Welsh side were disciplined, doing well on the lineout and in the scrum. The kicking of James Hook and Stephen Jones was proficient and in Shane Williams and Ryan Jones they had the standout players of the tournament. Consistency was the by-word and, with the exception of the first half at Twickenham, Wales achieved this.
They also had a sense of purpose and unity off the pitch which no doubt helped the situation as well. Gatland, Shaun Edwards and Rob Howley run a tight, disciplined ship. Compare this to the rumblings surrounding Eddie O’Sullivan and Brian Ashton at Ireland and England respectively, plus the disruption that was created by the storm in a tea cup relating to Danny Cipriani's ticket-delivering adventure and you realise how significant this was.
Gatland also succeeded in not putting the side under any extra pressure by under-playing expectations and making sure the squad was as free from controversy as possible. You could see the benefit of this in the way Wales played. They seemed to carry out their talented coaching team’s instructions to the letter and won games as a result.
In the aftermath of this win, the Welsh nation needs to calm down a little and get some perspective. They are not world-beaters yet and if they are to achieve that, this is just the first step. Think about what happened after the 2005 Grand Slam when the players took control of the dressing room and Mike Ruddock, the architect of the success, was ousted. Another three years of under-achievement followed.
All they can do is hope Gatland and his team can start to build something a little more permanent - and not get completely destroyed in their June tour of South Africa.
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