{"id":8339,"date":"2012-02-26T02:34:20","date_gmt":"2012-02-26T00:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/rugby-wales-find-a-way-to-win-the-close-ones\/"},"modified":"2012-02-26T02:34:20","modified_gmt":"2012-02-26T00:34:20","slug":"rugby-wales-find-a-way-to-win-the-close-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-wales-find-a-way-to-win-the-close-ones\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Wales find a way to win the close ones"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mitch Phillips<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON<\/span> Feb 25 (Reuters) – Wales departed the World
\nCup with their reputation enhanced despite doubts over their
\nability to close out tight matches but Saturday’s late Triple
\nCrown-clinching victory over England proved for the second time
\nin the championship that they have found a way to win the close
\nones.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Three weeks ago a last-gasp Leigh Halfpenny penalty secured
\nvictory over Ireland in Dublin and on Saturday, with Twickenham
\nroaring England forward at 12-12 with five minutes to go,
\nreplacement centre Scott Williams stole the ball from Courtney
\nLawes on the halfway line, kicked ahead and scooped up the ball
\nto score the only try of the match and seal a 19-12 win.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Wales have Italy at home next and, assuming they bag that
\none, will face France in a potential championship and possibly
\ngrand slam decider on the final day of the championship on March
\n17.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Saturday’s victory was only their second in 14 attempts at
\nTwickenham spanning 22 years and though they were by no means
\ndominant against an inexperienced England team who showed
\nencouraging signs of progress it was a massively important one.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“They had the chance to create history today and they’ve
\ndone that,” coach Warren Gatland told reporters after his team
\nclinched their 20th grand slam and the first to be won at
\nTwickenham. “This is a team that’s going to be pretty special
\nover the next few years.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the New Zealander, who led Wales to the semi-finals
\nof the World Cup last year where they were edged out by France,
\nwas not about to start predicting a third grand slam in eight
\nseasons. “Italy is a potential banana skin if you start thinking
\nabout France, but we’ve got to be confident of beating Italy at
\nhome,” he said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Captain Sam Warburton was also reluctant to talk about a
\ngrand slam. “I’m not going to jinx myself and say it,” he said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We didn’t play well at all today. We knew England are a
\nquality outfit and that was one hell of a test match so to get
\nthe Triple Crown is unbelievable.”
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mitch Phillips LONDON Feb 25 (Reuters) – Wales departed the World Cup with their reputation enhanced despite doubts over their ability to close out tight matches but Saturday’s late Triple Crown-clinching victory over England proved for the second time in the championship that they have found a way to win the close ones. Three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-8339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}