DRAGONS V PUMAS

[Ian Price]

The local press had tagged this baby as being a war of the scrums; Kursk, Stalingrad and the worst excesses of the siege of Carthage would pale in comparison to the atrocities that were expected in the front row. The reality was somewhat more mundane. There seems to have been an outbreak of dropsy for the early part of the game and the Puma's managed to get ball back without their hooker doing anything - a minor miracle in itself.

Wales joined the dropsy brigade for most of the first half until a clever ruse by the ref, after giving a penalty, fooled the entire Argentinian team into believing Stephen Jones was painting his nails. The cynosure of Jones' attention however was the try line which was winking at him like a girl from Tonypandy on a Saturday night; the intention was clear.

He shot off - a man posessed - and threw himself and the ball into the try area whilst the Pumas were debating the merits of Hot Coral Glaze and Moonlight Shadow.

The winded Jones recoverd in a trice and converted to put him squarely into the Welsh pantheon that will never buy another pint. Such an accolade will also go to Shane Williams who scored a further two tries - one of which confirms that he favours Einstein over Pythagoras in that the shortest distance between two points is in fact a curve and not a straight line.