It’s not often Wales play England at rugby and few people afterwards are taking about the result.
But this, of course, is World Cup year, so the narrow 19-17 victory for England at Twickenham in the second of the back-to-back warm-up fixtures mattered less than who was limping, who was aching, and who’s up in the dock.
The short answers those questions are:
Wales hooker Dewi Lake walked off and looked gutted after a knee injury, teammate Taine Plumtree was left with the pain and worry of a shoulder injury, and England skipper Owen Farrell is up before the disciplinary panel after a red card for a high tackle on Taine Basham.
Wales coach Warren Gatland said of Lake, “He is pretty gutted and disappointed.
“He’s gone to jackal on the ball, Owen Farrell has tried to roll him, and he’s ended up landing on his leg.
“It’s unfortunate and it looks like he’s got a knee injury but we don’t know the extent of it or how bad it is.”
As for the match, Wales threw away victory – sending out some bad vibes ahead of the tournament in France as they now sit lower in the new world rankings than their opening game opponents, Fiji.
Wales are ranked 10th, with Fiji up to ninth.
Newport County earned the result of the weekend amongst Welsh clubs but manager Graham Coughlan reckoned their 4-0 thrashing of Doncaster Rovers could have been even better.
Coughlan saw County earn their first win of the League Two season, inspired by two goals from former Cymru Premier star, Will Evans.
Seb Palmer-Houlden and an own goal from Richard Wood completed a good day’s work for Newport who are up to 10th in the early season table.
“No exaggeration but we could have come in five or six goals (ahead) in the first half, we were really, really good,” said Coughlan.
“Let’s put it in our back pocket and build on it. We didn’t have a nice feeling last Saturday (losing 3-0 at Accrington Stanley), albeit our performance was okay, but now we’ve got a really good feeling and that’s football I suppose.”
Wrexham were left with feelings of frustration as their hopes of a first win in League Two were denied them by a late AFC Wimbledon equaliser.
Elliot Lee had put Wrexham ahead at the Cherry Red Records Stadium , but the home side levelled through a James Tilley penalty after Wrexham keeper Ben Foster had already saved once from the spot to deny Ali Al-Hamadi.
Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson was left unhappy with the decision to award the spot kick and accused referee Darren Drysdale of inconsistency.
“If everyone looks at the penalties against us, in terms of what had been going on in both boxes throughout the game, to pick those moments out and give penalties for the first and second one is incredible,” said Parkinson.
Cardiff City went down to a 2-1 defeat to Queens Park Rangers, with Sinclair Armstrong and Kenneth Paal putting Rangers 2-0 ahead.
Ike Ugbo pulled a goal back for Cardiff but manager Erol Bulut has told his players they have to be deal with stage fright when the spotlight falls on them.
It may have been their first time in front of their fans in the league and a home debut for star signing Aaron Ramsey, but Bulut said: “Many players were nervous – I don’t understand why.
“Maybe it is the first game in front of our fans. But that is not a reason to be nervous. We created enough to at least score a second goal and get a point. But two individual mistakes cost us.”
Swansea City are also still looking for their first league win of the season after losing 3-2 at West Bromwich Albion.
Swansea head coach Michael Duff said: “It was frustrating because we waited until we were 3-0 down before we started playing with any purpose.
“We went 3-0 down and it kicked us into life.”
There was an inevitable feeling of a changing of the guard after a momentous weekend in Welsh cycling.
Geraint Thomas – now 37 – and 19-year-old Josh Tarling both competed for Great Britain in the time trial at the World Cycling Championships in Glasgow.
But it was the teenager who finished on the podium, not former Tour de France winner Thomas.
Tarling was tipped for the top by Thomas after the youngster from Aberaeron claimed a surprise bronze medal.
The young gun set the early pace in the race to Stirling Castle and was only bettered by champion Remco Evenepeol and former two-time winner Filippo Ganna.
Thomas came 10th on the day but was delighted to see Tarling do better.
“He’s a big boy,” Thomas said of Tarling.
“He’s got power and this is his forte. It’s unbelievable to see him riding so well so early in his career and he’s got a bright future,” he said of the 2022 junior world time trial champion.
Tarling himself was looking at how the future might shape up after his impressive performance.
“There are some big names I got to sit next to on the stage today and I wouldn’t mind being like one of them some day,” he said.
The reliable Colin Ingram steered Glamorgan to their second win in the Metro Bank One Day Cup at Hove against Sussex.
Ingram hit 73 off 75 deliveries, with eight fours and a vast six over mid-on, as Glamorgan chased down a modest target to win by four wickets with 21 balls remaining.
In The Hundred, Welsh Fire lost in both the men’s and women’s tournaments bin very different circumstances.
A record crowd in Cardiff for a women’s cricket match – 6,500 – saw the Fire just edged out as they lost to Southern Brave on the final ball, by two wickets.
Welsh Fire men’s team had the flames turned down as they lost by nine wickets to Southern Brave, with the home side skittled out at Sophia Gardens for just 87.
