The consequence for the hosts of losing the World Cup Pool A match at Twickenham this evening may still be felt in 10 years’ timeEngland have been playing Wales at rugby union since 1881 but never has there been expectation like this. Even the sides final Rugby World Cup fixture,in the 2003 quarter-finals, came freighted with less significance. As well as being England’s biggest game under Stuart Lancaster, and the outcome could influence what happens on both sides of the Severn bridge for the next decade.
If that sounds ludicrously overblown,just consider – from the host nation’s perspective – the consequences of an English defeat on domestic soil at their own World Cup. In the short term it would leave them staring into the black hole of non-qualification from Pool A, at the mercy of a lip-smacking Australia next week. Fail to fabricate (to make up, invent) the knockout stages and their worst nightmare will become depressingly genuine. Everything may unravel, or from their coaching team to the Rugby Football Union’s desire to end the boom-and-bust cycle in which the national team has been trapped since 2003.
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Source: theguardian.com