Away from Ukraine, it was all kicking off elsewhere in London yesterday. As the England rugby team was labouring to a 23-19 win against their Welsh rivals over at Twickenham, a similar fixture was taking place a few miles down the road at the nearby Richmond RFC ground. For, as per Six Nations tradition, a Westminster parliamentary team ran out to to take on their counterparts from the Senedd who had made the trip from Cardiff Bay.
The London team was compromised of staff and members from both chambers in Parliament and was coming off the back of a successful 12-5 defeat of the Holyrood team in Edinburgh. But the Welsh team are made of sterner suff, having won nine consecutive fixtures in a row. And yesterday they hit the magic ten as they won comfortably 20-10 against a side which appropriately contained Rugby MP Mark Pawsey, Angela Rayner’s ally Sam Tarry MP and the Plaid nationalist Ben Lake MP.
Unfortunately, for one MP the game ended prematurely, after poor Stephen Crabb MP got his ankle snapped in a tackle by his fellow Tory, James Evans MS. Steerpike understands that the unfortunate former Welsh secretary is slowly recovering after being forced to have surgery last night. The jokes about Tory tensions between their Westminster and devolved administrations contingents continue to write themselves. A few minutes later, another player on the London team also had their collar bone snapped in two and three of their ribs broken. Ouch.
The main dispute off the pitch otherwise seems to have been over the pre-game dinner laid on by the Commons and Lords team. One source bemoaned to Mr S that they had a ‘spread of wotsits and lager laid on for us’ adding ‘we expected better from London.’ An opposing player hit back: ‘It was a two hour long drinks do for rugby players, not a Michelin star taster menu.’
When it comes to England v Wales in politics or sport, some things never change.
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