CHRIS KIRWAN SAYS: No apology for having great expectations of Wales (From South Wales Argus)

CHRIS KIRWAN SAYS: No apology for having great expectations of Wales

9:20am Thursday 14th February 2013 in Sport

THE Welsh players set themselves high standards and we should make no apologies for having high expectations.

There was a bristly attitude before and after the France game given the amount of criticism that had come their way.

“It has been a tough few weeks, you boys don’t make it easy,” said George North to us writers after the game.

“A difficult week, a lot of negative things have been written about you,” said a BBC questioner, their usual trick of flinging plenty of mud then pointing a finger at newspapers.

Some of the personal attacks that the team and their families have endured on social media are appalling.

But there should be no apology for criticism made during the eight-Test losing streak.

We knew they were better than that and would have loved to have been writing about them in glowing terms as we were this time last year.

Mike Phillips hit the nail on the head.

“When you are in a losing team, you have got to expect criticism,” said the scrum-half and voice of reason.