Wales over the years have had great teams .......
Like you said James they gave the Kangaroos a ran for there money in 2000 (21 nil after 20 minutes Chris Anderson didn't look well at all) & they've had good results against Engalnd & NZL in the past ...... but .......... here is there form line for past two years:
Won 88-8 Serbia
Won 42-12 Ireland
Won 28-16 Scotland
Lost 13-6 Italy
Won 60-22 Scotland
Won 31-30 Ireland
Won 12-11 France
They've beaten New Zealand in 3 out of nine tests. They made the World Cup semis in 1995 as well ... so two out of the last three tournaments they have made the final four.
I think all things considered, they can definitely legitimately be considered the fourth best international side, in the last 100 years. France may have made a World Cup final, but Wales have never sunk to the levels France did during the 80s and 90s.
Great to see them in the Four Nations, although it's a blow to France. France had some great crowds during the European Cup, too. But, I suppose they will be in that tournament again next year ... and hopefully Wales gets some games against NZ, Aus and England, and gets some big numbers through the gates, and some big publicity for rugby league in that part of the world.
NF_47, why do you say the standard is low? I think the fact that Wales were able to beat France, who competed in all their Four Nations games with understrength sides last year, shows that the standard is rising quite a bit. Wales also only managed to beat Ireland by one point earlier in this competition ... and Scotland put away Ireland this week.
While all these sides may not be to the level of the main three yet, they are very evenly matched, and I think the increased amount of games they are getting recently is really helping them. It might not be too long before one of Australia, England or New Zealand loses a game to one of them.
