Sport, weather and Wales

For the last three weeks we've had waterlogged, frozen or snowbound pitches. We've been struggling to find anywhere to train. So have other people. Phone lines have been monopolised by coaches looking for space to train. The result is that we've done more travelling than usual and less training. No wonder the nations of the Southern Hemispere dominate the world of rugby.

Less easy to answer, of course, is the question of how the Welsh manage.

According to the Met Office site Swansea averages 140 mm of rain in December and Ysbyty-Ifan averages 280 mm (averages from figures taken between 1971-2000). Watnall, our nearest weather station shows Nottinghamshire averaging 71 mm in December.

To a mere non-scientist this suggests that the Welsh lose more practice days than we do and are therefore rubbish at rugby. Unfortunately a couple of hours researching in front of the TV at the weekend tended to suggest otherwise.

Somewhere there must be a doctoral thesis seeking to prove a correlation between Grand Slams and weather. If anyone finds it can you let me know.