An English journalist has written in the Daily Mail that Wales will "achieve a devastating victory" against his country when the national anthems are played before Tuesday's crunch World Cup match.
Dominic Lawson — brother to celebrity chef Nigella — wrote that the Welsh football team and their fans in Qatar's Ahmad bin Ali stadium will belt out "an absolute stonker of a melody" for their anthem Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Land of My Fathers). The "dull" and "depressing" God Save The King, meanwhile, will leave the English feeling "anthem envy" and should be ditched, he argued.
Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau was composed in 1856 by James James, a harpist from Hollybush in Blackwood. It has been sung regularly at Welsh sporting events since 1905 when the New Zealand rugby team visited Cardiff Arms Park and Wales player Teddy Morgan responded to the All Blacks' haka by leading a powerful rendition of the anthem.
