Cymru Wales Football Supporters Scarf

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Hughes grimaces. “The FAW were trying to market the team in a new way and we had this strapline: Time to Believe. After that game it was: Time to Forget.” Ofsted Audit tool meeting expectations for Intent, Implementation and Impact through the SCARF coherent, sequential curriculum

Over tea and scones at home, Iwan remembers some of the violent prisoners with whom he had shared a prison cell after defacing public signs written only in English in the 70s. Hartley echoes this view: “I’m hoping people choose Wales as their second team. We’re the underdogs, always have been. We’re not threatening. You could say that’s a political weakness or a cultural strength but we’re strong enough in our own skins to support Wales aloud and proud. We’re not aggressive or xenophobic. We’re just happy being Welsh.” The phrase ‘Cofiwch Dryweryn’ – which translates to Remember Tryweryn – has become a prominent political slogan for Welsh nationalism, and is graffitied on a stone wall near Llanrhystud, Ceredigion. It originates from the decision by Liverpool city council to flood the Tryweryn Valley, including the community of Capel Celyn, to create the Llyn Celyn reservoir which supplies water to Liverpool. Hughes remembers another galáctico being swept away when Wales played Poland in their final home game before the World Cup . “That night I focused on Robert Lewandowski,” he says, “and after the [Welsh] anthem he just looked up at the crowd and said: ‘Wow…wow!’” The big screen at Cardiff City Stadium displays the words to Yma o Hyd, along with the English translation, as Wales fans sing after the win over Ukraine.Yet Hartley’s joy is curbed by disdain for the choice of Qatar as tournament host. “Do I feel conflicted? Yes. Do I wish it were somewhere else? Absolutely.” Kate, meanwhile, was announced as patron of England's Rugby Football League and the Rugby Football Union in 2022. She took over the role from Prince Harry, who was was stripped of his patronages after confirming he would not be returning to work on behalf of the Royal Family after a year's trial away. The FAW plans to call Wales by its Welsh name of Cymru in future internationals. It is another sign of Welsh pride and, watching Bala and Penybont in a fiercely competitive 1-1 draw, it’s hard to shake Yma o Hyd from my head. I remember the last story Iwan had told me the previous afternoon.

Hughes, the head of PR at the Welsh FA, asked Iwan to sing before the World Cup qualifiers. He says Yma o Hyd is “a political song, in Welsh, but it has a rousing tune the fans love. It has been quite a journey for Wales, politically, the last 40 years. From the miners’ strike to devolution so much has changed and we now have a renaissance with people wanting to learn Welsh. We’re also trying to reflect that, in football, it’s been a journey. There have been bad defeats and near misses but in the last [seven] years we’ve qualified for three major tournaments. Yma o Hyd and football go hand-in-hand.” Coram Life Education & SCARF is the UK's leading charity provider of PSHE and wellbeing education in primary schools. Dafydd Iwan singing Yma o Hyd along with the victorious Wales squad after the World Cup playoff final match between Wales and Ukraine. The Duke of Cambridge visiting the National Sport Centre in Cardiff to launch the Coach Core Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) programme in 2015 (Image: South Wales Echo) Gunter played alongside Dave Edwards who was capped 43 times for Wales. The 36-year-old Edwards now leads Bala against Penybont in a Cymru Premier League game on a rainy Saturday afternoon. As always Bala walk out to Yma o Hyd.For Gunter and his best friend Aaron Ramsey, the lowest moment occurred with the death of Gary Speed in 2011. Hughes left the BBC, where he had spent decades commentating on Wales games, to join the FAW in 2010. Speed soon took over as manager and in his short tenure he transformed expectations and standards. Hughes says: “Gary brought discipline and commanded such respect. He had a real presence even though he had no ego.” READ MORE: Warren Gatland reveals hurt after hearing players say he didn't care about them What are William and Kate's roles in rugby?

Iwan, Hughes and Gunter will feel the same bittersweet emotion in Qatar. The Wales team, and the travelling Red Wall, will listen to Yma o Hyd and Sheen’s speech again and again as they draw courage for their tangled adventure. As Gunter says with a grin: “When my English friends hear [Iwan and Sheen] they say: ‘I wish I could be Welsh.” Iwan wrote the song in 1983 when “it was a terrible time and the Thatcher regime hit Wales heavily. Coal mines and steelworks were closed and I was in the middle of a terrible divorce. Ymo o Hyd is about how we’re still here, despite everything and everyone and even ourselves. But it’s lovely that all these years later the song is driven by the Red Wall. It has become the focal point and Ian Gwyn Hughes has worked on this diligently for he believed that, to get the Welsh team giving their all, they needed a broader view of Welshness.” Chris Gunter, who plays for AFC Wimbledon in League Two, won the first of his 109 caps for Wales in 2007.

Yma o Hyd is very different to a tired old reprise of Sweet Caroline or a sentimental chorus of “football’s coming home”. Instead, Iwan and the Red Wall singing in compelling union is the sound of a new Welsh confidence in its identity and language. Hartley suggests that only 20% of the population are fluent in Welsh – but around the national team the desire to speak the language, and sing in it, is consuming and inspiring. Chris Coleman did an admirable job replacing Speed. His empathy carried the squad through those bleak times even if Coleman was in charge when Gunter remembers their nadir in 2012. “We had a real bad 6-1 defeat in Serbia. A major tournament seemed a million miles away.”