The unheard Wales v Fiji moments as Welsh voices silenced amid all the problems

Some 400 days ago, in the heady days of sun-kissed Nantes - where ghosts of the past had been buried on the way to the World Cup knockout stages - the makeshift white tent where coaches and players offered their thoughts to the travelling press was enveloped with rasping, joyous renditions of Hymns and Arias.

Over a year on, those choruses have long been silenced. Now, as Wales' testing 2024 plumbed new depths, the only musical accompaniment as Fiji moved into an unassailable lead through the boot of Caleb Muntz, was Gorillaz' 'Feel Good Inc', which played around the stadium.

You can't say we haven't got a sense of humour in Welsh rugby.

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That October day in Nantes was the last time Wales tasted victory in Test rugby. Beating Georgia to top their World Cup pool in France perhaps wasn't quite to make up for that loss to Fiji in the same stadium 16 years earlier.

Now, there's another loss to Fiji. The first in Cardiff to the Flying Fijians. And it had all started so well.

With equal measures of guile and power in the backline, Wales came out with intent. On another day, they might have been out of sight early on. As was the case in Nantes, when everything's going well, it's easy to be full of voice.

"Great job, lads," cried one Welsh voice as those in red pinned the white jerseys back into coffin's corner. "Pressure on, Beardy," screamed another as Wales looked to disrupt the Fijian's clearance kick.

"F*****g get at them," said another as Wales hammered into Fijian bodies. It translated to the scoreboard through debutant Blair Murray's opening try, before Cameron Winnett - Wales' best player by a country mile - crossed for a second.

Hold on, though. "I want to check for head contact by number seven Welsh in the try," said TMO Eric Gauzins in referee Luc Ramos' ear.

As Anscombe lined up the conversion, the conversation was still going on. "This is your best angle," added the TMO. "That is foul play because there is head contact. It meets the yellow card threshold."

Try chalked off and boos rang out as Tommy Reffell headed off for 10 minutes. "I'm sure you know how to spell 'boos' by now," joked one helpful steward over my shoulder.

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Still, Wales' positive start continued - even as Mason Grady limped off and allowed confusion to stride into their hitherto sleek backline. A driving maul rumbled forward towards Fiji's line before being , in the words of Ramos, "held up".

Wales' captain Dewi Lake thought otherwise. "It can't be held up," he calmly explained, "it's offside as I'm not over the line." A quick TMO check showed he wasn't wrong.

Penalty try and a yellow card for Elia Canakaivata. 14 v 14. From the kick-off, Wales' captain was barking orders - trying to instil some order in a backline now forced to adapt.

Soon, Fiji would be down to 13 - Semi Radradra the culprit, pulled up for a high tackle on Winnett long after Ramos had initially called "play on". His fate, like Reffell's, would be decided by 'the bunker'.

Soon, we would have answers. The bunker deemed Reffell's clearout as just a yellow. Radradra wouldn't be so lucky.

As his team-mate, the superlative Caleb Muntz, glided through Wales' defence to score, the Lyon back sat there on the sidelines, offering the most understated of fist pumps. Perhaps he knew his fate.

Seconds later, the voice of Gauzins piped up. "Luc, I have an answer from the bunker," he said. "The yellow card has been upgraded to a red card. High degree of danger with no mitigation."

The first 20-minute red card of this autumn. The visitors were left believing it should have been the second. "But it's the same?" asked captain Waisea Nayacalevu just as the man he was speaking about, Reffell, returned to the field of play.

Perhaps that was Fiji's lot in life in the first-half, with one of their front-row being warned to "not lecture" Ramos after one call. Even when they thought they'd gone ahead just before the break, it was chalked off for obstruction.

"You don't stay attached to the catcher," explained Ramos to Eroni Mawi as the pair trundled towards the tunnel.

Still, the Fijians were undeterred. Pushing the envelope with offloads as the second-half got underway, Welsh bodies were becoming increasingly scrambled. "Go Will, go," shouted one to second-row Rowlands as Fiji spotted space on the short-side.

"Sir, can you look at nine off the ball?" asked Lake as the tide noticeably turned. "Nothing clear," was the response from the official.

As time went on, those questions would become more desperate in tone and logic. "Obstruction, ref?" called one Welsh chaser - more in hope than expectation - as Fiji ran everything back with carefree abandon.

"They're about one size bigger than Wales," said another different, but equally helpful, stadium steward next to me. "They'll feel the pain tonight."

He didn't realise quite how much in the end, although it soon became apparent. Welsh bodies looked forlorn, with hands uniformly on hips at each stoppage, as the first Mexican wave of the day was wheeled out after 53 minutes, for those who were counting.

Even Nigel Walker, the Welsh Rugby Union's executive director of rugby who is hardly flavour of the month for one reason or another right now, couldn't tease a reaction out of the crowd. No boos, no cheers - just the musical accompaniment of 'Tequila' over the loud speakers.

Tired minds and bodies, who only remember how to lose, were once again tasked with trying to break that habit. Out on the one flank, makeshift wing Sam Costelow called - rather optimistically - for a crossfield kick.

After one kick-off went out on the full, Ben Thomas stood there in silence. Next to him, Gareth Anscombe was equally void of any words. The Welsh voices, once again, seemed to have been silenced.

"Boys, we need field position," cried Jac Morgan, thrust back into Test rugby after over a year away. Briefly, they heeded the call. Costelow and Thomas found their voices, pointing and gesticulating wildly through phase play, and then their handling to put Ellis Bevan over for a score.

Hope, perhaps. Two points down, there was still a chance that Wales could find something. A high tackle on Bevan handed Wales' one last attacking set.

"F*****g hell!" exclaimed the scrum-half-turned-wing as he got back to his feet. This was it, one last chance. The crowd, suddenly, were alive - making noise for the first time without the 'make some noise' prompts on the big screen. In walked Wales slowly, Adam Beard doing the talking amongst the pack.

Costelow and Thomas traded thoughts further out, with wing Murray acting as the go-between, shouting across to Tomos Williams. One final opportunity to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. And then, with a single knock-on, it was over.

Simultaneously, four men dropped to the floor. Murray sank to his haunches as Taine Plumtree fell backwards defeated. Metres away, Nayacalevu and Canakaivata both hit the deck in pure and exhausted delight, oblivious to the lost looks and gaunt expressions of Welsh men and women all around them.

Long after those in red on the pitch and in the stands had shuffled on, Fijian voices sang out in exultation of a famous victory in the Welsh capital.

400 days on from that last victory, there's still voices ringing out loud in song, but they're not Welsh.

You wonder, in all honesty, when they will be again.