Wales captain's 'smile' during Italy defeat sparked outrage
As Wales take to the pitch at the Stadio Olimpico this weekend, they do so knowing that things can't get much worse for them.
A dismal run of 13 straight Test match defeats - the latest a 43-0 thumping at the hands of France - has led them to this point, with defeat in Rome likely to lead to a second successive Six Nations wooden spoon and potentially an unprecedented, embarrassing losing streak of 17 Tests by the end of March.
As a result, Saturday's match has been heralded by some as the most important game in 20 years for Warren Gatland's side, with the fixture targeted as a must-win before the tournament even got underway. While they have lost two of their last three clashes with the Azzurri, history is on Wales' side, having only lost on Italian soil twice in 14 visits.
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The most recent of those away losses, in 2007, was a controversial one as a time-keeping error from the referee saw Wales denied the chance to draw level in the dying moments. But that followed a woeful defeat in Rome four years earlier, as the Italians claimed just their second ever Six Nations win - and their first victory against a Welsh side - in a stunning result.
Wales were slammed for what was a dismal showing, as they were starved of possession while their pack was overpowered by a fired-up Italian side who delivered, in the words of the Rugby Annual for Wales, a "volcanic performance of passion". In contrast, the visitors were totally passive, with a report from The Guardian slamming their display as "spineless and inept".
While nobody in the Wales camp that weekend emerged with too much credit from their 30-22 loss, however, one man became the number one scapegoat.
Colin Charvis was skipper that day in Rome, but ended it as the villain in the eyes of many Welsh fans. As he made his way off the field to be replaced on 68 minutes, he was caught on camera flashing a smile to someone on the bench, with the grin in stark contrast to the struggles his side were having on the pitch.
From there, things spiralled as the picture of Charvis was discussed right across Wales and he became public enemy number one. Well, technically number two, as a newspaper poll saw him voted as the second most hated man in Wales, between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
While the Welsh rugby public were keen to vent their frustration, the reaction to a momentary upturn of the lips was absurd and the man himself later admitted to being totally bewildered by what followed.
“I’d given a decade of my life to rugby and here I was being rated as a bad guy between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden," he later told WalesOnline. “I couldn’t believe it. This was a sport, not life or death.
“Who were these people who hated me so much? Was it a properly conducted poll or just the opinion of a few blokes in the office? Rugby in Wales is a religion and I was vilified.”
Giving his account of what happened on that fateful day, Charvis explained: "I came off the field and our hooker that day, Mefin Davies, said to me: ‘Well played, fella’. I gave him a polite smile.
“What a newspaper then decided to make of the episode was absolutely disgraceful. If anything could make you prickly, it was what they wrote."
Looking back on the poll years later, he admitted: “It was just one stop on the journey. Now I look back — who’s still alive?
“When the press have a pop at you, you just have to try to roll with it. That’s the pantomime, the entertainment the public crave. When they see you back on the pitch and your arms are aloft because you’ve won — that’s what we are going for."
