Gareth Southgate needs to find England a motivational speaker – and fast.
For when England meet Wales in the World Cup on November 29, the Red Dragons are likely to be fired up by a sensational speech by the Welsh actor Michael Sheen.
He was asked to improvise a team talk for Wales ahead of their Group B clash and came up with one so impassioned it could well fire Robert Page’s lads to victory over England.
It was meant to be a joke when Sheen was asked on the sports quiz A League of Their Own to come up with a speech for the Red Dragons.
But Sheen, who played Brian Clough in The Damned United, took host Romesh Ranganathan’s request very, very seriously.
To stirring music, he boomed out a thunderous monologue, building to a magnificent crescendo.
As he was given a standing ovation from panellists and the studio audience, Micah Richards quipped: “All that to go out at the group stage.”
But that might be wishful thinking on the ex-England player’s part as many fans have suggested Wales manager Rob Page would be wise to play the speech in Qatar.
Actor Danny Miller, who is English, watched it and commented: “Even I want to support Wales. Incredible.”
Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson, an American, said: “I have no idea what this is or who he is...
“But this sounds awesome.”
FULL SPEECH
Yma o hyd, yma o hyd,
I hear the voices singing,
Speed your journey, bois bach,
One nation, singing with one voice,
A song of hope, a song of courage,
A victory song that floats through the valleys, like a red mist,
Rolls over the mountain tops, like crimson thunder,
A red storm is coming to the gates of Qatar,
It crackles, with the spirit of '58 and Jimmy Murphy's boys,
It turns the pages of the history books,
And finds Rob's page, waiting, still to be written,
What would you write in there, boys?
Dare you write your names on that page?
We haven't waited 64 years and come half way around the world,
To be troubled by a neighbour from back home,
When the English coming knock on our door,
Let's give them some sugar, boys, let's give them some Welsh sugar,
They've always said we are too small, we are too slow, we are too weak, too full of fear,
But yma o hyd, you sons of Speed,
And they fall around us,
We are still here.
