Quote Originally Posted by Rjk View Post
Sorry but both of your points here are bollocks.
New Zealand would have been massive favourites in the 2011 world cup, we would have had a chance, but there's no way I can see us beating them with ease at that time.

Also there is very little evidence to suggest we would have won the 1934 world cup. The home nations hardly played any other international teams in that period and before, and when they did, they didn't always win. It is just arrogance that makes us assume that the home nations would have walked the early world cups. Especially when you consider that when they did start to play in them they weren't exactly a major force.
In the semi in 2011 France beat Wales 9-8, Wales harshly played 61 minutes with only 14 men and even then most thought Wales were the better side, in the final NZ beat France 8-7 with many thinking France were the better team, personally I think Wales would have won that WC as it turned out if we were not so harshly done by the half French ref in the semi final against France, NZ choked in the final and were lucky in the end to win.
The home international teams in the 30s rarely played continental teams as the British were regarded as superior at the time having founded the game and having a highly developed league system consisting of many teams, the only game prior to the WC cup that Wales played against Johnny Foreigner was a 1-1 draw away to France in 1933, Scotland drew with Austria [semi finalists] the same year and the English who did used to play some games against the continentals [was it their Germanic blood or proximity to the continent who knows ?] drew away to Italy in 1933 and then beat Italy a few months after they had won the World Cup in 1934.
Wales had won the home international championships in the two preceding seasons to the 1934 WC [then England changed their team to stop the Welsh dominance after that, but that's a different story].