Tour diary entry #1: And so it begins...
Inside Welsh Rugby has arrived in Japan ahead of a bumper five weeks
Particularly in Welsh rugby, these end-of-year tours can have the feel of a break from the norm.
The norm, if you weren’t already aware, is uncertainty.
Arriving in Kitakyushu today, the sign at the airport at least made me forget about all that for a while.
‘We became family back in 2019. Welcome back, Wales Rugby.’
A nice touch - likely to be the first of many in the coming days as this city welcomes back its second-favourite team.
In a matter of days, Wales’ 17-Test wait for a victory could be over. Or it could be 18 in a row.
Normally, the Welsh thing to do would be concern yourself with the latter; as Mel Brooks sang, hope for the best, expect the worst.
But, looking at that little banner, being here in the city that adopted Wales six years ago, I didn’t feel the misery that has preceded most Welsh Tests in the last year or so.
I felt excited by it all. This tour feels like a chance to hit the reset button.
It lasted around half-an-hour. The length of the taxi ride to the hotel to be precise.
By then, a phone call from a source back home had informed me of more of Welsh rugby’s ills. Some tales more concrete than others.
Meetings, briefings, parties not showing up, legal action, players wanting out of clubs. All the usual fun and games.
Some of it might come out in the weeks and months ahead, some of it might not - especially when the players are here in Japan.
Of course, those issues will still - as that phone call shows - play out miles away from Wales and the Lions.
When and where I can offer more on what’s going on, I will.
But hopefully, in the coming days and weeks, this tour diary will bring a bit of excitement back after another miserable season. Five weeks, five cities, two countries, two tours.
A bit of respite from the norm.