'Let's give em some sugar boys!'

In five hours, Wales take on England at the World Cup. Actor Michael Sheen imagines the inspirational team talk that should be delivered.

Nov 29, 2022

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Who cares if it was a set up. Who cares if he had days rather than seconds to prepare. Who cares if the producers knew when it was time to fire up the backing track. When Michael Sheen (The Sandman, Midnight in Paris, stage adaptation of Amadeus) unleashes his team talk for his beloved Wales, it’s something close to the speech of the year — oratory at its finest, and utterly electrifying.

England versus Wales is now just 5 hours away. We know now that the Gareth Bale led Wales need not just to win today, but to pray for a draw between the USA and Iran. But if football is ever to be sorted out just by a speech, surely this is the speech. Turn it up loud, allow the tears to flow, “But yma o hyd, you sons of speed, and they fall around us. We’re still here!’

Transcript

9 September 2022, London, UK
Yma o hyd , Yma o hyd (We are still here, we are still here)

I hear the voices singing. Speed your journey, bois bach, [good heavens]

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. [Rob Page is the coach]

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 (‘Still here’, the title of a famous Welsh nationalistic folk song), you sons of Speed, and they fall around us.

We are still here.

Why it’s incredible

The use of Welsh language
It’s brilliant to hear a Hollywood star speaking in Welsh and he does it in the first line. ‘Yma o hyd , Yma o hyd’. ‘We are still here, we are still here’. It’s a famous Welsh folk song, and it will form the spine of the speech.
Wales and singing
Anyone who has followed Welsh rugby knows their is national culture of singing. Sheen latches onto that in the first line, and when a speech like this is soaring, it feels like song. Speaking about a singing metaphor in with this sort of high rhetoric really works.
I hear the voices singing. Speed your journey, bois bach, [good heavens]
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.
Use of colour
Football is about wearing colours, and Wales is red, and so we get a lot of red imagery in these lines. But it’s also poetry, heightened imagery that would only work with an almost comic heightened delivery.
Rob’s page, waiting, still to be written
This is a high poetry pun. Rob Page is the coach of Wales, and so Rob’s page is referencing the past, and dragging it into the present. Wales haven’t qualified since 1958, and so we remember them like it’s an epic verse. And how good is the word ‘crackles’? Terrific onomatopoeia.
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
Set up the neighbour conclusion
Sheen is about to enter the crescendo, the exhilarating, high volume conclusion. But first he needs to set up that England is a neighbour. A sometimes, none-to-friendly neighbour.
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.
Yma o hyd
However it looks on the page, it rhymes with speed. This is the most note perfect few words delivered in 2022. The neighbour ‘sugar’ metaphor is extraordinary, because it’s both funny and threatening. No wonder the panel and studio audience rise. I rose too.
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 (‘Still here’, the title of a famous Welsh nationalistic folk song), you sons of Speed, and they fall around us.
He’s done it before
I’ve been trying to get Michael Sheen on the podcast to talk about this speech, as well as his St David’s day tribute to Nye Bevan, which is also on Speakola, and a similar ode to the glory of Wales that he delivered for the Homeless World Cup bid in 2017. Is it even better? Maybe.

The mighty dragon of Wales is stirring from ancient slumber, from the snowcapped mountains of Snowdonia, along the windswept valleys of the Rhondda, across Cardiff's great fields of glory, the land is awakening.

The land of Llewellyn. The land of Owain Glyndwr. The land of Rob Brydon.
From those old dreaming men of Harloch, to the wild women of the western shores. All of the children are joining together as one voice. To send a song of welcome to the world and that dragon, that mighty red Dragon, shall rise once more, spread wide its wings, take flight, and roar!

Michael Sheen credits the homeless World Cup in 2019 with transforming his attitudes to life. He sold a couple of his properties to help finance the Welsh bid. It terrified him for a time, but he told ‘The Guardian’ that in the end he found it transformative.

There was something quite liberating about going, all right, I’ll put large amounts of money into this or that, because I’ll be able to earn it back again. I’ve essentially turned myself into a social enterprise, a not-for-profit actor.

Just after Christmas, Sheen will be starring in the Sydney Opera House production of Amadeus, which I will hopefully venture north to see. Certainly I’ve been begging to make him a Speakola interviewee. Hopefully it happens this month. What a speaking talent!

Cheers

Tony

The spectacular Amadeus is on at The Opera House from December 27th. Tickets.

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