After five years of flawless punditry - a dozen years for matches played in Cardiff - I got the result of Wales versus England wrong. I'm happy to say.

Delight beats being right, any day, especially when it involves the Glyndwr Redemption, as it is known to Welshmen with long memories and a good grasp of history. Here was another chance to pour vinegar on the grave of Edward the First, wherever it is.

Actually, though, it is a myth that the Welsh are bad losers. Bad winners, maybe, but the character of the nation is based on gloom; how do you think all those great hymns came to be written? They've got nothing to do with celebration.

I have a relative who is known in his local Cardiganshire parish as Bereavement Blair because he goes to so many funerals; he prefers them to weddings because the party is just as good and he doesn't have to take a present. There's pleasure in a nice bit of grief.

Thus it comes as a bit of a blow to national pessimism that Wales are now alongside Ireland and France at the top of the Six Nations Championship. Is this another Coming? Is young Henson the new Redeemer? Hmm!

What I did not allow for when making my assessment of the match in Cardiff was the degree to which England had regressed. Clive, sorry, Sir Clive, Woodward must have known a thing or two.

'Twas only this week that I had a chance to watch the video of the match and weren't England clueless? A wonderful, wonderful (has there been a better one?) kick beat them but the fact remains that Wales only downed the worst England team in at least 15 years by a mere two points.

The vaunted Welsh backs made innumerable mistakes and the only thing that could be said for them was that they made those mistakes while trying to do something, which set them apart from the English lot.

And the Welsh line-out, in the second half particularly, was so slovenly as to call back the very worst days of Welsh forward play.

Then I watched England and France and before succumbing to the effects of a three-hour flight and the medication I was forced to swallow in order to make it, I watched the French make embarrassing idiots of themselves in the first half at Twickenham and when I woke up, they'd won.

I read about England's cock- eyed place- kicking, which partially explained the defeat, but that England have now lost twice to teams way below what are accepted international standards strongly suggests that said international standards are a long way lower than they used to be.

I'm not suggesting that there should be a recall of knighthoods and assorted other decorations, but if you asked an All Black or an Australian what he thought of the quality of their sides at the time, they would be tempted to devalue the worth of England's World Cup triumph in 2003.

Having said that, though, isn't it a fact that the general view on results patterns down the decades have been negative? Go back 35 years and recall that the British Lions' first series win in New Zealand was partly down to the fact that the All Backs had just lost that mighty prop, Ken Gray and a few forwards like him.

Those Lions beat a bad New Zealand side, so we were asked to believe. And the next Lions cleared out South Africa because the Springboks were so bereft of talent that they had to make wholesale changes for every Test.

When was the last international that was played between two teams in absolutely the peak of their form and their fitness? Two prime sides who would care to compare their selected representatives with anything they had ever fielded before?

I am seriously unconvinced by the argument for a Welsh revival, England are aghast at the state of their game, so are Scotland and only the Irish, really, have cause for a brag or two.

So the Six Nations, of which we held such high hopes a fortnight ago, has been a bit of a damp squib so far. And now I read that they going to change the Six Nations rules again, that the Championship is going to adopt the phoney scoring values that sprang out of the English Premiership a few years ago, whereby you get a point for not losing by many and you get another one for scoring four tries.

We can then get a Championship that is won by a side who received an extra point for shoving penalty kicks into the corner four times, winning the line-out, sticking the ball up their jerseys and shunting themselves over. And that one point could beat a side who have won their matches the quality way. Who thinks these things up?