It was an odd sound: the subdued shuffle of 50,000 shoulders shrugged.
Argentina had just crossed for their seventh try, pushing beyond 50 points and setting a record winning margin over Wales. At the final whistle there were no boos, no angry chants — just a flat, apathetic hush.
The Principality Stadium is supposed to be a roaring cauldron, a place visitors describe as among the best atmospheres in world rugby. Lately it has not felt like that. A once-proud rugby nation looks depleted.
Both national and club sides feel markedly weaker, while off the field the sport in Wales has been consumed by long-running existential problems. Given that decline has been unfolding for years, Sunday’s heavy defeat was hardly a shock.
Wales have managed only one Test victory since 2023, while Argentina have registered wins over top teams, including New Zealand this year. Sunday’s match was Steve Tandy’s first in charge — a chance for a reset — yet only 50,185 attended, the smallest non-Covid crowd at the ground since 2016.
That number would be enviable for many teams, but it is a sharp fall from the near-75,000 sell-outs that the Welsh Rugby Union once expected and relied on for revenue. Where packed houses were once routine, there is now a weary acceptance of Wales’ new reality.
More striking than the vacant seats was the mood — flat, passive, almost resigned. The crowd rose briefly when Wales fought back with two tries to level the score in the first half, but that optimism was fleeting.
It’s hard to fault the supporters. This was Wales’ 10th straight home defeat, and the two previous visitors to the Principality had combined for 120 points. Yet as fans filtered out onto Westgate Street after the final whistle, many sounded oddly upbeat. Some praised a sharper attacking look; others took heart from brief periods when Tandy’s inexperienced side competed with superior opposition.
Still, it is grim that conceding 52 points at home — after a record 68 shipped to England at the same stadium last outing — has become almost normal for Wales. Even for a nation used to dramatic swings in fortune, this feels like a low point.
You would scarcely recognise the team that were Six Nations champions four years ago, Grand Slam winners and World Cup semi-finalists just two years before that. Now they sit 12th in the world rankings. Losing has become so routine that the sting has dulled; each Argentina try elicited little more than a weary breath from those in the stands.
Sport endures because of its unscripted drama and the passions it arouses. When the outcome feels preordained, that magic fades. There will at least be some uncertainty when Japan — the only side Wales have beaten in the last two years — visit the Principality on Saturday. But with New Zealand and South Africa to follow in successive weekends, the sense is that those matches could be more of the same.
If the All Blacks and Springboks heap more heavy scores on Wales, the crowd’s reaction is likely to mirror recent displays: resignation and indifference. Losses alone are demoralising, but Welsh rugby now risks losing something deeper — its very soul.
