{"id":460637,"date":"2026-03-06T11:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/460637\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T11:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:39:10","slug":"james-botham-gets-grief-from-other-side-of-the-world-after-six-nations-howler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/460637\/","title":{"rendered":"James Botham gets grief from other side of the world after Six Nations howler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/wales\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wales<\/a> flanker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/james-botham\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Botham<\/a> has revealed how his costly \u201cgut-wrenching\u201d Six Nations mistake brought a FaceTime smirk from his famous grandfather Lord Ian Botham.<\/p>\n<p>The Cardiff back-rower was partly to blame for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/darcy-graham\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Darcy Graham<\/a> try that turned last month\u2019s Cardiff clash Scotland\u2019s way and ended Welsh hopes of a first win in the tournament for three years.<\/p>\n<p>Botham and wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/gabriel-hamer-webb\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gabriel Hamer-Webb<\/a> were caught napping from Finn Russell\u2019s restart kick, the ball landing between the pair for Graham to nip in and score.<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old said he has had \u201cstick\u201d for his error and even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/england\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> cricket great Lord Botham, who is currently in Australia, joined in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven grandad said something from the other side of the world. He always has a little say,\u201d said Botham.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI kind of knew it was coming and I was trying to avoid the call a little bit. But no, the FaceTime popped up, and I saw him, and I was like, \u2018Oh, here we go!\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was more the look, because I was on FaceTime, he didn\u2019t really say too much.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe just looked at me, kind of with his head down and smirked. I knew exactly what he was on about but, to be fair, he was very chuffed for me that I had been able to get back out there and play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Botham followed in the footsteps of father Liam by representing Cardiff and made his Wales debut in November 2020.<\/p>\n<p>He made three appearances off the bench as Wales won the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/six-nations\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Six Nations<\/a> Championship and Triple Crown in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Botham fell out of favour before being named for the 2024 Six Nations, although he was overlooked by Steve Tandy for his first squad in the autumn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel like a year since I last played \u2013 it kind of felt like yesterday,\u201d said Botham.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Steve called me, initially I thought it was a call to say I was not involved.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo my heart sank a bit when I saw it and then he told me it was good news.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was an amazing feeling to get back into it, especially playing in front of that full crowd.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever felt and heard that kind of crowd before, because my first cap was during Covid and then we had that summer (of restricted crowds).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wales are big outsiders to end a record run of 14 Six Nations defeats against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/ireland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ireland<\/a> in Dublin on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Botham said: \u201cI know we\u2019ve not won for several years out there, so it\u2019s another marker for us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to put in another performance and show what we\u2019ve got. It\u2019s all improvements every game, and everyone\u2019s excited for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales flanker James Botham has revealed how his costly \u201cgut-wrenching\u201d Six Nations mistake brought a FaceTime smirk from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-460637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}