Sweet taste for jubilant Wales
Wales captain Sam Warburton said the fact that they had been made to work hard for their Six Nations victory over France had made the Grand Slam celebrations all the sweeter for his young team.
Wales followed up on an impressive World Cup campaign last year by sweeping all before them in the European Championship and capped an encouraging series of results by exacting revenge on the French team that knocked them out of the World Cup with a hard-fought 16-9 victory at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff..
Wales wing Alex Cuthbert scored the only try of an absorbing match in front of a capacity Millennium Stadium crowd, as the hosts added to their 2005 and 2008 Grand Slams.
“This makes all the sacrifices worth while,” said Wales skipper Sam Warburton, who was sent-off in last year’s World Cup semifinal.
“You have to give credit to the French. They made it difficult for us to get our game going. But we won and that’s what counts,” he added.
Victory also meant Wales had equalled the record of their celebrated 1970s predecessors by winning three Slams in the one decade.
Saturday’s match took place the day after Welsh great Mervyn Davies, captain of the 1976 Slam team, died from cancer.
“It’s a very young team and this was their first chance to win anything,” Wales loose forward and man-of-the-match Dan Lydiate told the BBC.
“To do it at home in the last match in the Six Nations, what could be better? The crowd were our 16th man, thank you all for turning up.
“Mervyn Davies was a legend of the game and our thoughts go out to his family at this time,” said Lydiate.
AFP
