Best grand slam of the millennium? |
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roy munster
Veteran Joined: 30 August 2010 Status: Offline Points: 15683 |
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Posted: 08 April 2019 at 7:07pm |
The 05 was an emotional one after 27 years of hurt...Of the top of my head I recall stade de nugget....gavs shave away against england....hammering the scots and the grand slam showdown with the orisih..geth ..shanks kev morgan henson ryan j shane phillips peel cockbain stevo owen at 8 all terrific
the 08 was a shock, gats came in and we won at twickers and dublin, we stuffed the scots and itis and hammered france in the decider, nugget once again got the glory, henson was back and shane was world player of the year..lot of same players plus byrne superb at full back, mark jones was sharp, peel and phillips, stevo , hook awj, adam jones etc I seem to recall this as our best slam as we scored a lot and conceded very little 2012 Few changes from 08....halfpenny north cuthbert foxy warburton lydiate faletau scott williams downed the saes at twickers...priestland had arrived , the hair bears in their pomp etc That seemed a pretty efficent grand slam north foxy on form, phillips, owens, awj again etc 2019 Hard industrious brave workmanlike. 7 years is a long time in sport only really north , foxy , awj , ken were still involved ....The game is more brutal than ever and defences more impregnable. But we did the business My overall feeling is the 05 and 08 side had the bit of magic with shane and gorgeous gav plus byrne on fire, wellies at fly half had a great season as did hook...so i give the nod to the 08 as the champion of champions |
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ROYMOND MUNTER MBE (FOR SERVICES TO THE COMBOVER)
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dr_martinov
Veteran Joined: 06 August 2005 Location: Tycoch Status: Offline Points: 13286 |
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2005 for me: First in my lifetime and it was such an entertaining off-loading game, tensions of that England game aside. Think we started one game with about 8 Jones' as well at one point - classic. A lot of pride restored in Welsh rugby.
Hard to choose between the others: 2008 had some changes and some great players on top of their game with those amazing wins away, 2012 was very much classic Gatland ball and then 2019 Gatland/Edwards ball plus plus with such a high level of fitness, work rate and defence plus clinical finishing. Been an amazing 14 years looking at it. It all really started with that 2003 quarter final against England where we gave them a bit of a scare with some high tempo stuff and Shane's magic. It gave a lot of confidence back and I think people got excited again after the 90s was so dire, the odd win against England aside.
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roy munster
Veteran Joined: 30 August 2010 Status: Offline Points: 15683 |
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Yes that sunny spring day in 2005 was the start of another golden era really...But I agree that preceeding that , Steve Hansen did lay some spadework and the 2003 world cup showed the latent talent we had....Under-pinned by the new pro regional game, concentrating resources into the elite end and vastly improved training facilities. It felt like this was just the start of longer term success and it was...4 grand slams (5 six nations titles) in 14 years is epic...3 world cup quarter finals and a semi-final is really solid stuff too..Weve also supplied more lions than any other nation during this time, forming part of the winning series in oz and the drawn one in new zealand...As much as I love the Lions it has also hurt us too. As we had such a small pool of players who could ill afford to be overplayed.
The only downside has been the results with aussie and the all blacks and the regions in europe..At least weve been competitive though. Weve beaten aussie 3 times in this period and lost about a dozen by small margins. We have beaten the boks 5 out of 6 though. But alas the all black scalp continues to elude us. Many marginal defeats, the narrowest was 2005 under ruddock. But the oirish and the Lions have shown us the AB's not invincible. . Edited by roy munster - 09 April 2019 at 4:52pm |
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ROYMOND MUNTER MBE (FOR SERVICES TO THE COMBOVER)
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dr_martinov
Veteran Joined: 06 August 2005 Location: Tycoch Status: Offline Points: 13286 |
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The only downside for me from this era is not getting to the WC Final when we should have done. I was watching the Sam Warburton documentary and clips from that game still make me so frustrated to this day. The team now has shown itself to be more ruthless so I look forwards to WC 2019. Can maybe address that lack of an All Blacks win as well for you.
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roy munster
Veteran Joined: 30 August 2010 Status: Offline Points: 15683 |
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Have we the will and the skill to take that next step forward and become the best in the world? Whilst we seem to have been content over the years to improve and to chip away at the top sides and be competitive, the all blacks have been the number 1 team in the world for most of the last 100 years. Their mentality is a different animal, to not just be the best but to keep on improving and stay ahead of the chasing pack. They use the rare defeat as a painful reminder to never let it happen again.
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ROYMOND MUNTER MBE (FOR SERVICES TO THE COMBOVER)
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