Class of 2008 take game to a different level

Mar 16 2008 by Graham Price, Wales On Sunday

WE all thought the Grand Slam team of 2005 were real heroes, but three years on the class of 08 has taken Welsh rugby up a significant notch.

In 05 Wales played to their strengths, but just didn’t have the all-round ability Ryan Jones’ side have displayed throughout this season’s championship campaign.

Under Mike Ruddock Wales beat all-comers to win the Grand Slam but were fallible up-front and were forced to get the ball wide at every opportunity.

But this season Wales have shown, against all-comers, that they have a scrum which can compete with the best and a line-out that is getting more and more efficient.

From No. 1 to No. 8, Wales have not taken a step back in the last five games, and the defence from the likes of Gethin Jenkins and Ian Gough yesterday was simply world class. And talking of defence, how many French sides have you seen who just did not have a sniff of the try line?

Hats off to the boys for conceding just two tries in nearly seven hours or rugby.

To think that two years ago Wales wer struggling to avoid the wooden spoon and only six months ago were losing embarrassingly to Fiji in the World Cup.

Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards have opened up the Welsh minds and made them realise they have world class qualities to match not only northern hemisphere teams.

I can’t wait to see how Wales perform in the back yard of the world champions, South Africa, this summer.

Back in November the Springboks came to Cardiff just weeks after lifting the Webb Ellis Cup and made it look very easy against Wales, and often scored at will. It’s a different ball game now.

After 2005, Wales and the Welsh Rugby Union took their eye off the ball and failed to use the momentum from the Grand Slam.

We can’t allow that to happen again.

Let’s enjoy the moment and a significant victory over the French but we must build on this.

I’m sure the professionalism of Gatland and Edwards won’t allow that to happen, and they will be as determined as anyone to go to South Africa in June and show how their team can take on the world.

And I’m sure the Springboks will have sat up and taken notice of what Wales have achieved over the last six or seven weeks and how far they have come on since last November.

But it won’t have gone unnoticed by Gatland and his coaching staff that this season’s championship campaign hasn't been a cake-walk.

Some of the games have been a little closer than the final score-line has suggested, but in the end it was down to the players’ determination and self-belief to put in an 80-minute performance.