Wales clinch Six Nations with victory over France
Wales claimed Six Nations glory with a 27-12 victory over France at the Millenium Stadium. Knowing they needed to avoid defeat by 20 points to secure the Grand Slam, Wales got off to the dream start as they edged ahead on five minutes through James Hook's penalty after France strayed needlessly offside.
Les Blues battled hard to gain territory but their play was laced with a twinge of desperation, causing unnecessary mistakes which were pounced on by a Welsh side hungry for success.
Despite plenty of endeavor in the middle third neither side were able to make significant breakthroughs, turning the contest into a battle between the respective kickers.
Hook kept the scoreboard ticking over with his second penalty on 18 minutes but France hit back when Jean-Baptiste Elissalde knocked over a penalty of his own to half the deficit at 6-3.
Wales quickly reinstalled their six point lead as Hook sent another penalty over the posts but Elissalde pegged them back shortly before the interval.
In their eagerness to bomb forward France did leave themselves exposed after the restart, with Wales unable to capitalise. Ellisalde then took advantage of an injury to Gareth Jenkins and a sin-binned Gavin Henson to level the scores on 46 minutes to leave the contest delicately poised.
20 points was always going to be a tough ask for France with Wales so dominant on home soil and so it proved to be as Shane Williams burst through the centre to collect his own kick and run in the first try of the match on the hour.
It made Williams Wales' all time leading try scorer with 41 and Stephen Jones duly converted to put the hosts 16-9 ahead. With the atmosphere building to a crescendo in the Millenium Stadium, Jones sent over another penalty to increase Wales' lead to ten points with a quarter of an hour remaining.
Frace threw everything they had at the Welsh defence but were restricted to scoring through penalties. Dimity Yachvili knocked over but had his effort quickly cancelled out by the boot of Jones as Wales maintained a 22-12 lead.
The final action of the match saw Martyn Williams run in a 76th minute try to send the Millenium Stadium into raptures.
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