Grand Slam!!!

Nicholas Sarkozy, Edith Piaf, Charles de Gaulle, Zinedine Zidane, Napoleon, Inspector Clouseau, we gave your boys one hell of a beating!!

Sorry if this seems OTT but we did it! A second Grand Slam in 4 years clinched with a breath taking, heart stopping, grey hair creating victory over the French in Cardiff. When you have so little feast and so much famine in life as a Welsh rugby supporter you have to forgive us if we get a little carried away.

In turning World Cup no hopers into victorious Grand Slammers, the coaching team of Gatland, Edwards and Howley have achieved a level of alchemy and wizardry that Harry Potter would be hard pressed to match. with this team in place, and some real talent being allowed to flourish ( most of it was around already - but somehow managed to get wasted) I feel that this revival might last, unlike the "Prague Spring" of 2005.

Victory over France was particularly fitting after some of the comments from their camp this week. Apparently their scrum half, asked for his thoughts on the game, said something gallic along the lines of " come on - its only Wales" . (Thanks for saving Gatland the pre match pep talk boys. )

To be fair though the comment has some merit. It is only Wales. We are not in the same league as the Southern Hemisphere titans and frankly winning a Grand Slam does not change that. When we can start to beat these teams regularly, and not just at home, then we will truly be a good team, and that is Gatland's benchmark.

Fortunately those challenges are ahead. Doubtless if we had had to beat New Zealand or South Africa to win the Grand Slam it might have been very different, but we didn't have to beat them - only France.