'It was a bit of a thrill' - Wales buoyed by superstar athlete's video message
Reigning champions Wales aim to blast out of the Guinness Six Nations starting blocks on Saturday – helped by a video message from Usain Bolt.
The eight-time Olympic gold medallist and sprint king was part of Wales’ so-called Bobby Cup award ceremony earlier this week.
Set up by Wales’ strength and conditioning coach Paul Stridgeon, whose nickname is Bobby, it is only awarded to a player when Wales win two successive games, and its latest recipient was flanker Taine Basham.
“Every Bobby Cup presentation, he gets a celebrity to announce who the winner is, and on Monday night we had Usain Bolt,” Wales captain Dan Biggar said ahead of the Six Nations opener against Ireland in Dublin.
“He did a pre-recorded message for Taine and it was a bit of a thrill for the lads.
“The Bobby Cup is one of the main reasons I am still playing international rugby. It is the pinnacle of your rugby career winning the Bobby Cup.”
Serious Six Nations business begins this weekend, with Wales not rated as major title contenders by the bookmakers, despite winning it last season.
“As I have said all week, we always start as fourth or fifth favourites,” Biggar added.
“Every year, we come into the Six Nations behind the big three (France, England and Ireland), and I think Scotland are ahead of us with the bookies this week.
“It has been the same for the last 10 years. But I think people forget as well, the last 10 years we have been the most successful team in it, winning it four times and Ireland and England winning it three times.
“It is no issue for us, it is absolutely no different for us coming into the tournament as underdogs.
“Whether we’ve won it the last year, whether we have got a full-strength team, half a team missing, whatever it is, it’s always the same.”
Wales have not claimed a Six Nations victory against Ireland at the Aviva Stadium since 2012.
And their degree of difficulty is considerably increased by injuries sidelining the likes of Biggar’s fellow British and Irish Lions Alun Wyn Jones, George North, Leigh Halfpenny, Ken Owens, Justin Tipuric and Josh Navidi.
But after ending their Autumn Nations Series campaign with victory against Australia just over two months ago, Wales will not lack confidence.
“There is no doubt we are missing a lot of key men who have got a serious amount of caps and quality around the pitch,” said Biggar, who skippers his country for the first time.
“We have got to make sure that we have got to have a little bit about us, go on the front foot and try and take the game to Ireland.
“I want to make sure that the lads who are playing in their first Six Nations, or starting their first game or haven’t had as much experience, I want them to believe they are good enough and that we are not just rocking up tomorrow to soak up everything Ireland have got.
“These young lads have nothing to fear. They are into their first real Six Nations campaign and it’s great for us because it keeps senior boys like myself really young and hungry.
“For us to come on the right side of the result – or to certainly make it a bit easier for ourselves – we have to make sure we start well, ruffle a few feathers early doors, stop the crowd from getting onside and giving them a big start.”
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Dont know if the Irish players said it or not, but lets all be honest with ourselves, and hopefully both the Irish and French have healed by now, the Media did jump the gun, be realistic, according to 90% of the media it was a France and Ireland final, and the media had 1 of them winning the world cup, not even mentioning the All blacks? Just remember world cups are different, Australia was not the most in form cricket tean in the last cricket world cup, but they have a nack of winning when it matters. I wont go into whether what Etzabeth is saying is true, all I am saying is that its very easy for a team to get ahead of themselves due to the media. Nothing wrong with it, the media got the springboks over confident against England and we nearly lost that one.
Go to commentsHey Finn, Well done to the Junior Wallabies…a win is a win but it was a wet and scrappy game. Would be interesting to hear your opinion on two things from watching the game at the Not So Sunny Coast Stadium. Firstly, what is your opinion on the rule change of being able to call The Mark from a kick off and what is the reason for the change? Secondly, your thoughts on the lack of action for the high tackle on the SA fullback. I understand the TMO ruled that he had fallen into the tackle and the tackler didn’t have time to adjust but it was clearly shoulder on head and the Aussie 11 had not made any attempt to adjust his tackle height leading into the tackle. In my opinion he was never going to get his tackle technique correct to complete a safe tackle. If that tackle was made at a more senior and more scrutinised level would we have seen the same result?
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