‘We sat in the dressing room in silence, listening to theWales fans singing’

We loved the journey as fans and media, but what was it really like inside the Wales dressing room during that never-to-be-forgotten Euro 2016 experience?

Wales star DAVID EDWARDS has taken us into those inner confines in a new book, a large proportion of which is devoted to those Euros. Edwards played in the three group games against Slovakia, England and Russia, before injury QUALIFYING AND HOW CHRIS GUNTER MIRRORED WELSH RUGBY LEGEND’S STIRRING SPEECH (Wales had just lost a key qualifier 2-0 in Bosnia, but confusion reigned. Israel, their big rivals for runners-up spot, were in trouble at home to Cyprus. Wales were about to make it to a major finals for the first time since 1958). Edwards: “The tunnel was on the other side of the pitch from me, so while we were getting bits of information we were never completely sure. Then we heard cheers and roars coming from the Welsh fans — Cyprus had won 2-1 in Israel. Wales had qualified!

For a while though we didn’t know that for sure, but everyone was celebrating, so we just joined in!

It was nice to share the moment on the pitch with the Welsh fans who had followed us throughout Europe for so many years without any real success.

It wasn’t the most luxurious of places to have sealed the deal, but in ruled him out of the knockout stages. But he remained a pivotal part of the camp as the ‘Together Stronger’ mantra saw the entire Welsh party pulling in one direction with their fans as Wales rampaged into the semifinals. In two days’ worth of exclusive extracts from Edwards’ excellent book, he takes us through the tournament with fascinating behind the scenes anecdotes.

Among the issues he deals with a way that made things even better.

We had a few beers in the dressing room and then went back to the hotel. They gave us a conference suite for us to use to have a gettogether and toast our qualification.

Owain Fôn Williams got his guitar out and played some tunes and we even got the gaffer (Chris Coleman) to give us a song.

Chris Gunter stood up in front of everyone to give us his rendition of one of the famous inspirational speeches made by Wales rugby star Scott Quinnell: ‘You feel those butterflies in your stomach? They’re not butterflies. They’re dragons’!” PREPARING FOR FRANCE Edwards: “We had some integrity and commercial meetings in the evening, which was a talk from an FAW official covering UEFA’s guidance – what we should and shouldn’t do during the tournament, and what we should and shouldn’t say.

We were going to need to do everything by the book. It included is how the special team spirit is formed, the truth behind that controversial video when England went out, why the players pose for their silly pre-match team photos, and the stirring words from skipper Ashley Williams in the team huddle.

This is the true story of Euro 2016 within the dressing room revealed for the very first time... you may have a lump in your throat by the end as epic memories return... details like having to use Adidasbranded washbags when you go into the stadium, and only using officially branded headphones with your personal gadgets.

Some of the players disputed that, saying that Cristiano Ronaldo would – 100% – be getting off the Portugal bus with his Louis Vuitton bag or his Beats headphones, or whatever it was he normally had.

I remember watching the first game and seeing everyone going in with their own gear, completely ignoring the protocols we’d been given.

It even extended to social media and which hashtags we were supposed to use on Twitter and Instagram and so on.

An extraordinary amount of detail, and quite a boring meeting to be honest, but the FAW had to get this right and make sure we avoided any unwanted fines or sanctions.” ARRIVING IN FRANCE - AND FEAR IN THE PLAYERS’ EYES

(Wales were based in the Brittany coastal town of Dinard where their hotel and training HQ had state-oftheart facilities. But first there was a rather unexpected turn of events). Edwards: “During that first week, we were called to a meeting with our analysts Esther Wills and James Turner.

Esther led the meeting and started by giving everyone an iPad Pro to use during the tournament, loaded with analysis details so we could get as much information as we needed about training, opponents and our individual clips. The lads were excited because we thought we were getting a free iPad. That hope was quickly extinguished as Esther said they needed to be returned at the end of the trip. If not, there’d be a fine, as there’d be if any of the lads visited any inappropriate websites – as the junior age groups at the FAW would also use the iPads afterwards. The meeting was then abruptly halted in complete pandemonium, when Les, the head security guy, burst through the doors shouting, ‘Get out of here, follow me and don’t look back!’ Wow. Panic time. Everyone surged to the door. It was chaos. We ran down the corridors, heading towards the basement, with Les shouting: ‘Keep moving, keep moving!’ I immediately assumed this was a terror attack, and you could tell by the panic and look on the other lads’ faces that they were equally scared! As I got to the basement we moved into an underground car park. The front of the group were 20 yards or so ahead and there were some tall railed gates to the right. I could see the gaffer going past them and, suddenly, someone on the other side started shaking and rattling the gates. Everyone was petrified and in panic mode! Les stopped at the far wall and started speaking. ‘Relax, that was a drill... we needed to show you where