COLOSSUS CAPTAIN’S CAMPAIGN TO REMEMBER

THE best Six Nations I was involved in was 2006 when I was captain. Again, similarly to this year, we got the tournament off to a strong start. We had France at home in the first match on my 50th cap.

The last time we’d beaten them was during the 1999 Five Nations championship. It was a tight affair throughout and the crucial score came when our driving maul drove the French 22 metres back and Sean Lamont got his hands on the ball to dive over the line.

Up against it in the final moments, we held firm to secure our first victory over the French in seven years.

Scott Murray was sent off after just 10 minutes in the Welsh game in Cardiff, our second in the tournament, and I ended up going from back row to second row. While we were still competitive we couldn’t claw back the deficit and lost 28-18.

We then beat our second big nation, England, ending their Grand Slam hopes and

keeping ourselves in the running. Ireland away proved to be an attritional affair with Ronan O’Gara and Chris Paterson both scoring with the boot, but they pipped us.

We headed to Rome in search of a final, positive victory. I put in a big hit on Italian prop Andrea Lo Cicero, which gave us the decisive penalty in the 78th minute.

Paterson, as ever, did the honours, gifting us our third win of the campaign and third place in the championship.