Wales goes wild for Six Nations glory

CARDIFF - Wales's grand slam heroes have paid tribute to the passionate support of the Cardiff crowd that has swept the team to a 32-20 victory over Ireland.

More than 74,000 fans were crammed into the Millennium Stadium on Saturday and the noise they produced would surely have taken the roof off had it not been open to let in the Cardiff sunshine.

"The crowd were unbelievable," said winger Shane Williams. "Any team coming to Cardiff are going to find it difficult and they carried us through a difficult game."

Fullback Kevin Morgan scored one of the home side's two tries that secured Wales a first grand slam for 27 years and he said the crowd had been inspirational.

"It was something different, I've never heard the anthem sung so loudly," he said.

"During the game you concentrate on your own performance but towards the end of the game when it looked like we were going to win, the noise coming from the fans was fantastic."

It was not just inside the stadium that the Welsh public made clear their support for the players.

The match took over Cardiff and thousands of ticketless fans gathered in front of the city hall to watch the match on a big screen.

"It was fantastic driving into Cardiff today and you saw all the fans there," said Wales captain Michael Owen.

"It was something else and we all knew it was going to be a special day. We felt really excited and then we went out and showed how excited we were."

Even the Irish were caught up in the excitement.

"The atmosphere was fantastic," said Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan. "Coming to the ground today it was eight to 10 deep with both Wales and Irish fans all cheering both teams.

"It's a very unique thing we have in the Six Nations and it was great to be part of that."

- REUTERS