1) 1967: Jarrett shatters Triple Crown hopes (34-21)
Wales, with a delirious commitment to handling rugby which at times made one wonder at the reality of it all, completely shattered England’s delusions of winning the triple crown and sharing the Championship. It must be said that in the making of this, one of the greatest spectaculars ever seen in a rugby international in the British Isles, England fully played their part.
England, who started the season with the biggest score ever registered against them at Twickenham, finished off on an equally sombre note by losing by the biggest total ever scored against them. Wales shattered them by scoring five goals, two penalty goals and a dropped goal to four penalty goals and three tries.
The man almost entirely responsible for this English disaster was the 18-year-old Keith Jarrett, who only left school at Christmas. He scarcely put a foot wrong, he kicked goals from everywhere, and he scored a remarkable try to achieve the highest score by any individual for Wales. Clem Thomas
2) 1969: Wales win the Triple Crown (30-9)
This was the final justification of the modern approach to rugby football, a complete vindication of the standards of competitive rugby and the squad system introduced by Wales this season. For this international produced perhaps the most brilliant display ever by a Welsh rugby team as they destroyed and ravished England in the second half to score 27 points and win the Triple Crown most fittingly by scoring three goals, two penalty goals, a drop goal and two tries to three penalty goals.
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England failed principally where they were expected to and where they have laboured for so long during the last five years – in their front five.
England never achieved any sort of possession in all phases of forward play, and in the second half the forwards crumpled disastrously for the whole pack to be annihilated by a voracious Welsh eight savagely and inspiringly led by Brian Thomas. CT
3) 1991: England lay ghost to rest (6-25)
The citadel at last fell as England not only laid the ghost that has haunted them for 28 years but also waylaid the spectre that has prevented them for 24 years from winning an opening away game in the championship, namely since their 8-3 win in Dublin in 1967.
From the result – England’s biggest score and winning margin at Cardiff – it may appear that victory was achieved in the grand manner. But it was a match of so few virtues and of such deadly attributes that it became immensely boring. Perhaps its only virtue was that it was mission accomplished for England. CT
4) 1999: England stunned as Jenkins snatches last-gasp victory (32-31)
Joy unconfined for Wales, a nightmare final for England that will haunt their players for years to come. Nothing in the wildest imaginings of Wales’s most fanatical supporters could match the stunning reality of an injury-time victory that denied England a Grand Slam and handed the last Five Nations Championship to Scotland, audacious conquerors of France in Paris 24 hours earlier.
Passion, self-belief and a battling spirit that refused to acknowledge the possibility of defeat ultimately presented Wales with a match-winning try by Scott Gibbs that is certain to be the subject of innumerable video replays in the Principality well into the millennium. With England six points clear and the game in its 83rd minute, the Lions centre took a short pass from Scott Quinnell and danced past four defenders before scoring to the right of the posts.
A tricky conversion kick remained for Neil Jenkins, who coolly slotted home his eighth goal of the afternoon from eight kicks to put Wales in front for the first time. Two more suspense-ridden minutes were played before the whistle blew. England’s beaten players collapsed to the turf and the Welsh embraced each other . Robert Armstrong
5) 2001: England enter another dimension (15-44)
In the days to come Wales will not be alone in having to deal with the repercussions of England’s dazzling weekend cross-border raid. Spare a thought not just for Italy as they prepare to visit Twickenham but for poor old Max Boyce’s lyrics – “They’ll slide it back when Wales attack, so God can watch us play” – about the new stadium’s roof. Sorry Max, but rugby heaven has new earthly representatives and suddenly angels are riding shotgun on England’s sweet chariot.
For this, from the pre-match singing beneath blue skies to the thrilling certainty of England’s daring first-half thrusts, was as striking a spectacle as the Six Nations championship, or its predecessor, has known. France played out of their skins at Wembley in beating Wales 51-0 to clinch their 1998 Grand Slam but none of the home unions have produced anything as shimmering on an opponent’s ground since Wales’s 1970s heyday. The impact was not far removed from the All Blacks’ destruction of England in the 1995 World Cup semi-final.
What made it special, even to Welsh eyes in the privileged 72,500 crowd, was the way England wielded the scalpel in the first hour. Here there was no need for a monster like Jonah Lomu on the left wing or even those familiar brutal thrusts from the forwards in midfield. Instead of packing the centre of the pitch, England concentrated their efforts down the flanks, relying on pace and speed of thought. Will Greenwood’s hat-trick of tries ensured a record Welsh defeat in Cardiff yet, for once, the home side had little cause to reproach themselves. Robert Kitson
6) 2005: Welsh dragon breathes fire as Henson sticks boot in (11-9)
Gavin Henson, he of the silver boots, the swagger and the hair gel, the sometimes wasted past and a future of unknown proportions, did for England well and truly. Splendid in every area of the park, he stepped up to take a penalty five minutes from time and landed it with such apparent ease it seemed he had been destined to inflict such a wound from the day he was born. “I didn’t feel pressure, to be honest with you,” he said later, stretching credulity. “Despite what’s been said in the papers all week.”
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There will be plenty more said in the papers, this week and for many more to come. “He’s looking like a superstar,” said Jeremy Guscott, who knows all about that. “He’s got that arrogance,” said Jonathan Davies, himself no stranger to the quality that separates the very good from the occasionally untouchable. “He’s the young kid with the silver boots.”
And so he is. Not just from the turf. He chipped cleverly, and pushed England back time and again with booming efforts from hand that had the packed stadium gasping in admiration. He had a part in Wales’s try, as well, offloading to the equally impressive Michael Owen, who fed Shane Williams. And the little flier went over in the corner in the 13th minute. It would be the only try of a tense encounter, one all the more dramatic for its historical context. Kevin Mitchell