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Williams wary of Grand Slam hype
20 March 2005, 1:16 pm
Martyn Williams has urged Grand Slam winners Wales not to rest on their laurels after being crowned RBS 6 Nations champions.
Dynamic Cardiff Blues flanker Williams believes it is vital that Europes new rugby kings do not sit back and bask for too long in the glory of their first championship clean sweep since 1978.

There are a few of us who are getting on a bit, but I think the majority of the squad are only 24 or 25, he said.

It has got to be drummed into the boys that this isnt the end. If you want to be a great side, you have got to win a couple more things. We cant sit back.

We have made our own little bit of history, but the Welsh sides in the 1970s won more than one championship, more than one Grand Slam and more than one Triple Crown. I think that should be the target for this team.

There has been a tendency before, after one big win, to sit back and think, weve done it.

It is difficult in Wales because there is so much hype, but we have got to keep working because we are far from the finished article. I still think we can improve on a lot of things, which is the biggest message from this season.

Williams, a strong contender for player of the tournament, featured in the Welsh team that suffered an embarrassing RBS 6 Nations whitewash just two years ago.

And the 29-year-old admits it has taken a huge effort by players and management to mastermind an amazing transformation in fortunes.

We are a pretty down-to-earth bunch. No individual is bigger than the team, and we all give each other plenty of stick. There has been great work by the management to keep our feet on the ground after every game, he added.

It hasnt sunk in yet, and I dont know how long it will take to sink in. If someone had told me two years ago that we were going to win the Grand Slam, I would have laughed in their face.

I knew we were getting there, but I thought it would take much longer than it has done, so it does make it that little bit sweeter, knowing we have been right at the bottom and climbed our way up to the top.

The continuity in selection has been there over the last two or three years, and weve grown as a squad.

I said at the start of the season that I didnt think anyone would win the Grand Slam because it was that tight, but the England game was a massive turning point for us.

We didnt play our best that day, but we ground out a result.

I think in the World Cup games against New Zealand and England, mentally it showed us that we could play against these guys. We had maybe been a bit in awe of them before, but those two games set us up, and we havent really looked back since.

We are not South Africa and we are not England, whereby we can physically dominate sides, because we are not big enough, so we need to put a bit of width and a bit of pace into our game.

Slowly, the progression has been there, and it has culminated in winning the Grand Slam, which is fabulous.


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