Mike Ruddock’s Wales ended their 11-year wait – the longest in their history – to win the competition in 2005 and did so in style, claiming their first RBS 6 Nations title and the Grand Slam to boot.

Wales dispelled fears that their pack was too lightweight with some heroic displays from prop Gethin Jenkins, hooker Mefin Davies, second row Brent Cockbain and flanker Martyn Williams.

But the 2005 RBS 6 Nations is perhaps best remembered as Gavin Henson’s breakthrough tournament, particularly his man-of-match display in the 11-9 victory over England to get Wales’ campaign up and running.

In that match at the Millennium Stadium, England were heading for a 9-8 victory with just three minutes remaining until Henson stepped up and booted a long-range penalty to seal the win. A couple of crunching tackles on Mathew Tait also linger long in the memory.

Elsewhere in week one, France staged a dramatic late comeback in Paris as Yann Delaigue’s 78th-minute drop goal before Damien Traille’s try and Frederic Michalak’s conversion sealed a 16-9 win over Scotland and Ronan O’Gara booted Ireland to a 28-17 win in Italy.

Wales followed up in week two with a thumping six-try 38-8 win over Italy in Rome and Ireland performed similarly as five tries, including a rare score from John ‘The Bull’ Hayes, gave them a 40-13 away win over Scotland.

At Twickenham, meanwhile, France produced another act of escapology as a sixth penalty of the game from Dimitri Yachvili in the 75th minute downed England 18-17 despite tries from Olly Barkley and Josh Lewsey.

After a week off Chris Paterson handed Scotland their first win of the competition with six penalties against Italy good enough for an 18-10 victory over Italy before France got a taste of their own medicine in Paris.

With the scores tied at 18-18 with 12 minutes remaining, a drop goal and a penalty for Stephen Jones handed Wales a famous victory and inched them closer to the Grand Slam.

Ireland stalwarts Brian O’Driscoll and O’Gara then inflicted more misery on England, scoring five and 14 points respectively in a hard-fought 19-13 victory in Dublin.

In week four France won a thrilling match in Ireland, again leaving it late to rubber stamp the 26-19 win thanks to Christophe Dominici’s injury-time score after an O’Driscoll try had brought the men in green to within two.

And England took their frustrations out on Italy as a Mark Cueto hat-trick, which would help him finish the competition as the top try scorer, sealed a 39-7 victory before Wales won an entertaining match at Murrayfield, outscoring Scotland 46-22 thanks to six tries, including two for the prolific Kevin Morgan.

Onto the final week and France did their best to keep the pressure up on Wales with a seven-try 56-13 thumping of Italy but Wales, thanks largely to Jones and Henson, proved too strong for Ireland and were crowned RBS 6 Nations champions following their 32-20 win.

England brought the curtain down on the competition at Twickenham as Jamie Noon racked up his country’s second hat-trick of the campaign in a 43-22 win, but that was only good enough to see them finish in fourth place, above Scotland and Italy, but one place below Ireland.