In Wales - Our Heroes Go Up To 11!

The word legend is banded about with ease these days. Every so often along comes someone who is truly legendary. Today a living legend retired from Welsh rugby.

Shane Williams played his final game for our national team at an emotion choked Millennium Stadium. Before the national anthem there was hardly a dry eye in the house, after a minutes rapturous applause for the tragic death of Gary Speed last week. The tear ducts were strained even further when the camera panned to a Shane Williams failing to hold back the emotion as the crowd sung the anthem with as much pride and gusto as I've heard in many a year.

The game ... probably instantly forgettable if it wasn't for those last dying seconds. Sometimes you simply can't make it up, as fact is always stranger than fiction. The game may have been lost, but one last Welsh attack led to the ball landing in Shane Williams grateful hands, and the last move of his last game for Wales was his 58th try. Then the floodgates really opened. He gave one of the most tear choked interviews I have heard. No one ever tell me a player doesn't care about playing for Wales again!

The BBC match report with that interview can be seen here.

Shane Williams - Diolch yn fawr! Thanks for the memories .. and like those infamous Spinal Tap amplifiers, award yourself 11/10 for your career!