Grand Slam 2005: Where are they now?

Wales players celebrate winning the Six Nations inside their changing room

They were rugby buccaneers who took the Six Nations by storm and captured a grateful nation's imagination.

Not since rugby went professional nearly a decade earlier had a team played Test rugby with such disregard for the scoreboard.

Yet they did score and when they threw the ball about, it was impossible to resist rising from your seat.

Mike Ruddock's Wales wore Brains and - in France - Brawn on their jerseys and used both to beat England, Italy, France, Scotland and then Ireland to end a 27-year wait for a Grand Slam.

But 20 years on from that wonderful spring, where are the heroes now?

BBC Sport Wales tracks them down.

15 - Kevin Morgan

He ended that year as the Celtic League's top try-scorer - but it was his score against Ireland that is remembered as the try that sparked a nation-wide party.

The Newport Gwent Dragons full-back won 48 caps before hanging up his boots at Neath, where he began a new career as a physio.

Initially qualified in electronics, he completed a Masters in physiology and was handed a role at Ospreys by his former Wales fitness coach Mark Bennett.

He left the region in 2018, briefly taking up a post with Georgia, before becoming first-team athletic performance coach at Bristol.

14 - Mark Taylor

The surprise inclusion for Grand Slam day, Taylor was already a seasoned international - having scored the first try at the Millennium Stadium - as well as a British & Irish Lion.

He left Wales that summer for Sale Sharks, where he won a Premiership title, before returning to Swansea with Ospreys, where he ended his career in 2008.

Taylor had spells in rugby administration as team manager for Wales Under-20s and Scarlets - as well as being a WRU Council member - but is now an accountant for his family's car dealership in Llanelli.

13 - Tom Shanklin

Among the leading performers on Slam day, Shanklin would taste both success and agony in an injury-hit career that nevertheless saw him claim fifth place on the all-time leading Wales try-scorers list.

He toured New Zealand with the Lions that summer and was selected again four years later only to be ruled out by shoulder surgery.

The Cardiff centre added a second Six Nations title in 2008 before retiring in 2011 after 70 caps and 20 tries - level with Gerald Davies and Gareth Edwards.

A popular figure as a TV pundit and podcaster - alongside former England prop David Flatman - he is also commercial director of an events management company.

12 - Gavin Henson

The poster-boy of 2005, Henson, like centre partner Shanklin, would tour with the Lions that summer and win a second Slam in 2008.

But there were disappointments as well, as he missed out on World Cup selection three times between 2003 and 2011, as well as controversies around his autobiography.

After leaving Ospreys in 2009 he struggled to settle at any one club, having spells at Saracens, Toulon, Cardiff, London Welsh, Bath and Bristol until being released by Dragons in 2019.

He has since opened a pub in his home village of St Brides Major but still enjoys sport, having been spotted playing amateur rugby, football and rugby league for local clubs.

11 - Shane Williams

The little wing-wizard would dazzle fans for another six years, reaching a peak in 2008 when he was named World Player of the Year.

He retired in 2011 and remains Wales' all-time top try-scorer - 58 in 87 Tests - with a record that looks set to stand for many years to come.

Williams finished his club career in Japan where he was handily placed to answer an SOS from Warren Gatland to join the Lions in Australia in 2013.

He was made an MBE a year later and is now a rugby pundit when he is not helping run a fuel firm in west Wales - or completing a triathlon.

10 - Stephen Jones

Jones was based in France with Clermont-Auvergne at the time of the Slam but would return to his beloved Scarlets the following year.

The fly-half would become one of the most potent Test points-scorers in the game's history - second for Wales and eighth in the world.

He played in six Tests for the Lions - in 2005 and 2009 - before retiring as Wales' most-capped player - at that stage - after 104 Tests.

Jones began his attack coaching career with Wasps, moved to Llanelli and then replaced Rob Howley at the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Dropped by Gatland, he is now in Super Rugby with Moana Pasifika.

9 - Dwayne Peel

Formed a dynamic half-back partnership with Jones for Scarlets, Wales and the Lions.

Peel was part of Grand Slam victories in 2005 and 2008 and also captained Wales at the 2007 World Cup before retiring in 2016 with 76 caps.

He had successful periods with Sale and then Bristol, where he began coaching.

That led him to Ulster, as assistant coach, before he managed to negotiate a way out of a freshly signed contract with Cardiff to take up the top job at Scarlets in 2021.

1 - Gethin Jenkins

A dynamic prop whose remarkable mobility was shown by the try he scored to settle everyone's nerves on Slam day in 2005.

Jenkins would become one of the greats, winning four Six Nations titles, three Slams and appearing at four World Cups during a glittering 18-year career.

He become a European Cup winner with Toulon between stints at Cardiff, before retiring as Wales' then record cap-holder - overtaking Stephen Jones - with 129 Tests and a further five for the Lions across three tours.

He worked as Wales defence coach under Wayne Pivac and now has that role at Cardiff.

2 - Mefin Davies

At 32, he was the senior member of the team but had almost not made it after being left without a club the previous season following the demise of Celtic Warriors.

Davies stepped down to semi-pro rugby with Neath before returning to the top level with Gloucester, Leicester and finally Ospreys.

Another of the team to go into coaching, he suffered the same fate a second time with the collapse of Worcester Warriors.

He spent four seasons as scrum coach with Dragons before parting ways last May and is now an electrical engineer in Ammanford.

3 - Adam Jones

As one half of the Hair Bears - alongside fellow Ospreys prop Duncan Jones - Adam Jones became one of Welsh rugby's iconic figures.

He was another to form the core of success that followed during 100 Wales and Lions caps, including four Six Nations titles.

After 14 years with Neath and then Ospreys, he spent a year with Cardiff, during which he quit Test rugby, before joining Harlequins.

He is now a specialist scrum coach, helping Quins to the 2021 Gallagher Premiership title, before being drafted in by Warren Gatland to the Wales coaching team for the 2025 Six Nations.

4 - Brent Cockbain

Born in Coffs Harbour, he represented Australia at under-18 and under-20 level but, unlike his Wallaby star brother Matt, he emigrated to the UK.

He qualified for Wales on residency grounds and as well as the Slam, he lifted the Celtic League, was a late replacement for the Lions and signed for Sale Sharks, all in 2005.

He earned 24 caps but stepped down after controversially missing out on selection for the 2007 World Cup when Gareth Jenkins instead picked Test novice Will James.

He retired in 2010 and stepped away from the limelight, returning to Australia to live 'off-grid' while also driving trucks on an open cast coal mine in Queensland. The last coal miner to play for Wales?

5 - Robert Sidoli

The Merthyr-born lock, whose relatives ran the Sidoli's Ice Cream business, was a mainstay for Wales in 2005.

But he was another Slam star passed over by Gareth Jenkins in 2007, marking the end of his 42-Test career.

Best known for his time with Pontypridd, Celtic Warriors and then Cardiff, he made most appearances for Newport Gwent Dragons before retiring in 2014.

He had a spell as Pontypridd forwards coach until 2017 but is now a rugby manager at Newport High School Academy.

6 - Ryan Jones

Another of the elite group who would be part of three Grand Slams, Jones would go on to skipper Wales a then-record 33 times, including to Six Nations titles in 2008 and 2013.

A Lion in 2005, he was called up as a replacement in 2009 only to be diagnosed not fit to play on his arrival due to a previous head injury. He has since revealed he has been diagnosed with early onset dementia.

He ended his 78-Test career at Bristol and took up the role of WRU head of participation and then performance director, stepping down in October 2020.

Jones is now a leadership and management consultant as well as a trustee of Princes Gate Trust.

7 - Martyn Williams

Named player of the tournament in 2005, his two tries in five minutes against France proved a turning point.

He would become a hugely respected figure in the game. Only the third player to win 100 caps for Wales, the flanker nicknamed 'Nugget' - because of the colour of his hair - appeared at three World Cups, went on three Lions tours and won two Slams.

He hung up his boots in 2012 and was a rugby pundit while also working for a Cardiff financial company, before taking up the role of Wales team manager under Pivac in 2020.

8 - Michael Owen

Entrusted with the captaincy when Gareth Thomas was ruled out midway through the tournament, Owen's ball-handling ability and temperament saw him not only get picked for the Lions that summer but captain them in the warm-up Test in Cardiff.

The number eight - Wales' 1,000th cap - went to the 2007 World Cup but was a bit-part under Gareth Jenkins and was never picked by Gatland.

He spent five seasons at the Dragons before heading to Saracens but was forced to retire at the age of 29 due to a knee injury.

Owen retrained as a teacher and moved to Hertfordshire where he has remained, having become director of rugby at Haileybury College.

Head coach - Mike Ruddock

Delivered a Grand Slam in his first Six Nations and was awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List, but six weeks later he was gone.

On Valentine's Day 2016, Ruddock quit midway through the Six Nations amid a contract row with the WRU and suggestions of player unrest.

In the aftermath of the shock announcement, the former coach stepped away from rugby and the limelight until taking the director of rugby job at Worcester in 2007.

He led them to the European Challenge Cup final but left after two years following relegation and led Ireland Under-20s between 2010 and 2014.

He returned to Swansea at Ospreys in 2019 as performance director and is now a non-executive director.

Also used

Robin McBryde, John Yapp, Ian Gough, Jonathan Thomas, Dafydd Jones, Robin Sowden-Taylor, Gareth Cooper, Mike Phillips, Ceri Sweeney, Sonny Parker, Hal Luscombe, Rhys Williams, Gareth Thomas.