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Rugby Union

Gatland: Wales will relish challenge as Six Nations champs

18/04/2008

Wales head coach Warren Gatland has claimed his team will "relish" going into what he described as a "tough" 2009 Six Nations schedule as champions.

The tournament organisers unveiled the fixture list for next year's competition, which will begin on the weekend of February 7th.

And the talking point from the announcement was the first ever Friday night match in Six Nations history, which will be played between France and Wales in Paris on February 27th.

While Gatland admitted his team would be challenged by trips to the Stade de France, as well as Italy's Stadio Flaminio and Scotland's Murrayfield, he said his players would be up to the challenge.

"We'll go into the championship as the holders and that automatically means other teams will be gunning for us from the outset, but that's a position we will relish being in," he said.

"The fixture list is pretty much the flip side of the one that treated us so well this year, it offers us different challenges with three games on the road.

"But we are given the opportunity to go to both Scotland and Italy where the players will feel they didn't get their performance right in 2007 and we'll have the chance to put that right.

"Travelling to France is always a tough proposition and playing on a Friday night will be interesting, but it won't faze us.

"We will prepare in the same professional way as we do for any other game and we are lucky to have an impressive band of travelling supporters who can help bring a home atmosphere to any away fixture."

Wales won the 2008 Six Nations by beating France 29-12 at the Millennium Stadium - securing their fifth win from five games and a first title since the 2005 season, which was also a grand slam.