Wales’s tournament opener saw them take on Italy at the Stadio Flaminio. The Azzuri picked up their second win in the Six Nations championship since their joining in 2000 – both victories coming at their home ground. In this 30-22 victory they also ended their run of fourteen successive defeats in the tournament.

Italy began the brighter side and were rewarded for their plucky efforts with a try for Giampiero De Carli after just five minutes of play. Diego Dominguez converted but Wales responded quickly with two converted tries soon after courtesy of Steve Williams and Tom Shanklin. Italy secured their second try after twenty minutes and Dominguez again converted to equal the scores at 14-14. He and Iestyn Harris slotted over a penalty apiece but Dominguez attained a superb drop goal to take the Italians into the break with a 17-20 lead.

The Italians strangled the game in the second half and Dominguez punished Welsh mistakes with clinical finishing. Italy secured their third try on the sixty minute mark which ultimately clinched the game and though Dwayne Peel obtained a try for the Welsh it was little more than consolatory. Having said this, notable performances from Welshmen Harris, Shanklin and Gareth Thomas meant that Wales could take heart in their ability as they headed into their second round match of the championship.

Wales gave a spirited performance against eventual tournament winners England at the Millennium Stadium. Wales took an early lead from a forty metre penalty from the boot of debutant Ceri Sweeney and though Jonny Wilkinson equalled his penalty and surpassed it with a drop goal, English indiscipline granted Sweeney the opportunity to equal the scores. Another brilliant drop goal from Wilkinson nudged the visitors ahead at the interval although Wales should have led after Sweeney missed a chance at the posts and Mark Taylor squandered the prospect of a first-half try.

England demonstrated a more controlled game after the interval and broke away from the reliance of Wilkinson’s boot to increase their points tally. Will Greenwood obtained the first English try with Joe Worsley securing the second against a depleted Wales team, after Steve Williams has been sent to the sin-bin. Wales ended the stronger side as the English scoring subsided, though Sweeney could only add another penalty for Wales to close the score at 9-26.

Wales travelled to Murrayfield for their third round encounter, which had been dubbed the Wooden Spoon decider of the tournament. Scotland took an early lead through Chris Paterson and his three points were soon added to following a try from Bruce Douglas – the first try that Scotland had scored in the championship thus far. Stephen Jones reduced the deficit with a penalty but before long the Scots notched up their second try to extend the lead to 17-3 after the first quarter of the game.

Gareth Cooper brought the Welsh scoring to life with an excellent try a few minutes later but as Paterson secured another penalty he again stretched the Scottish lead to double figures as the teams left the field for half-time. Paterson edged over his third penalty of the game after the restart but following his score neither team added to their tallies for half an hour. Paterson gained a try for Scotland with ten minutes remaining before Wales launched a counter-attack and gained two tries in the dying minutes. The effort was unfortunately too late to threaten the Scottish victory as Wales trailed the Auld Enemy by eight points, 30-22, at the close of play.

In their second home game of the championship Wales hosted Ireland at the Millennium Stadium. Ireland took an early lead through a David Humphreys penalty but Stephen Jones, having missed an earlier attempt at goal, secured a try after fifteen minutes. Ireland notched up two penalties in the first half before adding a try in first-half injury time, courtesy of Keith Gleeson, taking the Irish lead to 7-14.

Two minutes after the restart Gleeson obtained his second try for the visitors, though as the conversion was again missed Wales were kept in contention at 7-19. Martyn Williams reduced the deficit with his first international try soon after but due to continued Irish pressure Wales gave a penalty away for the visitors to extend the lead to 14-22. Just three minutes after Gareth Thomas’s try put Wales a single point behind with twelve minutes of play remaining.

Two minutes into the long period of injury time saw Stephen Jones drop a goal to take the Welsh into the lead for the first time in the game. However, on the restart Ronan O’Gara responded in kind to Jones’s drop goal and as Wales could not add any further points in the few minutes of injury time remaining, Ireland claimed the narrow victory.

Following the devastating loss Wales travelled to the Stade de France to conclude their 2003 championship. Wales started the brighter of the two sides and soon secured a first try from Gareth Thomas. The following minutes in the first half an hour were dominated by missed Welsh opportunities and mounting French pressure. Despite tremendous Welsh tackling this pressure paid off just before the thirty mark as Thomas Castaignede touched down France’s first try of the afternoon. A penalty from Dimitri Yachvili took the French into a 10-5 lead at the interval.

France stretched their lead in the opening ten minutes of the second half with a penalty and a second try, and extended the game out of Wales’s reach with another penalty and try score just after sixty-five minutes – taking the French score to 30-5. With France again opting to kick at goal rather than attempt to reach the line they added a penalty to reach the final score of 33-5.

Despite Welsh pressure, and many missed chances for each side, France coasted to victory. In doing so they cemented a Wales whitewash in the competition – though as Hansen had optimistically commented, progress was being made as the team advanced to the World Cup later that year. England obtained a grand slam victory in the 2003 RBS Six Nations championship as their Rugby World Cup hopes grew, and with hindsight, deservedly so.