Wales star gets special message from Usain Bolt in front of team-mates ahead of Six Nations showdown with Ireland

Dan Biggar has revealed how the Wales team have been boosted by a special message from Olympic champion Usain Bolt ahead of Saturday’s Six Nations showdown with Ireland in Dublin.

Jamaican sprint superstar Bolt was the surprise celebrity who announced the winner of a special prize which is awarded inside the Welsh camp.

That’s the Bobby Cup, which is the brainchild of larger-than-life strength and conditioning coach Paul “Bobby” Stridgeon.

It is only awarded after Wales win two consecutive games and goes to the most hard-working player.

This time it went to flanker Taine Basham, who had such a fine autumn campaign, and it was a moment to remember for the Dragons openside.

New skipper Biggar, who actually met Bolt and had dinner with him at a Manchester United football match last year, takes up the story.

“Whenever we win two games in a row, Paul does a bit of a funny video, taking the mick out of the lads and presents the Bobby Cup to the player of the match from the previous game.

“Every time it’s presented, he always gets a celebrity to announce who the winner of the cup is.

“So we had Usain Bolt on Monday night, which was a bit of thrill for the lads.

“He did a pre-recorded message for Taine Basham who was the winner of it.

“So Taine has had a good confidence-building week and hopefully he can carry that on Saturday afternoon.”

The 32-year-old Biggar quipped: “The Bobby Cup is one of the main reasons I’m still playing international rugby!

“It’s the pinnacle of your rugby career winning that.”

He added: “It’s such a huge build-up to the week with training, media, and the hype around the tournament, so it’s been really nice to have a few distractions around the place like that.

“It’s a really good group and we can get