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Gary asks beauty to stir up Wales
Posted Wednesday, March 23, 2011 by The Sun

Gary asks beauty to stir up Wales

WHO said Wales were short of strikers? Gary Speed has drafted in Miss Wales as his secret weapon for Saturday's England clash.

The Wales boss wants to whip up the passion in his camp - by giving his team singing lessons.

So Speed brought in musical beauty Courtenay Hamilton to help the non Welsh-speaking players learn the anthem as he wants them all pumped up before kick-off.

Courtenay - Miss Wales 2010 - will sing both the home tune and God Save the Queen in the Millennium Stadium on Saturday before the Euro 2012 qualifier.

Striker Steve Morison said: "The squad is learning it. We have been given the Welsh version and the phonetic version.

"You can call it the X Factor if you want.

"We all had to get up and sing it on Sunday night. The gaffer asked us to have a go and I thought to myself: 'Please don't ask me to get up there on my own.'

"They played the song to us, we sang it as a group. I found out that you could mime when you are in a group!"

Wales players have been criticised in the past for not singing the anthem.

And Millwall hitman Morison insists the players belting out the national anthem will help stir the 72,500 crowd.

He said: "Our big aim is to get the fans back behind us."

Standings
    Rank Team W/D/L Pts

    Cities & Stadiums

    The Top 3 Teams of Previous Tournaments

    Year Winners Runner-up Third place
    2008SpainGermanyRussia / Turkey
    2004GreecePortugalNetherlands / Czech Republic
    2000FranceItalyNetherlands / Portugal
    1996GermanyCzech RepublicFrance / England
    1992DenmarkGermanyNetherlands / Sweden
    1988NetherlandsSoviet UnionItaly / West Germany
    1984FranceSpainDenmark / Portugal
    1980West GermanyBelgiumCzechoslovakia
    1976CzechoslovakiaWest GermanyNetherlands
    1972West GermanySoviet UnionBelgium
    1968ItalyYugoslaviaEngland
    1964SpainSoviet UnionHungary
    1960Soviet UnionYugoslaviaCzechoslovakia