Rob Howley and Neil Jenkins were the half-backs for Wales when the Millennium Stadium hosted the first fixture at its new home on Saturday, 26 June, 1999.

There may have been a limited capacity of 28,000, but that didn't stop it turning into one of the greatest days in the history of Welsh rugby.

"We were full of confidence and self-belief at the time. It was only two weeks after returning from winning a Test series in Argentina for the first time and we carried that into the game against South Africa. It was a special moment to be the first Wales team to beat them,” recalls the Wales and former British and Irish Lions coach.

With Howley as captain, and Jenkins the major points contributor with 19, Wales were able to secure their first, and still their only, win over the Springboks by 29-19.

It proved to be a special day for the Swansea centre Mark Taylor too as he had the honour of scoring the first try at the Millennium Stadium

Wales: Shane Howarth (Sale); Gareth Thomas (Cardiff), Mark Taylor (Swansea), Allan Bateman (Northampton Saints), Dafydd James (Pontypridd); Neil Jenkins (Pontypridd), Rob Howley (Cardiff, captain); Peter Rogers (London Irish), Garin Jenkins (Swansea), Dai Young (Cardiff), Craig Quinnell (Richmond), Chris Wyatt (Llanelli), Colin Charvis (Swansea), Brett Sinkinson (Neath), Scot Quinnell (Richmond)
Replacements: Mike Voyle (Llanelli) for Craig Quinnell; Andrew Lewis (Cardiff) for Rogers; Jon Humphreys (Cardiff) for Garin Jenkins.
Unused: Leigh Davies (Cardiff), Stephen Jones (Llanelli), David Llewellyn (Newport), Ben Evans (Swansea).
Scorers: Tries: Mark Taylor, Gareth Thomas; Cons: Neil Jenkins 2; Pens: Neil Jenkins 5.

That summer saw the Millennium Stadium completed and there were further warm-up matches against Canada and France. Each time the capacity grew and there were 62,500 fans at the 34-23 triumph over the French on 28 August.

That game showed another side of the capabilities at the new home of Welsh rugby as thirsty fans drunk an amazing 77,184 pints of beer and lager during the course of the match. Even the special 'joy' machines, installed at the 17 stadium bars and capable of serving 12 pints in 20 seconds, were sent into overdrive.

The first full capacity event was the opening game of the 1999 Rugby World Cup, when Wales beat Argentina 23-18 in front of 72,500 fans on 1 October. Wales played four games in the tournament, eventually going out in the quarter-finals when they lost 24-9 to the eventual winners Australia.

Neil Jenkins became the world's leading international points scorer when he converted one of Wales' three tries in the Pool defeat to Samoa on 14 October, overtaking Michael Lynagh's old mark of 911 points. That feat was mirrored by New Zealand star Dan Carter on 27 November, 2010, when he overtook Jonny Wilkinson's mark of 1,178 with a 12 point haul in the 37-25 win over Wales.

The retractable roof, all 8,000 tonnes of it, was closed to create the first indoor rugby international in the northern hemisphere on 11 November, 2000, when Wales gained revenge over Samoa with a 50-6 victory in front of a crowd of 65,000.

The first 'indoor' RBS 6 Nations game was on 5 February, 2005, when Wales beat England 11-9 on their way to a first Grand Slam in 27 years.

All the game's greatest players of the modern era have played at the Millennium Stadium and more than 6.25 million fans have attended the 100 internationals played by Wales to date at the ground.

Three Welsh players have appeared more than 50 times for their country at the Millennium Stadium – Stephen Jones 58, Martyn Williams 56, Gethin Jenkins 56 – and Jones scored 612 of this Test points on home soil. Shane Williams ran in 28 of his Welsh record 58 tries at the Millennium Stadium in his 48 games.

The most matches played by any country against Wales at the Millennium Stadium is 11 by the Wallabies, while Ryan Jones holds the record for the most home games as captain at the stadium with 19.