SIX NATIONS | NEIL FRANCIS
Despite all the hype around Warren Gatland, Ireland were just too good in all areas for Wales
Neil Francis
Sunday February 05 2023, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times
Which fruit when ripe is the best? A strawberry or a raspberry? For me it is the strawberry. Mix them all together and make jam out of them — which is best? I think raspberry jam is infinitely superior. Hard to reconcile the difference when you throw them into a pot.
In the URC the Welsh clubs have this year in particular have been lamentable. Cardiff (11th), Ospreys (12th), Scarlets (14th) and Dragons (15th) out of 16 teams. They still have not signed that “take the URC competition seriously” clause yet. Never mind throw them all together and magically they become better than the sum of their parts. Don a red jersey, tell them that their Celtic cousins who are the No 1 team in the world are coming across the Irish Sea to beat the pants off them — and suddenly a re-awakening.
Add Warren Gatland into the mix and anything can happen. The Kiwi has spoiled many a party for Ireland over the years. Wazza’s inability to conceal his glee always has rubbed salt into the wound. Asking any Irish rugby supporter what they think of Warren Gatland is like asking a lamppost what it thinks of most dogs.
We waited for the voodoo to appear but the old black magic never happened. Ireland have moved on and Wales are stuck in a rinse cycle. Caelan Doris got over after just two minutes after several phases and the ease of movement and wolfish rapacity from the Irish forwards told you something was missing.
In the sixth minute, on the stadium screen the camera pans to Gatland sitting in splendid isolation. A 7-0 lead — don’t sweat it, we will gift the Irish an early lead and pin them back. It always makes the victory sweeter. Two minutes later and James Ryan burrows over from close in. This is rather too easy. Go back to that camera on the Welsh coaching ticket in the sixth minute. Some familiar faces but where is the high priest — where is the architect of Ireland’s relative torment? He is in Rome getting France right mentally with a victory over Italy.
Lest we forget, or Warren needs to be reminded, their outstanding outperformances over the years was as a result of a partnership. You know, a collaboration. Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher. One might take all the spotlight and adulation but he would not have been able to do it without the junior partner.
Shaun Edwards was Wayne Pivac’s biggest folly and Fabien Galthie did not waste any time snapping up the Englishman. That bite. That mental starch. That intelligence in the contact. The defensive foundation stone for Wales’s three Grand Slams was instilled by Edwards. None of those qualities were evident on Saturday in any of the Welsh output and its absence was as conspicuous as Edwards in the Welsh coaches box.
Ireland never looked back after Caelan Doris went over early in the game
MICHAEL STEELE/GETTY IMAGES
I am sure that Mike Forshaw will morph into a decent defensive coach in time but he will never be Edwards and will never carry the weight of personality that he does. Nor will all those grizzled Welsh veterans be able to adapt to any new defensive machinations the way that Edwards demands that you do.
It is true that the team in red upped their line speed in the second half but, in basic rugby parlance, that just means run faster. Wales were out on their feet with 65 to go and really were defending from memory as the game was closed out by Josh van der Flier’s 73rd-minute bonus-point try. Quite how Wales managed to stop Ireland from scoring earlier in the move was down to dumb luck and illegality. It did prove that Ireland are, if proof was ever needed, the fittest team in the championship.
Gatland could not resist the money. It could be an expensive move for the penniless WRU. They had to pay off Wayne Pivac. They had to pay off the Waikato chiefs and Gatland’s salary of €670,000 was just too much money to say no to.
As Tina Turner sang in Private Dancer, “You keep your mind on the money”. Never come back, they say… and they are right. Wales could conceivably lose all of their remaining games and the scope for improvement is not as wide as Gatland might consider it to be. The Ireland players may say that it was a tough match, but Italy would have provided a tougher test than Wales on Saturday. At no stage was this Test match a contest.
There were issues that need to be at least discussed after the opening match. If Jamison Gibson-Park was playing on Saturday, it could have been 50. Wales attempted to disrupt Ireland ruck ball and in all truth it was amateurish. France will be more direct in committing men. Wales, for their part, did not look after the pill with any sort of assurance and got turned over 14 times… by professionals.
Maybe the composition of the back row needs to be looked at. Peter O’Mahony was a good lineout option but his tackle numbers are low. Doris had 19 and Van der Flier had 17 with O’Mahony chipping in with just five. The Munster player has a tendency to drift and then come with a big play.
Given the sustained and continuing excellence of Doris and Van der Flier over the course of an 80, does this put O’Mahony in a luxury category? Lineouts and leadership? O’Mahony’s tackle stats over the last few years have been light when you compare to his other back-row partners. You wonder whether Iain Henderson or Ryan Baird would up that level to 15 -20 and give a bit more oomph, particularly when you are playing against Charles Ollivon.
Nowhere was Ireland’s intellectual superiority demonstrated more capably than in the contest between the back rows. The inestimable Taulupe Faletau and Justin Tipuric were miles behind on every metric and Ireland, despite a shaky third quarter, were never going to be properly exploited because their back row hoovered up loads of pressure and pulled off big plays at crucial times. That may not happen in higher pressure games against France and England.
Andrew Porter had a sterling game, but you can’t give away six penalties in a match — half of Ireland’s count. That said, his tryline stop on Jac Morgan defied several of Newton’s laws of motion. I cannot explain how he stopped the Welsh flanker from scoring and at a critical moment.
Sexton looked OK after the game but that means nothing. We wait for news. The loss in Paris last year was damaging but now the French have to come to our patch and tell us that they are the best team in the world because they do not believe Ireland are.
For Ireland to win, Tadhg Furlong needs to play 50 minutes and Gibson-Park the whole match and that will sort things out as to who is the daddy. It is why we love this championship.
Ireland are ripe.
