Sidney
March 16, 2019, 5:37pm
32
Gatty was being slaughtered by so called “knowledgeable” rugby posters here last year. He apparently was nothing compared to Joe Schmidt.
That’s 14 test victories in a row now for Wales.
11 test victories in a row. A record for Ireland
Its absolutely fascinating to read the praise for Gatty, Eddie, gregor and conor o shea on here. The praise for the French joie de vivre for throwing a few kids into the mix.
Not a word of praise for Joe Schmidt and the IRFU. God bless the Irish player welfare system and all who sail in her
Thankfully at least one knowledgeable poster was much less doubtful as to Gatty’s merits as a world class coach.
Gatty gets praise because he has a proven record of getting it right when it matters, allied to his fearless decision making and open, combative and genuinely humorous interview style.
Schmidt, for all his nice guy schtick, is a proper bitter little bollix when the mood takes him and the Irish squad is controlled to the nth degree in terms of media.
I think you made a lot of other people’s points for them when referring to the British Loins’ tour.
This is the second time in a row Ireland have won the Six Nations in a post-British Loins year and they also won the Triple Crown in 2006, another post-British Loins year.
The Irish set up is particularly suited to giving players the rest they need coming back from a British Loins tour - far more so than with England and Wales. That matters a great deal in a Six Nations tournament.
Preparation for a World Cup is a much different ball game with a long lead in time and Ireland have a pretty poor history in this regard. Gatty is the master here. Wales upped it several notches for the last two World Cups and put in the best performances of any northern hemisphere team, while Ireland were still playing the same conservative, boring Joeball. Ireland have done what they had to do in this tournament, but have looked very vulnerable at times. Next week is a different ball game altogether, and the World Cup even more so. History says other teams have much greater room for improvement between now and then.
The following posts are looking fairly prescient now. Wales may have just won a Grand Slam, but they also have a history of raising their game even further for a World Cup.
One team I would put money on to reach the semi-finals of the next World Cup is Wales. As I said earlier, Gatty can be trusted to extract the maximum from them when it really matters.
While Australia will probably beat them as usual, and Fiji are always tricky opponents, the Welsh should secure at least second spot in Pool D, where they will meet the winners of the England/France/Argentina pool of death.
England play France in the final group match on October 12th and that could decide the winners of that group.
Whoever comes through that will be sitting ducks for the crafty Welsh seven days later. Nobody is better at getting one over on the English than Gatty.
At the next World Cup, it’ll likely be Ireland v South Africa in the quarter-final. South Africa have just appointed Rassie Erasmus, who is an excellent coach, so they are only going to improve significantly over the next 18 months. Even under South Africa’s previous lame duck coach Allister Coetzee, they still managed to beat Ireland in a three match test series in 2016.
Would anybody put much money on Ireland beating a rejuvenated South Africa in a World Cup quarter-final? Nah, neither would I.
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