Warren Gatland Appreciation Thread

[Sidney]

Not the greatest Welsh performance today, but they’re in the semi-finals and that’s all that matters

I do hate to do this again, but…

@gilgamboa

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

@caoimhaoin

They always have issues with injuries. It’s been a constant since Gatland was there

@gilgamboa

Because hes an absolute knob

@Sidney

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.

@Sidney

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.

@Sidney

But we’ve heard all this before about Ireland in 2007 and in 2014 and 2015. We heard it in 2009 after Ireland finally won the Grand Slam and then beat South Africa at Croke Park in November. Ireland were supposedly in the top three in the world all these times and were going to do the devil and all in the following World Cups. It never happened.

The Six Nations is an annual tournament in which pretty much always, for whatever reason, ie. injuries, form or disorganisation etc, at least two of the big four teams are well below their best and teams often aren’t that bothered about losing matches. The nature of the tournament is that championship wins are spread around the different teams.

Gatty, quite obviously, wasn’t that bothered about Wales losing to England and Ireland this year, he knew Wales were below strength and was looking at performances and developing new players with a view to the World Cup.

Eddie Jones will probably be a bit more worried than Gatty after England’s defeats in Edinburgh and Paris, but he won a Grand Slam two years ago and winning another one isn’t that big a deal for England. He was brought in specifically to get England challenging for the World Cup and that’s what he’ll be judged on.

This year, England and Wales were badly affected by a hangover from the British Loins tour in a way that Ireland weren’t. France have showed some improvement this year but they’re only gradually awakening from their longest slumber in living memory.

As has been pointed out ad nauseum, the IRFU do a better job than the English, French or Welsh in managing their players throughout the season which means Ireland have managed to remain pretty consistent year on year. But I think this misleads a lot of Irish rugby supporters.

The World Cup is a totally different ball game. There is a long lead in time from the end of the previous season in May and other teams for once have an opportunity to really rest their players and get them right, so the advantage Ireland generally have during a normal season goes out the window.

On what basis are Ireland 5/1 to win the World Cup and Wales 20/1? Those are laughable odds which don’t reflect reality at all.