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Wales’ Warren Gatland does not have to play mind games for England battle
The Wales head coach is a believer in little things making a difference but he has no reason to indulge in head tricks for this Six Nations opener because his side have more to lose than England
• Six Nations 2015: what to look out for and who will win?
If Warren Gatland is chosen as the castaway on Desert Island Discs, John Lennon’s Mind Games would be an appropriate choice for one of his pieces of music. The Wales head coach is never one to spurn an opportunity to get inside the head of opponents and cause discombobulation.
Gatland is a believer in little things making a difference at a period in the sport – the 20th anniversary of the game going open will fall in August – when the use of science has minimised the element of surprise. Armies of analysts pore over footage of opponents, teams and individuals so assiduously that they are able to provide their coaches with detailed dossiers on the habits and tendencies of rival players, not that laptops are yet able to stop Jamie Roberts in full flow.
The players of today have to absorb considerably more information than their predecessors of a generation ago: being told what to expect is one thing, dealing with it is another. Four years ago, when England won in Cardiff on a Friday night, Gatland stressed the importance to his players of guarding rucks because of Toby Flood’s ability to spot a gap.
Messages become scrambled in the heat of the battle: when Flood spotted the Wales props Craig Mitchell and Paul James standing too far apart, he ran in between them and beyond to set up the opening try of the game for Chris Ashton, hushing the crowd and establishing the platform for victory. Gatland, who had before the match questioned whether Dylan Hartley’s skills, rather than his temperament, had too low a melting point, despaired at a mistake he had prepared his players to avoid.
It is the human, rather than the robotic, side that gives sport its appeal. It is a test not just of ability and skill but character and attitude. During the Clive Woodward era, England looked to turn hostile environments like at Cardiff to their advantage by silencing the home support and unnerving their opponents, not that Wales were then anything like the force they have become under Gatland.
England have tried to replicate in training some of the hazards they will face at the Millennium Stadium on Friday night, such as noise. They were pushed hard in training to test their decision-making after the ball had been in play for more than four minutes. Little things can make the difference, which is why Gatland likes to indulge in mind games when he judges the time is right.
That is usually when Wales are, if not up against it, looking up a hill. Gatland has been accused in the buildup to the Six Nations opener of playing games, not least when he said he was unsure how England would play and the backline they would select. It was interpreted in some quarters as an attack on his opposite number Stuart Lancaster and his squad whereas it was nothing more than a question properly answered.
At that stage, Lancaster had the contrasting choice of George Ford or Owen Farrell, at outside-half, Brad Barritt or Kyle Eastmond at 12 and Luther Burrell or Jonathan Joseph at 13. Wales’s analysts would have been working through the night assessing all the potential combinations while also paying attention to the combination the management thought most likely to be picked. Gatland was not playing mind games, just stating a fact.
Gatland has no reason to indulge in head tricks for this match because Wales have more to lose than England: they are at home, they won the fixture two years ago by a record margin, they have all their first-choice players available, they have settled combinations and 11 of their players have started a Lions Test.
England, on the other hand, are on the road in a year when they will be playing all their World Cup matches, including Wales, at home; they are some way below full strength with their leading three second-rows among those injured; they have an element of the unknown and there is more pressure on Wales who are expected to win.
A pity for Lancaster is that he is not able to maximise the element of surprise he has in selection. The England side was announced on Wednesday but known the previous evening because of the agreement between the Rugby Football Union and Premiership Rugby that requires all the players not chosen in a matchday 23 to return to their clubs on a Tuesday evening.
It is one of the quirks of rugby that teams are always announced well in advance of matches. Premiership clubs have to do so within 24 hours of a fixture, or face a fine, and it is 48 in tournament Test rugby. A football manager would scoff at the suggestion he should name his team on the morning of a match, never mind days before.
Wale’s preparations would have been more hectic had they not known until shortly before the kick-off whether it would be Burrell or Joseph at 13, Burrell or Billy Twelvetrees at 12. Lancaster could have had fun at hooker, tempting Wales to think one way while tilting to another. Why is it that lineups have to be named so far in advance?
For the (expensive) match programme? For the broadcast rights’ holders? For the sake of it? It benefits a side in one sense because they have ample time to get analysis on their opponents, but it takes away an element of surprise at a time when predictable holds sway.
Allowing sides to delay naming their teams until just before the kick-off would not benefit England or France because of the deals they have with their leading clubs over the release of players, but they could be renegotiated. England have little in their favour this week, so the longer Lancaster could have kept Gatland and the other Wales coaches guessing, the better for the visitors.
Lancaster was bound by red tape at a time when he would have been confident of guessing Wales’s lineup. He has been bold in his midfield selection, but is he using the choice of Joseph as a bluff? All is not always what you see.
SCOTLAND’S INTRIGUING DUEL
The encounter in Cardiff is the highlight, on paper at least, of the opening round of the Six Nations. More the pity it is being played on a Friday night so a television station that does not have advertisers can boost its ratings.
The champions Ireland start the defence of their title against Italy in Rome on Saturday afternoon. It looks to be an away banker, even if the fixture went the way of the Azzurri two years ago: they have regressed rather than kicked on since then while the men in green have blossomed under a head coach, Joe Schmidt, who values the element of surprise.
A more intriguing fixture will be Scotland’s evening date at the Stade de France, even though the last time they won in Paris five countries competed for the championship. It will be their head coach Vern Cotter’s first taste of the Six Nations, but he should be better prepared than his compatriot Graham Henry who took Wales to Edinburgh in 1999 without appreciating the rivalries and rowdy support that make the tournament so enduring.
Scotland are the unknown factor in this year’s Six Nations after too many years scrapping with Italy to avoid the wooden spoon. They may not have won in Paris since 1999, but France have flickered rather than dazzled for the last fur years, considerably less than the sum of their parts.
“We’re probably not that highly rated by the other nations, but there is only one way to fix that,” said the Scotland captain, Greig Laidlaw. “We need to put in performances and win matches. Scotland have had good performances in the past, but then fallen down. That’s something we are very wary of and want to fix.”
Scotland defeated Argentina and Tonga in November and pushed an admittedly below strength New Zealand close at Murrayfield. They have recovered some of their old verve under Cotter: vitality was not their trademark a year ago.
“As players, we want to win more than anybody,” said Laidlaw. “If we can win out in Paris we know we will go down in history. It’s been a long time between drinks.”
“It will be a hugely physical test come Saturday,” said the Gloucester half-back. “The French have a big scrum and some dangerous backs who are starting to play a bit more now.
“It will be a hugely physical test come Saturday. The French have a big scrum and some dangerous backs who are starting to play a bit more now. “The opposition have had a big say in our record over there – you are always playing against 15 top internationals. But sometimes there is that Scottish mentality when you do good things and then bad. We need to get rid of that.”
SIX NATIONS TV CONUNDRUM
The Six Nations will be inviting bids from pay television companies when it starts talking about the deal that will replace the one it has with the BBC in 2018.
There has been an indignant reaction to the admission by the Six Nations committee that there was no guarantee the tournament would remain available to all those who own a television and that it could go the way of Test cricket.
The Six Nations could sell all of the matches to Sky or BT or some of them, ensuring that in every round at least one match was available on free-to-air television. Watch the ratings soar if it happened to be Italy against France.
The step is expected and has long been mooted. Three of the four home unions need the extra money with the Celts struggling to find their professional teams in the Pro12. They, along with the Rugby Football Union, have a relationship with Sky which, having lost the rights to the Aviva Premiership, is the Pro 12’s principal broadcaster.
Sky and the RFU have been partners for most of the professional era so it would not take much of a jump for the company to secure some, if not all, if the Six Nations rights.
One question the unions have to ask is whether extra money in 2018 – and the increase would have to be substantial – would offset the potential loss of support five, 10 or 15 years beyond that because the television audience would be measured in six rather than seven figures.
If rights were shared, who would have first pick? This year’s opening round would be a scrap for one match and, while the organisers like to talk about how the tournament is the best in the world and the envy of everyone outside Europe, selling out to pay television would show that its true value lies in the few.
STILL WANT MORE?
• Who will win the Six Nations? Who’s the main man? What is the most appetising thing to look forward to? Our writers spill the beans.
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2015년 2월 5일 목요일
The Breakdown
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