Gatland on telling players they are going to miss the World Cup
Coach urges players to take their ‘one chance’ Evans ready for Patchell duel to be Biggar deputy
To Warren Gatland a rugby match without an edge is no sort of rugby match at all and it was perhaps with that in mind that he declared he wanted to derail Ireland’s World Cup challenge today, as well as warning his players that they are competing for their Japan places.
However, if any of his men believe they are too established to be snubbed when Gatland names his 31-man World Cup squad tomorrow, then they do not know his own history. Because he has been there.
In 1991, Gatland looked a certainty for the New Zealand party, having been Sean Fitzpatrick’s deputy for 20 Tests in succession. Yet when the squad was read out, Graham Dowd, a converted prop, was on his way to England, and Gatland was left in Hamilton.
“So, I know what it’s like to miss out,” he said. “It was tough, I’d been involved with the All Blacks [for four seasons] and had just come back from an undefeated tour of Argentina on which I’d played … and I watched the squad being named live on TV without me in it.
“Yeah, I’ll know how some will feel and that’s the hardest part of this job. But sometimes you get one chance and for some of the players that chance is now against Ireland.”
The Welsh players have been given a choice on how they would like to receive the news – text, phone call, Whatsapp message or email – before it is announced on the Welsh Rugby Union website.
Jarrod Evans has opted for a text, although when he heard that only the players in the extended squad who have not been selected would be contacted he vowed to “turn off my mobile”.
Because of the ACL injury picked up by first-choice Gareth Anscombe, Evans has a straight shootout today with Rhys Patchell for the honour of joining Dan Biggar on the plane, with Gatland taking only two outside halves. Both will be given 40 minutes, with Evans going first.
It is the 23-year-old’s first start for his country and because of the hallowed nature of the Wales No10 jersey, and with 60,000-plus in attendance, there would have been enough tension regardless. Yet Gatland has ramped it up further.
“We know a little bit more about Rhys, so the pressure is on Jarrod, and he understands that,” Gatland said. “It’s about coming out, starting a game and controlling a game.”
The latter point is crucial. Evans is seen as the more creative playmaker of the three, and the temptation could be to go out in the first half and make a spectacle of his array of visionary skills.
“I haven’t had a lot of game time and I am looking forward to showing what I can do,” Evans said. “But you can’t be an individual, you have got to do what is best for the side.
“Yeah, the attacking style we play at the Blues, I like to say I can bring that to the game. But we may have to approach this game with a bit of caution, how Ireland come off the back of that England performance.”
Gatland was full of his useful mischief in his Thursday press conference, talking about the spotlight on Joe Schmidt in the wake of last Saturday’s record humbling at Twickenham and referencing past World Cups in which Ireland have done nothing to warrant the hype.
This is Gatland’s last home match as Wales coach and, after 12 years, he clearly does not want to leave Cardiff on a losing note. However, as much as he would like to inflict “a massive dent on their confidence”, this has been about challenging his reserves to raise themselves and to see who is most deserving when he sits down with his staff this evening.
In that sense there will be matches within a match all over the park. At prop, can 21-year-old debutant Rhys Carre convince Gatland he is worth a chance? At full-back, Hallam Amos is out to prove he is a wiser pick for a back-three berth than Owen Lane, earning his first cap on the wing. The scoreboard will settle only one ambition.