Gatland saga has taken the old hostilities to a new level
PREVIEW... Ireland v Wales Date Feb 24. Kick-off 2.15pm, Aviva Stadium, Dublin BRENDAN GALLAGHER sets the scene for next weekend’s often spikey encounter at the Aviva
Afew years back in the mid noughties it was suggested in all seriousness by some misguided BBC TV executives and some others in our business who really should know better that the Six Nations should always finish – the final game on the final day – with England’s fixture against France because frankly they were the only two teams that mattered. That would always be the Championship decider so save the best for last.
Happily, such arrant nonsense was quickly binned, with the proof of the pudding soon to follow. Since Warren Gatland took over as Wales coach in 2008 they have won two Grand Slams and taken another title to boot while Ireland can claim one Grand Slam and two additional titles. Between them they have accounted for six of the last ten Championships. England and France have rather been left with the crumbs off the table – one Grand Slam apiece plus two additional titles for England.
So although, almost by habit, we tend to build up England’s games against Wales, Ireland and France as the pivotal contests every year I would argue the Championship’s gala occasion in recent seasons has been the always spikey Welsh encounters with the Irish.
It’s very rare that one of them isn’t eyeballs out chasing honours and often both are in contention right to the end. It can all get a bit heated and this is a game that now comes with a huge amount of baggage and bad feeling. It’s invariably high octane, snarly, unpredictable and often magnificent in a way that England-France used to be.
This fractious relationship has come to a head during the Gatland era – more of which anon – but it’s always been there bubbling under. This is the fixture remember which saw the first double sending off in Test rugby history in 1977 with Geoff Wheel and Willie Duggan, and in the first half of the 20th century some of the dirtiest games in Five Nations history were between the warring Celts.
Their clash in 1914 in Belfast is often cited as one of the dirtiest rugby games in history although it was unthinkable in those days that anybody be sent off. Wales fielded what had become known as the “Terrible Eight” – a no nonsense collection of hard cases up front led by the Reverend Alban Davies, a man of God who nonetheless put plenty of stick about.
The antagonism reportedly started on the Friday night when members of the team coincidentally attended the same theatre and young Irish medical student William Tyrell, their hooker, had a heated stand off with Wales opponents Percy Davies and Harry Uzzell.
That confrontation continued in spectacular style the following day with both sets of forwards embarking in a free for all for the duration, Wales eventually winning 11-3. Air ViceMarshal Sir William Tyrell, incidentally, eventually ended up as surgeon to King George VI.
More recently it has become contentious off the pitch as well with a regular war of words between the two camps. Perhaps some of it is showboating but you get the feeling that generally there is little love lost.
For a full understanding of recent events we probably need to go back to November 2001 when Warren Gatland was coaching Ireland and had every right to expect a contract extension after back-to-back wins over France, a famous victory over a Grand Slam chasing England and an all guns blazing defeat against New Zealand.
Ireland had seemingly improved massively on their disappointing 1999 World Cup, Brian O’Driscoll was taking the world by storm and the Munster players were becoming bigtime operators off the back of their excellent displays in Europe.
And then in the blink of an eye Gatland was out on his ear, surplus to requirements and replaced by his assistant Eddie O’Sullivan with no real explanation to this day. There were strong rumours of a senior players revolt who felt his approach was too old style for the brave new world of professionalism and the IRFU said they didn’t consider Gatland to be the man to take them forward, although his subsequent coaching record would suggest he was precisely the man to do exactly that. To be honest it remains something of a mystery, I have never heard or read a version of events that makes sense.
It hurt like hell. Gatland had found a home from home in Ireland after retiring from playing, doing the hard coaching yards with Galwegians and Connacht. And now he was very publically surplus to requirements at the exact moment when, by a minor miracle, he had somehow got Ireland fit for purpose. Some people have short memories and forget just how dire Ireland had been for much of the 90s.
Don’t think that hasn’t been a huge motivating force in the rest of his coaching career when dealing with the Irish. With Wasps he won two Heineken Cups with the 2003-04 campaign including one of the greatest club games in history, their 37-32 win over Munster at Lansdowne Road, and three years later they demolished Leinster 35-13 in the quarter-finals en route to another title. Very sweet.
And then he took over a demoralised Wales and was back in the Test game, immediately landing a Grand Slam with an immensely satisfying 16-12 win at Croke Park in the penultimate game. Even sweeter.
Declan Kidney’s Ireland hit back the following year with their first Slam in 61 years, a dramatic dropped goal from Ronan O’Gara winning the match although the decisive moment came with the last kick when Stephen Jones was half a yard short with his 50-yard penalty attempt.
Before the game Gatland had lobbed a little hand grenade into proceedings in that trademark style of his: “Probably, out of all the teams in the Six Nations, the Welsh players dislike the Irish the most,” he said. “Players’ experiences against Ireland haven't always been the greatest, so they are very motivated.” Indeed, although Ireland had the last laugh on this occasion.
Two years later back in Cardiff tensions were also running high. They escalated after Wales’ decisive try by Mike Phillips in their 19-13 win came from a comically illegal quick lineout throw which should clearly have been disallowed.
To take a quick throw-in, a player must field the ball before it is touched by anybody else. So from the moment Jonathan Sexton sliced the ball into Row E, that option was automatically ruled out. Even if the ballboy had caught the original ball, rather than handing a new one to Matthew Rees, a quick line-out was a non-starter. Finally, Rees clearly stepped infield as he threw to Phillips, at which time Shane Williams had just taken possession of the old ball.
The only thing remotely legitimate about the entire episode is that the throw did actually go five metres. Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell complained bitterly to referee
“This is the fixture which saw the first double sending off in Test rugby history in 1977” “In a blink of an eye Warren Gatland was out on his ear with still no explanation to this day”
Jonathan Kaplan who at that time was unable to invoke the TMO. Tempers became frayed and you could feel the bad blood later in the year when the two sides met in the quarter-finals of RWC2011 in Wellington, Wales emerging as the clear winners on that occasion.
Ireland fans were fuming again a few months later when their side grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory, conceding a late try to George North and an even later penalty to Leigh Halfpenny who won the game 23-21 with his final kick after Stephen Ferris been penalised for a tip tackle on lock Ian Evans.
Since then there has been little room for niceties between the two rugby nations with even Gatland’s undeniably successful tenure with the Lions attracting criticism from across the Irish sea where it seems he can do little right.
His decision to drop Brian O’Driscoll – not just from the team but from the match day 23 – for the third and decisive Test against Australia in 2013 provoked a storm of protest and howls of derision throughout Ireland and beyond with former players as well as fans weighing in as Twitter went into meltdown.
The fact that Gatland made the correct call and was vindicated cut little ice with those who had taken the decision more personally than O’Driscoll himself.
And then only last summer Sean O’Brien made rather a big dent in the communal feelgood factor and afterglow following a Lions series in New Zealand they drew and could have won but for one more point in the final Test.
A job very well done was the general consensus but O’Brien, who, in fairness, was at the sharp end throughout and fully entitled to his opinion, was angry and disappointed with the Lions coaches, singling out Gatland’s right hand man with the Lions and Wales, Rob Howley. Just possibly he had a point in that the series was there for the winning but his comments didn’t go down well outside of Ireland. Perhaps this intense rivalry is inevitable given the cross border nature of the PRO14. The four Welsh franchises meet the four Irish provinces every season now and sometimes in the play-offs as well and that’s before European competitions kick in. In contrast an England Test player might go a whole season without bumping into his opposite number in Wales or Ireland before the Six Nations unless their teams get drawn together in Europe.
The Celts know each other – and their games – only too well. Familiarity can breed contempt they say and although I’m not sure that’s exactly true, it has certainly whipped up a fair old animosity. We await this week with much interest.