Gatland’s masterful gameplan

THIS was a coaching master-class from Warren Gatland. He has been in charge of Wales for 10 years now — as well as his time with Ireland and the Lions — and knows how to turn things on their head, which is exactly what he did to inspire a stunning win.

Gatland knew exactly how Scotland would attack and try to keep the tempo high, so he called their bluff. In the first half, in particular, Wales kicked very long but deliberately to keep the ball in play.

You might think with Scotland’s dangerous back three, and a general desire to counter-attack and keep the game fluid, that such tactics could be dangerous. But Wales backed it up with a superbly organised kick-chase and very solid tackling, with their two centres to the fore. They shepherded the dangerous Scotland attackers into exactly the positions they were happiest defending against them. Very clever.

Gatland’s other masterstroke — and this was my one worry ahead of what most pundits believed to be a 50-50 game — was to give the large Scarlets contingent their head. They performed exactly as they would for their club, with no comebacks if they made a mistake. Any number of Welshmen could have been man of the match, though my choice would be Leigh Halfpenny, who after all the talk about how he never seems to score a try for Wales or the Lions these days helped himself to two. His goalkicking was, of course, immaculate.

Wales now go to Twickenham full of confidence but for Scotland it was a brutally hard day at the office. Away wins in the Six Nations are never easy and perhaps expectations were a little too high. The big lesson is that they must develop a Plan B for when the opposition are on the case and you start making unforced errors.