‘It’s tough to know when to be critical’

THERE is a time and a place for coaches to publicly lambast their players – and choosing that wisely is the biggest challenge.

That’s the view of Cardiff Blues boss Danny Wilson, who gave his reaction to Steve Tandy’s carpeting of his Ospreys charges following their lacklustre display in defeat to Munster.

Tandy questioned the effort and desire of his players in the wake of the 21-16 reverse at the Liberty Stadium, a rarity not just in rugby but in professional team sport.

Asked for his thoughts on the post-match dressing down given to the media, Wilson said: “I think it depends on the circumstance. For example we didn’t hide away from the Edinburgh performance, we made it pretty obvious how we felt.

“When the Blues have played poorly, you guys are aware of it, the public is aware of it, the players are aware of it and I’m aware of it.

“In the changing room we would be honest with ourselves and say the display wasn’t of a good enough standard.

“But I’m quite happy, as I did after the Edinburgh game, to say so publicly.

“Your job as a coach is to judge when it’s appropriate to keep things behind closed doors, to judge when players need an arm around them or when they need a kick up the backside.

“I think the appropriate thing with these situations is to be as honest as possible, then when it comes to the relevant time to speak (publicly) about your players’ performance you try to pick it effectively.”

Wilson and his Blues squad are feeling the heat every bit as much of the Ospreys and are in a worse predicament pointswise having yet to register a win.

But the former Scarlets and Bristol coach, whose side lost by a point to high-flying Glasgow on Saturday, was philosophical about the situation.

“We knew the first five games of this season were a tough run of fixtures and that coincided with a number of injury issues,” said Wilson.

“It’s pleasing that we’re starting to get some of those players back, a couple were back on the weekend and you saw the difference that it made.

“The negative is the one performance against Edinburgh, it wasn’t acceptable.

“We’ve been to Leinster, probably the toughest away game so by the end of this first block of fixtures we’ll have completed all away games in Ireland.”