Gatland wins battleof the Kiwi coaches
Wales’ Warren Gatland has earned bragging rights over Scotland’s Vern Cotter in the Six Nations’ battle of the Kiwi coaches.
Gatland’s men withstood a late rally by the Scots to win 27-23 in Cardiff yesterday.
Ireland, coached by New Zealander Joe Schmidt, blew a 9-3 lead to lose 10-9 to France in atrocious conditions in Paris.
Wales were touted as pretournament favourites and after subduing the Scots, Gatland was eagerly looking ahead to their next clash with France in a fortnight.
‘‘If we can beat France, then you are potentially playing England for the championship [in round four],’’ he said. ‘‘Having that two-week preparation is hopefully going to hold us in good stead.’’
Second-half tries by big backs Jamie Roberts and George North gave Wales a vital ascendancy after they trailed 13-10 at halftime.
‘‘You need guys in big moments. It’s something we’ve been working on, that try that George got,’’ Gatland said.
‘‘And Jamie, it’s not just the try. I thought defensively he was excellent. We went through lots of phases in that first half, defending, we had to think about doubleteaming on their runners.’’
Wales had less territory, possession and ball carries than the Scots but took the chances that came their way, putting a sluggish first 60 minutes behind them after Tom James finally woke the hosts up with an electric burst down the left wing.
‘‘In that first half I thought Scotland were excellent in the air, so we changed tactically, just played a bit more territory and waited for the chances. It was a proper test match,’’ added Gatland.
‘‘Sometimes you have to win ugly by grinding out a performance.’’
Cotter said the narrow loss was a bitter pill to swallow.
‘‘I don’t like losing. The information from that game will make us grumpier and will helps us push for that win.’’
But he said Scotland’s ‘‘attitude was better so if we can build on that we can keep on improving. We need to get better at stopping teams scoring.’’
Ireland were left battered and bruised after their first defeat by Les Bleus for five years.
The defending champions started the game at the Stade de France boosted by the return of flanker Sean O’Brien and fullback Rob Kearney, but left the pitch licking their wounds.
France played a ferocious game and could have been handed two yellow cards in the first half.
‘‘At one stage we asked the referee [ Jaco Peyper] how many attacking penalties are we going to get without further sanctions and he said he was keeping an eye on it, but there is a fine line between asking and badgering the referee,’’ Ireland captain Rory Best told a news conference.
Schmidt said lock Mike McCarthy appeared to have suffered concussion after he was carried off the field on a stretcher.
‘‘He will now have to follow a protocol to see if he can be ready in two weeks,’’ said Schmidt, who added that O’Brien suffered a hamstring injury which makes him doubtful for Ireland’s next game against England at Twickenham.
Winger Dave Kearney suffered a shoulder injury and flyhalf Johnny Sexton, the French players’ favourite target, was replaced by Ian Madigan near the end of the game due to a neck problem.
‘‘Johnny again knows what he’s going to get and he was pretty knocked around,’’ said Schmidt who thought his team still had chances to claim a fourth successive win over France.
‘‘We are hugely disappointed. We led 9-3 for so long and we had a couple of opportunities in the first half,’’ Schmidt added.
‘‘But the conditions were tough and it was not easy to maintain the position and it was difficult to hold on to a slippery ball.’’