BACK OFF, SIR CLIVE
SHAUN EDWARDS has defended Wales’s decision to name only two specialist hookers in their World Cup squad after Sir Clive Woodward accused them of trying to con referees.
Writing in yesterday’s Sportsmail, Woodward said Wales are trying to force uncontested scrums because of England’s supposed dominance at the set-piece, adding that it is ‘fanciful and misguided’ for a prop to safely cover the No 2 position.
But Edwards (right), the Welsh assistant coach, has pointed out that with the tournament being held in Britain the short travel times would make it easy enough to draft in a replacement.
Australia, who have also selected only two hookers, would not have the same luxury if they needed to fly in a replacement player.
‘Sir Clive is a World Cup-winning coach and he is more than entitled to express his opinion,’ said Edwards. ‘I have massive respect for him but (Wales coach) Warren Gatland is confident we can travel with two hookers. The Australian coaching staff must feel the same.
‘Is it a gamble? Only time will tell, but you can replace players. With the World Cup in the British Isles and a 72-hour replacement schedule, it’s not like we have to fly someone from the other side of the world if a player is injured. That definitely goes in our favour.’
Woodward suggested Wales and Australia were plotting to avoid a set-piece battle with England’s pack, but Edwards refused to be dragged into a debate over who has the best scrum. The Wigan-born coach added that the biggest difficulties in switching a prop to hooker — with Aaron Jarvis the nominated Welshman — would arise at the line-out.
‘The scrums are not too bad,’ said Edwards. ‘Throwing in at the lineout is the job I wouldn’t want.
‘If anything goes wrong, they just look straight at the hooker. It could be the lift or the call that went wrong, but everyone blames the bloke throwing in. That is one of the toughest jobs in rugby.’
Scott Baldwin and Ken Owens are the two specialist hookers in Gatland’s 31man squad, with Kristian Dacey and Richard Hibbard both left out.
The Kiwi coach suggested that a hooker will be called in to cover any injury throughout the squad and straight-batted suggestions that he is jeopardising his players’ safety.
‘If you decide to say it’s a massive risk and we shouldn’t be doing it, that’s entirely up to you,’ said Gatland. ‘We’ve gone through all the permutations and we’d be pretty unlucky to have to use Aaron Jarvis there anyway.’
There are a lot of teams who have taken risks in certain positions. I hope you ask Australia the same question. They’ve only picked two hookers.’
Wallaby coach Michael Cheika has nominated prop Scott Sio to provide cover at hooker. Flying in cover would be much more difficult for the Pool A contenders but Cheika dismissed Woodward’s concerns about not being able to field a functioning front row. ‘We have three players who can play hooker in the squad,’ said Cheika. ‘ If one was injured, we would replace them wouldn’t we? I don’t understand the issue.’ The England camp also expressed little concern about the issue. Graham Rowntree, the forwards coach, would not say if England would make any representation to the organisers about Wales and Australia opting for just two hookers.
‘We’re happy thatat we’ve done the right thing, and we were always going to select three hookers,’ said Rowntree, a former England prop.
‘It’s what most countries are doing. What other teams choose to do, how they plan to cover potential injuries, that’s up to them.’
Meanwhile, Jason Robinson — a World Cup winner under Woodward — is backing England centre Sam Burgess to answer his critics in the same manner the code-switching full back did at the 2003 tournament.
The retired rugby league convert feels many were dismissive of his abilities when Woodward called him up in 2001 and believes Burgess has been the target of similar criticism after only 80 minutes’ internationalin experience.e
But Robinson, a an ambassador fo for Land Rover, sa says Burgess can b become a key co component in Stuart Lancaster’s squad.
‘When I made the switch, people said I was only going to make the bench,’ Robinson told Sportsmail. ‘You’re always going to have people who doubt you — and I lacked certain knowledge — but I knew I had something that other people didn’t.
‘When I scored five tries in my first Lions game, people’s opinions started to change. I went from knowing nothing to being England captain and winning a World Cup.
‘Sam won’t want to be made a fool of. He will want to go from fourthchoice centre to first. He’s a super talent and the coaches have seen something in him.’