Peter Jackson: Warren, it’s time to take leaf out of Irish book
Across the Irish Sea, another Kiwi coach, Joe Schmidt, takes two Southern Hemisphere scalps in a fortnight and keeps shtumb on Ireland’s soaring prospects at the same World Cup.
After a few defeats too many, Stuart Lancaster is too pre-occupied with the here and now to get ahead of himself about what may or not happen at the end of next summer. The three head coaches go into the Six Nations with varying perspectives on the global jamboree kicking off at Twickenham next September.
Gatland has made it perfectly plain that, for Wales, the World Cup is the be-all and end-all, the only game in town, even if it doesn’t start for another ten months. Becoming fixated by the bigger picture means running the risk of not being able to see the wood for the trees.
Schmidt will approach the Six Nations with only one aim in mind, a successful defence of the trophy won at his first attempt last season. As for the World Cup, Ireland’s favourite New Zealander has made no predictions beyond stating the obvious that it “would be great to get to the semi-finals”.
After a chastening month, Lancaster will be happy to follow Jack Rowell’s dictum during the ‘Golden Wonder’s’ chequered reign in the dying days of amateurism: “Win today, win tomorrow.”
England expect to have a completely different front five at their disposal in time for their Friday night date in Cardiff for the opening round of the Six Nations. The return to fitness of Alex Corbisiero, Tom Youngs, Dan Cole, Joe Launchbury and Geoff Parling points to a Red Rose pack even more formidable than the one which shunted the Wallabies around last week.
Wales, whose apparent obsession with the World Cup is presumably based on their being in the same pool as England and Australia, have nobody on the treatment table other than Scarlets hooker Ken Owens.
Gatland’s first XV personnel pick themselves except for one choice – Liam Williams or Alex Cuthbert. Going for broke demands that Williams starts but Gatland’s predilection for size suggests that Cuthbert will be given the chance to wreak more havoc by starting where he left off against England two years ago.
Despite their on-going failures against Australia and New Zealand, Wales are talking a surprisingly upbeat game. Mike Phillips, reacting to the All Black beating, made it sound almost like a victory: “A great effort by the boys. Outstanding.”
Then there was Jamie Roberts: “When push came to shove,” he said. “We came up just short against New Zealand.”
Five tries to one? Most of us would call that a long way short. Most of us would have given the infernal positives a wide berth and said: “We gave it our best shot and still lost by 18 points.”
Worrying.
While Wales have talked up their losses, Ireland have gone to some pains to talk down their gains, preferring to pinpoint the weaker areas of their games against the Boks and the Wallabies. The World Cup, according to the pragmatic Paul O’Connell, did not enter their thinking.
There can be no denying Ireland’s status ahead of the pack as Europe’s No.1 contender as revealed by our form table for 2014. They, unlike Wales, have some big shots to come back from injury, notably the Leinster Lions Cian Healy and Sean O’Brien.
*This article was first published in The Rugby Paper on December 7.
