Rugby coaches reveal their Grand Slam sacrifices

Mar 19 2008 by Tryst Williams, Western Mail

THE labour of love at the heart of Wales’ Grand Slam success has been laid bare in a new documentary.

Head coach Warren Gatland and defence supremo Shaun Edwards have revealed how their desire to win even led them to spend a distinctly unromantic Valentine’s Day together – discussing team tactics at a pivotal point of the campaign.

Speaking about the meeting which took place just days after the team’s second victory in the championship, against Scotland, Edwards said, “The biggest sacrifice we had to make Valentine’s evening and we went to the local pub.

“I’m off the drink at the moment but he was having a pint. All these couples were gazing in each others’ eyes – and I was with him. Talking rugby. Those are the sorts of sacrifices you have to make.”

It is just one of the revealing insights offered by a BBC Wales production being shown today, offering a behind-the-scenes look at this year’s Six Nations championship win.

Interviewed by rugby great Jonathan Davies, the pair dissect what has been a breathtaking couple of months for Wales’ legion of rugby fans.

But the coaches are brutally honest on their views of the Wales team before they took over the job. “If you’d asked me 12 months ago if I would be sitting here coaching Wales, I’d have said ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’,” says Gatland, as a quizzical Edwards looks on.

“When I first came here I was trying to get Shaun on board. Shaun was very cagey on putting his name to something.

“He was a little bit apprehensive and said ‘Wales – you look at what happened to them in the World Cup and the last couple of years in the Six Nations, do you want to get involved with that team’?”

His decision to come on board obviously soon paid off, though, with Wales eking out an euphoric win at Twickenham in the season’s first game.

“I was talking to Shaun before the England game and I said you know we could win here, get a bit of confidence and with the next two games at home, we could be alright in this championship,” says Gatland.

“He said ‘Oh you Kiwis are eternal optimists’. But you’ve got to dream haven’t you?”

Little could they have known at the time that, within four more exultant games, the nation would be in collective dreamland beyond even his optimistic imaginings.

Meanwhile, just how new-found is Gatland’s status as a national household name is apparent in captain Ryan Jones’s candid comments.

Jones, who emerged as this championship’s most inspirational on-field leader, spoke of how he had limited knowledge of Gatland prior to the steely New Zealander taking the helm.

“I’m not really a rugby aficionado,” he says. “I was aware of who he was and his past record, but I didn’t really know him.”

He soon would, though, with the laid-back Number Eight being installed as captain during a short telephone call – a decision which he describes as leaving him jumping around the living room before phoning everyone he knew.

Jones also sums up the stunning fairytale transformation that saw a team of Rugby World Cup flops complete their metamorphosis into Grand Slam heroes – for the second time in four seasons – last Saturday. “Welsh rugby was probably at an all-time low and there was nowhere for us to go, but we wiped the slate clean and we collectively started again – onwards and upwards,” he says. “These are the days you live for, you know we all grow up as kids dreaming of playing in Grand Slam matches and looking around at the fashion in which we’ve done it and it makes it even more special.

“The boys will be talking about this for years to come. They say once in a lifetime, but it’s two now isn’t it!”

Grand Slam Uncovered, narrated by Eddie Butler and intercut with action from each of Wales’ matches, will be screened on BBC One Wales, tonight, at 7.30pm