Personal agenda on both sides of the Irish Sea for Six Nations clash

Mar 7 2008 by Delme Parfitt, South Wales Echo

COME tomorrow afternoon at Croke Park, we will be reminded – as we so often are on Six Nations weekends – that when push comes to shove in sport, talk is cheap.

You expect a bit of tension when there’s a Triple Crown at stake, but the build-up to this match has been characterised by some unusually edgy verbal observations on both sides.

The flow of hot air stops at 1.15pm tomorrow though, probably to the immense relief of every– one in both the red and green camps.

The week began with the rather mischievous dredging up of old Warren Gatland quotes from some years ago, telling us of how, just before he appointed Eddie O’Sullivan as his assistant in the Irish job almost a decade ago, he was advised “not to touch him with a bargepole”.

Dated sentiments they may have been, but they were nevertheless an accurate indication of the bad blood that exists between the pair from the time the New Zealander was dismissed by the IRFU in 2001, and hastily replaced by his opposite number tomorrow.

If we needed confirmation of his true feelings, Gatland provided it in a fresh interview this week when he stressed he did not feel he had the loyalty he was entitled to expect from his support staff during his time on the Emerald Isle.

Both men have since tried to play down the feud, saying that this clash is not about personal duels.

But do not be fooled.

Gatland has about as much time for O’Sullivan as Phil Mitchell has for Ian Beale.

And if the pair meet in the toilets of a Dublin curry house tonight, the Irishman had better hope the flush is out of order.

Not personal?

Come off it. This is as personal as it gets.

I’ll wager that if Wales pull this one off Gatland will be tempted to do more than quietly punch the air and share a brief hug with Shaun Edwards as he did at Twickenham last month.

There’s no suggestion he’ll run across the pitch flapping his arms in a cream suit a la David Pleat, but let’s just say there’ll be more than a couple of pints of the black stuff sunk at the Welsh team headquarters at Portmarnock Golf Club if he puts one over his former sidekick.

And yet the niggle is not confined to the management.

More eye-opening is the very definite sense that it extends to the players as well, even if none of them would ever say so publicly.

Ulster hooker Rory Best gave the game away on Monday when he belittled Wales’ 100 per cent record in this year’s tournament by suggesting they have yet to be tested.

You can see what he was getting at – Wales caught England on a particularly horrendous day in the opening round and then appeared to blow away the challenges of Scotland and Italy with apparent ease.

But it was a contemptuous and sneering remark from Best that betrayed the lack of respect this set of Irish players has for the current crop of Welsh boys. For a start it ignored the clinical way in which Wales put away a faltering English side and the fact that they ended a 20-year jinx at Headquarters in the process.

It also glossed over the fact that Gatland’s men destroyed the Italians whereas Ireland stuttered to a sleep-inducing 16-11 success against the Azzurri.

After hearing Best’s deliberations I dug around a little bit to try and ascertain just how Wales are perceived by the Ireland players. I did not unearth much that was complimentary.

Instead, one journalist from across the water who is close to several of their senior players, informed me that the only Welsh guys they really rate are Martyn Williams and Gethin Jenkins. The rest, he claimed, are seen as much of a muchness, unproven as winners at the highest level and easily dealt with in the hustle of Test match confrontation.

Gavin Henson, my source claimed, is privately dismissed as a show pony and still hasn’t been forgiven for criticising captain Brian O’Driscoll in his autobiography.

“What about Shane Williams?” I asked.

“They just think he’s too bloody small,” came the reply.

“Why the disrespect on such a grand scale?” I pushed. To which there followed a rambling explanation centred around how the Welsh regions have been soft-centred in the Heineken Cup for too many years, and how the national side – with the exception of 2005, which they see as having been a mere blip – has folded at Irish hands so often.

In short, it was a sobering insight into just how superior as a team the Irish players feel they are going into this game – and I haven’t the slightest doubt of the accuracy of the tale.

There may be pockets of respect for Gatland’s men, but the overwhelming feeling among the Ireland squad is that tomorrow’s match is theirs to lose.

You can see where some of the expectation comes from.

The bulk of the Irish have been together a long time, and Wales have won just five of the last 21 meetings between the two nations.

On top of that, in the last four encounters the Welsh have shipped a staggering 156 points, scoring a paltry 42 themselves.

But statistics rarely tell us the full story.

A cursory glance at the teams for tomorrow on paper should hold no fears for the travelling fans.

Man for man behind the scrum, Wales bow to no team in this championship and certainly not Ireland.

The respective centre partnerships of Henson and Shanklin and O’Driscoll and Trimble are evenly matched, whatever the opinion of the golden boy in opposition ranks.

It’s the same at half-back where Phillips and Jones meet Reddan and O’Gara and whatever the virtues of Bowe, Kearney and either Dempsey or Murphy as a back three, give me Williams, Jones and Byrne as a trio of strike runners any day of the week.

For me, Ireland cannot outclass Wales, but they can outmuscle them.

And it’s the collective bloody-mindedness of their pack that holds the key to the ruination of Gatland’s Grand Slam assault.

Paul O’Connell is back alongside Donncha O’Callaghan in the second row and the giant Munsterman will be the epicentre of a ferocious Irish forward effort. And this is where the scales will truly tilt.

Ryan Jones has a monumental role to play in firing up the Welsh eight to deal with not only the actual physicality of the Irish eight, but also their sheer force of will.

In years gone by the cliche of a wave of green shirts coming at the opposition like banshees in the opening 20 minutes used to be patronising.

In this era of Irish rugby it’s irrelevant.

Modern Ireland are clinical, results-driven and awash with individuals who have largely made winning a habit at regional and Test level for a long time.

The challenge Wales face tomorrow is to break that resolve in the place that it is at its strongest – Croke Park.

I suppose Best is right, this will be an altogether different kind of test for Wales.

Given the rawness of his regime it is not so much defeat that Gatland should fear, as the manner of any failure. A win would put the entire Welsh camp in dreamland. A loss would be bitterly disappointing but need not undermine the credibility of the revival under the new coach so long as it isn’t a trouncing.

Whatever happens, I think we should prepare for one hell of a showdown.

Remember, this is personal.

delme.parfitt@mediawales.co.uk

Five key duels - page 2