And he has the stats to back himself up.
Warren Gatland gets many a back up. Irascible and lovable in equal measure, the Kiwi has even pulled Joe Schmidt out of his comfort zone.
Schmidt was never more riled than in the days after his Ireland side lost to Wales, last August, in what was supposed to be a mere World Cup warm-up.
Gatland’s side came to Dublin, defeated Schmidt’s men and afforded their coach a soapbox. He told us, “I don’t think Ireland play a lot of rugby. They’ve been incredibly successful [with that style]. I thought they were very narrow, at times. A lot of players were very narrow.”
Needle certainly exists but Gatland will feel justified in his comments. Irish fans expected their team to crack out a stunning Plan B in the World Cup but it never materialised.
Schmidt was asked, on Friday, if this Welsh team were beatable. “Every team is beatable,” came the reply before Schmidt harked back to last year’s Six Nations loss at the Millennium Stadium. There was no need to read between the lines. Schmidt commented:
“Last year, we moved the ball around well against them. It’s funny, you often get most criticised by the losses you get but there were pieces of that game we played superbly.
“We kicked 11 times and, despite what might be said about us kicking a lot, they kicked 22 times. Sometimes they get accused of playing to much. Those are the type of things that get thrown out.
“We are trying to stay focused on what the conditions will be, what our opposition are going to match up in front of us and how best we can cope and try to exploit any perceived weakness we can see in them.”
Schmidt is following the weather forecasts closely and feels Sunday will prove a slippery afternoon. That may mean Ireland over to go over and through their guests rather than around them.
“One of the things Wales want you to do,” said Schmidt, “is they want you to play at them a fair bit because the biggest thing they back is their defence and the ability to deliver that line-speed. That size and strength that they bring at you is attritional.”
