In fairness to Gatty, he’s consistent.
The Welsh coach must have been livid after his side were handed one by Ireland, in Cardiff, three weeks ago.
A 35-21 defeat that should have been much worse.
Today, Wales got the revenge they so hungrily craved and it mattered not a jot that they needed a late TMO decision to go in their favour.
Gatland was in ebullient form in the post-match press conference and landed a few digs at his Irish hosts.
According to the New Zealander, his number one warm-up priority was securing an away win, Ireland looked narrow, his side were never under pressure and he doesn’t worry about what the rankings say.
He is more concerned, at this stage, with beating second-ranked Ireland [he mentioned his on four occasions] and winning the bragging rights.
Oh, and Wales only had two proper days of training this week.
That’s it. We think.
‘Ireland were good in the air today but we negated their driving threat and put some pressure on by us driving as well… It was a massive step up from the first game, so that was pleasing. Apart from a couple of of silly penalties we looked comfortable defensively.
‘We were never under any pressure from what they threw at us, as long as we kept our shape and discipline.’
The best was yet to come.
Gatland declared, ‘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.
‘When they play their game effectively – using one-off runners and getting success from cross-kicks – that is when they are very good. Pressurising you, forcing you into turnovers and building their score.
‘But we didn’t feel like we were in trouble at all, in the wide channels… When they played with the ball in hand, we didn’t feel under a huge amount of pressure.’
Gatland did end his briefing by saying Ireland were a quality side.
He also mentioned that Ireland are number two in the world.
Just in case.
