Prickly.
Warren Gatland has always called a spade a spade. The Wales coach, who will oversee his 100th Test for the country when they take on Ireland in Saturday’s Six Nations clash, has the tendency to be gloriously blunt at times and the 54-year-old was in no mood for mincing his words on Tuesday.
Gatland faced the media ahead of Wales’ trip to Dublin and brutally shut down one English reporter who claimed Ireland looked like the best team of the tournament over the opening two weeks.
“No,” Gatland retorted when hearing that the journalist thinks Ireland have been most impressive.
“Who would you say has then?” the reporter offered as a response.
A straight answer to a straight question by Gatland today pic.twitter.com/e7eZdmxBwA
— Sinéad Kissane (@sineadkissane) February 20, 2018
“England are a tough outfit. Ireland ground out a win away against France and that game showed us you have to keep your discipline against Ireland and I feel our discipline over the first two games has been excellent,” the 54-year-old said.
Gatland has made three changes to the Wales side that lost to England last time out, with Leigh Halfpenny, Liam Williams and Dan Biggar all coming back into the fray.
Gatland clearly rejects the notion that this year’s championship is slowly-but-surely heading towards a St Patrick’s Day Ireland-England showdown for the title and is confident that his team can cause what would be considered an upset in Dublin this weekend.
“We’ve got to make sure we don’t get caught up in that, keep our patience defensively and our discipline has to be good. They are a quality side that are hard to break down.”
The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10
