Gatland relishing Triple Crown chase
Wales coach Warren Gatland can’t wait to return to the scene of one of his greatest triumphs when he takes his Triple Crown contenders to Twickenham to play England later this month.
World Cup semifinalists Wales will head to London on the back of a convincing 27-13 win over Scotland that has set them up for the Triple Crown trophy – the prize one of the four ‘Home Nations’ gets for a clean sweep of all the others in a single Six Nations season.
The defeat of Scotland followed Wales’s 23-21 win away to Ireland in Dublin.
Gatland’s first game in charge of Wales saw them beat England 26-19 at Twickenham in 2008 – the start of what turned out to be a Grand Slam season – and the New Zealander was relishing the prospect of playing a Red Rose side who’ve also won their opening two matches in this season’s Six Nations.
“It’s always nice when you go into your third game and you are playing for a Triple Crown,” Gatland said after Wales beat Scotland at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday.
“If you can’t get motivated to go to Twickenham and play for a Triple Crown against England, well then you shouldn’t be putting the jersey on.
“They are going to be tough to beat there, but we’ve got everything to play for. It’s exciting,” the former Ireland and Wasps coach added.
Wales defence chief Shaun Edwards, who until recently was also coaching at Wasps, said victory over Scotland had been good preparation for a Welsh side who’ve won just twice at Twickenham in 24 years.
“Wins at Twickenham have been pretty minimal down the years,” said Edwards.
“This team is probably a little bit more advanced than the one in 2008. That was their first game together but we managed to pull off a famous victory,” the former Great Britain Rugby League international added.
“I thought this was a great hit-out in preparation for England because England will be very combative at the breakdown as Scotland were and I know in the past they’ve tried to upset our rhythm in offence.”
Wales and Scotland were tied at 3-3 at half-time.
But a first Test try from wing Alex Cuthbert when the visitors failed to deal with the re-start and two more soon afterwards from fullback Leigh Halfpenny saw Wales pull away against a Scotland side who were down to 13 men early in the second half following the sin-binning of backs Nick de Luca and Rory Lamont.
Wales’s performance was all the more creditable as they’d lost influential captain Sam Warburton shortly before kick-off with the dead leg that meant he missed the second half in Dublin.
But Test debutant Aaron Shingler, whose brother Steven is at the centre of an eligibility row after being named in Scotland’s Six Nations squad, did well in covering for Warburton at openside flanker.
“He had a good game, he made a couple of good carries,” said Gatland of the Scarlets back row.
“He has to be pretty happy with his debut in front of 74,000 at the Millennium Stadium, winning his first cap and getting a win.”
Wales suffered injuries during the match, with wing George North and hooker Huw Bennett going off with ankle and calf problems respectively.
But with two weeks until Wales play England, Gatland was hopeful several players would be fit in time for Twickenham.
“George is hobbling around at the moment but it is just a rolled ankle,” Gatland explained.
“Ryan Jones [who stood in as captain against Scotland] has ice on his knee, he looks a bit sore at the moment but other than that, not too bad.
“We hope Sam will be right for England, Justin Tipuric should be fit as well and one or two of the second rows might be available as well.
“Huw Bennett might have a calf strain but Matthew Rees is hopeful of being fit for England as well.”
AFP
