When you have already coached the world-class talent in the team you are playing against at the weekend, it’s fair to say it won’t do you any harm. Information gleaned from reams of video or the brains of performance analysts will give you a pretty good picture. However, the experiences you have gone through and the intimate knowledge of the opposition’s key figures turns all that into 4K resolution.
Warren Gatland will have felt his vision is particularly sharp this week. On Saturday, two great rivals go toe-to-toe in what is certainly the biggest matchup between the two since the pool game at the World Cup in 2015. The plan for Wales going into the 80 minutes in Cardiff will be as clear and concise as Warren Gatland has ever produced. From his time with the British and Irish Lions Owen Farrell, Jack Nowell, Elliot Daly, Jamie George, Kyle Sinckler, Courtney Lawes and more will be known to Gatland way beyond any match analysis. He knows how they play, what makes them tick and what they are capable of.
Steve Borthwick was also with the Lions in 2017 but Gatland, as a head coach, will have had more contact with more of the players, more one-on-one sessions and when the previous Lions tours is added in as well – it just adds to Gatland’s bank of information and inside knowledge. There will be no underestimating what is in front of Wales and their coach’s valuable inside track on where “the seams” may be can give his side the upper hand.
“Seams” exist at first-phase moments, generally when connections need to be quickly made. So, for example, at the front and back of lineouts, back-row shape at scrums and kick-off formations, as well as individual nuances opposition players may have.
It is just another tool that helps Gatland build the plan in the week building up to the game. A lot of teams will start the week with what they call an “installation” session, where the scene is set and anything new or any adjustments are discussed and the bedding-in process begins. The plan of how to negate the England kicking game, dealing with their ball-carriers and their power, will all start here.
Experienced coaches like Gatland and Eddie Jones will know the process very well and it is one of the most exciting and creative elements of their jobs when it works. It’s hugely satisfying to come up with a plan that really bears fruit. Both have seen a lot and there is not much on or off the field that either head coach hasn’t faced before to some degree, so the mind games won’t unduly bother either of them.
Both coaches will have also been in the ear of Jaco Peyper and the officials. Warren’s book “In the line of Fire” that recounts the 2017 Lions tour is littered with references to the officials and calls he thinks should have gone differently as well as the very methodical process of meeting officials and pointing out opposition dalliances. Peyper will have been as busy off the field as he ever has been this week.
Two wins in the opening two rounds for Wales haven’t necessarily been full of cut and thrust but they have quelled the opposition and done so using their full squad. Players rotated, games on the road won, job thus far – done. France did contribute hugely to the Welsh resurgence in Paris but tweaks were made tactically and at no point did the team or management look panicked. The game was a raging sea of changing momentum but Wales kept their heads.
Gatland was able to make 10 changes in their last game against Italy, so it was always likely that a slightly fractured performance would occur. However, away from home, beating a tier one nation and taking their unbeaten run to 11 matches is not to be sniffed at. The confidence in their systems also led to the raft of changes and I don’t think for one moment any of the men in red will look ring-rusty at the weekend.
Whatever Wales’s longest-serving head coach has come up with, you can also be sure the players will have bought into it 100%. Yes, plan A doesn’t always work but a coach of the quality of Gatland will also realise there are 25 other letters in the alphabet. His ability to adjust mid-game if needed shouldn’t be in doubt and the players will be with him however that pans out. I have never seen him coaching teams close up but I have talked to a lot of players and staff that have worked with him and, like a stick of Blackpool rock, his ability to man manage people brilliantly runs through all of his coaching career.
He has a knack of using the right tone and message on an individual basis to get the belief and purpose a player or staff member needs. He’s not perfect and some of his planning has gone awry in the past but when that has happened he is first to put up his hand and learn from it.
The lettering in those sticks of hard candy may look simple enough but it’s a process that only a few have mastered. Like those sugary sayings, even if you bite all the way down, they remain. Wales may or may not edge the battle on Saturday but in Gatland they have a leader that will have given them every chance from the first to the last blast of Peyper’s whistle.
• Ben Ryan coached Fiji to Olympic gold in the men’s Rugby Sevens at Rio 2016. He is now consultant to leading sports organisations, including the French Rugby Federation and UK Sport