No doubting that Warren Gatland’s Wales deserve their grand slam | Robert Kitson

There is no such thing as an accidental grand slam. Winning five games on the trot in testing conditions against reliably motivated opposition does not merely require skill and nerve but, crucially, rare stamina. Anyone questioning Wales’s status as true five-star champions underestimates the uniquely treacherous climb they have just completed.

Yes, Six Nations slam dunks are more frequent than they used to be but this was widely predicted in advance to be the most dog-eat-dog championship of all time. A supposedly impregnable Ireland had just beaten the All Blacks, England began like a bullet train in Dublin and by half-time in the opening game in Paris Wales were 16-0 down to France. To clamber back up the stairway to heaven from such an inauspicious start takes some doing.

Responding positively under pressure is the hallmark of all consistent winners. Very often the word people use is “cojones” but in Wales these days that is spelt “Jones & co”. Alun Wyn Jones has been the beating heart of this steely Welsh machine: chivvying relentlessly, putting his battered captain’s body on the line, refusing to take maybe for an answer. Massive credit is due to Warren Gatland, Shaun Edwards and the rest of the Welsh management but, ultimately, it is their players who have made it happen.

Roof or no roof, Wales proved more ruthless than anyone else when it mattered. Under the Parisian cosh they stood firm and did the same against England in Cardiff. Then, with everything on the line, they had Scotland and Ireland effectively sliced and diced by half-time. Artists may struggle to capture the poetic beauty of this achievement but guess how many second-half points Wales conceded in five games, three of them away from home? The answer is a miserly 26, including the seven late consolation points they permitted the Irish.

Those high-class defensive stats have also now elevated Wales to the unprecedented heights of second in the world rankings. In a World Cup year that is not an insignificant achievement. It does not necessarily mean they will hoist the World Cup in Japan but Gatland’s squad can now dare to dream in a way that would have previously felt unrealistic. England and Ireland, by contrast, can only tip their sodden hats in the direction of Cardiff and reflect on why they ultimately fell short.


‘Proud is the word’: Wales win Six Nations grand slam – video

Until England’s Scottish implosion putting a finger on where it all went wrong for them had seemed simple. It would be stretching it to say they were ever comfortable in Cardiff but at 10-3 ahead and camped on the Welsh line just before half-time victory was absolutely there for the taking. A 12-man driving maul rumbled forwards only for Owen Farrell’s cross-kick towards Jack Nowell to come to nothing.

The prospect of a storming Welsh finish would have all but disappeared had they gone in 17-3 down. Instead, even at 13-9 ahead with barely 15 minutes left, England all but stopped playing, kicking poorly and bizarrely choosing not to trust the bulk of their replacements. “England got what they deserved, they lost the grip of it ,” said Martin Johnson and the old monarch of the glen was not wrong. Eddie Jones, to his credit, subsequently held his hands up. “There were things in the game I should have adjusted more quickly to and I didn’t. I don’t think I coached very well against Wales and I take responsibility. I was filthy about the way I coached; I let the players down.”

The killer line, however, came when he was asked if he ever doubted himself. “Probably not,” he retorted, showing a flash of inner Randwick defiance. Maybe it might be worth whistling up a psychologist or two to investigate why England seem to fluctuate so wildly between the sublime and the ridiculous. No team came close to matching England’s tournament try count but Scotland’s glorious late fling underlined their frustrating tendency to switch on and off.

That said, no other European side, Wales included, looks to have more improvement still in them heading towards Japan. Add a fit Mako Vunipola, Maro Itoje, Courtney Lawes, Anthony Watson and a fully developed Joe Cokanasiga to the mix and a seriously hard core is developing. This is not the moment to do anything other than send warm, supportive messages to New Zealand in the aftermath of the awful Christchurch atrocities but the upcoming World Cup will be no one-horse race.

Ireland, too, will surely be sharper by September. Sometimes even great teams can age virtually overnight and, after the snap and crackle of November, Joe Schmidt’s team have mysteriously gone pop. Schmidt is too smart an operator not to identify a potential antidote but, at the very least, the Irish will have to up the tempo of their game significantly.

Scotland can at least take renewed confidence from their Twickenham teatime thriller but previously it had been a two-tier tournament. France and Italy can certainly not claim to be in a much better place than they were in January. France could do with a new head coach; Italy require a further transfusion of self belief. Wales? Jones & co just need a larger trophy cabinet.

source: theguardian.com