Why is Gatland good for Wales and worthy of sacking by Ireland?

LordDowlais wrote:
So what you are saying is the reason why Gatland was sacked by the IRFU is because of the way he has the Welsh backrow playing together as a unit. Also I agree with the Irish posters on here who say it was probably because EOS was backstabbing him, but I remember on the old boards when some Irish fans were calling for his head because they wanted an Irish coach and they believed that EOS was the brains behind it all. But that is all history now, what we can say though as a matter of fact, that Gatland introduced the likes of O'Driscoll, O'Gara, Stringer and many other into the Irish squad and he is doing the same now with Wales by giving the youngsters a chance, so perhaps he was not as bad for you as Eddie O'Sullivan would have had you all believed. Look, I am not going to get into a peeing match with you lot on this, but I always remember Ireland in the early naughties as being a real team, and I remember the the Lions tour to Australia in 2001, in the first test the two best players were Irish, a young O'Driscoll and his centre partner Henderson, it was Gatland who got these players doing the business, I was even more in favour of O'Gara over Neil Jenkins on that tour, I wonder what paths these players would have gone down if Gatland was not there because back then your provinces were not the power houses they are now.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:NZ has Nonu/SBW and usually one or two wings who do a lot of heavy carrying. As does their back row. Wales have Roberts, Davies, Phillips, North and Cuthbert. Hence why you don't see Faletau doing what he does for the dragons, and why Lydiate can do his thing. He doesn't have to be a good ball carrier.

Nobody has a backline with the size and pace of the welsh atm. Not saying anything is wrong with that like, just that they take on a lot of the work that the back row forwards would usually do. Remember how at the RWC O'Brien and Ferris literally had to do everything? Carrying, ground work, etc. That is because our back line atm is poor (centres especially).

Rory_Gallagher wrote:O'Driscoll is very good on the floor yes, and people have said before that is one of the reasons Ireland haven't needed a natural 7. A fair point. However, I think a few strong carriers are necessary in the back line, and currently Ireland have none. We have some skilful backs and illusive runners, but no real direct running carriers. Wales have 5 who can do that.

The Great Aukster wrote:Why is Gatland good for Wales and worthy of sacking by Ireland?

The difference is 10 years experience and Shaun Edwards