He may have masterminded some of Welsh rugby’s greatest triumphs, but Warren Gatland still gets nervous before matches. And he will before Sunday’s World Cup opener against Fiji.
“Definitely,” he said at Wales’s training centre in Bordeaux. “I always get nervous. I’d be worried if I didn’t. And I think nerves is always a positive. A little bit of trepidation focuses the mind.”
A cynic might consider his nerves particularly apt against Fiji, so soon after their historic win over England. Gatland holds the commendable record among Wales coaches of never having lost to a Tier 2 nation. Then again, Fiji are making a mockery of such notions, a Tier 2 nation currently lording it over England, Wales, Australia and Italy in the world rankings. That win over England a fortnight ago propelled them to seventh. They are thus the highest-ranked team in Pool C.
“I think the advent of Super Rugby has been a huge boost for them,” said Gatland. “Playing in a top-quality competition week in, week out. A lot of their players are either in France or the UK. That gives them the quality to be playing at that top level on a regular basis. That’s definitely strengthened their side.
“For me, what’s brilliant about this World Cup is we’ve seen the development of these Tier 2 nations. In the past, we’ve seen Japan perform. But Fiji, Samoa and Tonga all look capable of causing upsets, as they have done in the past. I think that’s brilliant for rugby and for the game moving forward.”
It should come as little surprise, then, that Gatland has selected an experienced team, the return of Taulupe Faletau and his 100 Wales caps of particular note. But everywhere his young captain, Jac Morgan, looks, he should find reassurance aplenty from Tomas Francis at the coalface, through Adam Beard, to Dan Biggar, George North, Liam Williams et al in the backs.
Wales have hardly enjoyed themselves since Gatland’s return for this year’s Six Nations, but they speak enthusiastically of their various camps in preparation for the tournament. The stifling heat in Bordeaux, they insist, will not be an issue.
“We’ve been in this sort of temperature for the last three months,” said Josh Adams, himself the bearer of a not-insignificant 50 caps. “In Switzerland, even though it was an altitude camp, the heat was 30 upwards. Turkey was 40 upwards. So we’re pretty used to this heat. I think we quite enjoy it now actually.”
For Fiji, such temperatures are perfectly normal. Perhaps as telling as any recent development is the amount Wales spoke about them as an organised set-piece team. It was put to Gatland that, with Fiji’s fabled counterattacking skills, it might be better to concede penalties at the breakdown than turnovers.
“Fiji are probably more dangerous when they get into your 22 [than punishing you off turnover ball] with the ball-carriers they have. We’ve done a lot of stats on this. A penalty turnover results in you not getting the ball back, on average, for five minutes and three seconds; a turnover means you don’t get it back for three minutes.”
It is a brave person, all the same, who concentrates only on Fiji’s threat in the more-organised departments of the game. Their prospects have been disrupted, alas, before a ball has been kicked into the sweltering sky by the loss for the tournament of the young man they had elevated to the No 10 jersey, Caleb Muntz.
He has had a fine season with the Fijian Drua, that team on the islands in Super Rugby, which waxed further with the win over England. Teti Tela replaces him in the team on Saturday and Vilimoni Botitu has been called up to the squad. Tela is nine years Muntz’s senior and his understudy at the Drua. Botitu is a sevens specialist who plays centre for Castres. No one should expect Fiji to settle for a one-dimensional assault.
“We’re a different Fijian team,” said Simon Raiwalui, Fiji’s coach, once of Newport. “We’ve worked on certain areas that have traditionally been a weakness for us, so it’s going to be a good challenge in those areas. One of my catchphrases is play like a Fijian, so traditionally that’s the offloading, the quick touch, the one touch, aggressive ball carriers, the contact, our set piece. So that’s what I’ve really pushed. To play like a Fijian.”
Those words alone ought to set the nerves throbbing among the Wales camp. And among the rest of us in anticipation.
