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Former England player predicts Wales for the Wooden Spoon
By Ian Cameron
A former England Sevens captain has predicted that Warren Gatland's Wales could end up with the Wooden Spoon in this year's Six Nations, the mythical trophy for the team that finishes bottom of the tournament table.
Ireland player Wales at the Principality Stadium this weekend, a venue they haven't won at for a decade. It promises to be a fascinating encounter, with Gatland beginning his second spell as Wales head coach and Ireland arriving in the Welsh capital following a year that saw them rise to world rugby’s summit.
Wales enjoyed a golden era when Gatland was head coach between 2008 and 2019, highlighted by four Six Nations titles, three Grand Slams and two World Cup semi-finals. The New Zealander is now back for more, replacing Wayne Pivac following a miserable 12 months when Wales won just three Tests and suffered humiliating home defeats against Italy and Georgia.
There is a degree of symmetry, provided by the Ospreys, between Gatland’s first game as Wales head coach 15 years ago and Saturday’s encounter that kicks off his second stint at the helm.
Gatland picked 13 Ospreys – the only exceptions were Scarlets wing Mark Jones and Cardiff flanker Martyn Williams – for Wales’ victorious 2008 Six Nations opener against England, and he has chosen eight in his starting XV this time around with combinations key through both centres, props, locks and flankers. Ospreys are fresh from notable victories over French champions Montpellier and English champions Leicester, so confidence is high. It could prove another selection master-stroke.
Yet despite the return of Gatland, former England Sevens skipper and Stade Francais player Ollie Phillips believes Wales could be in line for the Wooden Spoon.
"This year’s Six Nations is arguably both the most predictable and the least predictable in a long time – but I do think there is a good chance of Wales finishing rock bottom," wrote Phillips in his City AM column. "Wales’s first game against Ireland in Cardiff has a make or break feel for returning head coach Warren Gatland.
"If they lose it I think there’s a real chance of them finishing bottom of the Six Nations table come the end of March.
"A loss at home in the opening round followed by Scotland away is a difficult task – they’ll either be facing a bunch of Scots who are on a high after beating England or a bunch of Scots who will want a reaction from losing to England. It is almost a lose-lose for the Welsh.
"So after the opening two rounds there’s a realistic prospect of Wales being two from two or none from two."
The form-guide suggests an Ireland victory, but it is also enticingly set up for Gatland and his players to put such a script through the shredder.
- additional reporting PA
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Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.
I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.
Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.
The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.
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