| Which is worth remembering amid the grey wintry gloom of Wales’s recent record. Would anyone else be faring any better with the resources available? Perhaps not but there are whispers – and Welsh rugby can be the loudest of echo chambers – that Gatland’s methods are chiming less well with today’s younger generation of players. Even the former Waikato hooker concedes he has had to adapt his approach. “I suppose you probably need to temper yourself a little bit [compared] to what you might have been in the past in terms of the language you might have used and how direct and, potentially, critical you were. “Sometimes you ask the question: are players today as resilient as they might have been? Not just me but all the coaches are conscious of the way we speak to the players and the language we use in terms of not knocking their confidence.” Gatland, though, has never been one to roll over when challenged, not least after being shown the anonymous feedback supplied by the players as part of the recent independent review commissioned by the Welsh Rugby Union. “It gave us an insight into some of the things they found challenging and things they wanted more of. So we’ve taken that on board. But you’ve also got to realise they are still young players. What has been their experience in a professional winning environment? None of them have really had that. So how do they know what that looks like? I’d like to think we’ve got people who have been involved with that [kind of] environment and know what it feels and smells like to be part of it.” By his own admission, even so, Gatland has found life hard at times during the past year, with assorted squad injuries making a tricky job tougher still. “There is no doubt it has been challenging. It has been tough. You do question yourself. For me it’s also about looking back historically and asking why have we been successful? It’s about making sure you don’t go away from some of the philosophies that have made you successful with teams. Sometimes you can lose a little bit of that. You have to trust your own instincts and experience.” Which is why, rather than walking away, he still fancies he can conjure up an ace or two. Play it hard but fair Opinion is divided on whether rugby players appearing to “take a dive” is totally unacceptable or an inevitable development in the win-at-all-costs modern game. My view is that referees already have a difficult enough job without players pretending to clutch their heads or hurling themselves to the deck to get opponents carded. What we are talking about here is protecting the integrity and essence of an achingly physical contact sport. Playing hard but fair should not be regarded as some outdated Corinthian ideal but celebrated as the crucial foundation underpinning the edifice. If proven cases of simulation during the 2025 Six Nations received an automatic two-game ban, you suspect “faking it” would instantly cease. The name game On long trips to away games it is always fun imagining certain combinations on a rugby field. A Barbarians team, say, containing George North and Chandler Cunningham-South, with Nick Easter and Dorian West on the coaching staff? Saturday’s Exeter v Bordeaux team sheet, happily for British film aficionados, featured both a Sadie and a Frost, while detective fans love the idea of Jefferson Poirot pitting his wits against a Holmes or a Moriarty. Or, failing that, Jack Conan (the ultimate Barbarian selection) being lectured by JP Doyle? The Breakdown’s all-time favourite, though, was a distant fixture between Leicester and Bath at Welford Road involving two Lloyds, a Barkley and the aforementioned Dorian “Nat” West. As some smartarse wrote the following day it had all the ingredients to be a midlands banker … Memory lane Irish and French teams have dominated the top of European rugby in recent years; 25 years ago it was Munster rather than Leinster who led the way. In the 2000 Heineken Cup, the Limerick-based side went all the way to the final before Northampton pipped them by a point. Here, the Ireland and Munster hooker Keith Wood rolls over the top of Stade Français’ diminutive fly-half Diego Domínguez. | 