Gatland shows no remorse

RUGBY: Wales have endured their fair share of hard-luck stories in the past so there were no apologies from the coach, Warren Gatland, and players for Mike Phillips' controversial try at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday, writes GERRY THORNLEY

THE LAP of honour seemed excessive but you could understand where the Welsh elation was coming from. Suddenly the rumblings of discontent brought about by an eight-match winless sequence, and a seven-match winless run at the Millennium Stadium not to mention their dismal record in Cardiff against Ireland, had been summarily ended.

Wales stand in splendid isolation ahead of the peleton chasing England after three successive wins.

In the circumstances, therefore, they weren’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, although Warren Gatland was typically honest in his assessment of the match and its pivotal moment.

“I can understand why Ireland would be frustrated, but that doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t have won the game.

“It is a decision which has gone our way and we have had some rough ones go against us in the past.”

Asked whether the controversial nature of Mike Phillips’ try took any of the shine of the Welsh win, he said: “What happened doesn’t take the shine off this win for me. I don’t care; we won the game.

“I just hope this win puts things in perspective,” he added.

“England was a tough old Test match and we missed a couple of shots at goal. There was a yellow card for Craig Mitchell but the referee’s report admitted it shouldn’t have been a yellow card. We had a morale-boosting performance in Scotland and went to Italy and got a win. They are a hard side to put away and Italy’s win over France puts everything in perspective.”

The notion was put to him that France’s defeat will make them a wounded a more dangerous animal, but Gatland maintained “It is a good result for the championship”, and also welcomed it because it left Wales second in the championship.

Phillips, who won his 50th cap, admitted: “It was very lucky. I was chuffed to get the opportunity and I took it. It was nice for something to come off for us for a change. We haven’t had much luck over the years with Wales so we’ll take it. Ireland had one or two high tackles as well but it’s tough for the referee to pick everything up.”

When asked about the pivotal quick throw-in and whether he was aware what happened, Welsh lock Alun Wyn Jones said: “Not really, I was still calling the lineout halfway down the pitch. A try is a try.

“It was scored wasn’t it? Simple as that.”

Wales’ success on Saturday was in part due to limiting Paul O’Connell to one steal from their 19 lineouts.

“I have got huge respect for Paul and Donncha (O’Callaghan), so it’s testament to all the forwards in the squad and the analysts and how the basics worked,” said Jones.

“It was pleasing to win the lineouts and not have any unforced errors.

“Paul stole one, but sometimes you’ve got to lose some to win some and that’s what we did. Sometimes you need to lose one to know where you are going. You know how they defend if they steal one, and you don’t go there again. It’s as simple as that.”

This was Wales’ first win over a top-six nation since England were beaten at Cardiff in February 2009.

“The most important thing is we won,” stressed Jamie Roberts, who echoed the sentiments of Gatland when adding: “We have had periods over the last year or two when we have played better than that and lost.

“We need to take heart from it because we have beaten a very good Irish team. I thought we showed great mental strength, especially during the last five to 10 minutes when we dug deep.”

Roberts praised the contribution of wingers Shane Williams and Leigh Halfpenny in limiting the scope for Ronan O’Gara’s kicking game.

“We spoke about the threat of O’Gara and our wingers worked very hard to get back to make sure he didn’t get the touch-finders he did against Scotland.

“We knew what a huge threat he would be but we didn’t allow him to pin us back in our 22. It was a huge part of our game negating that threat.”