Motivator with a winning way

Connacht and Ireland flanker Johnny O’Connor is well-placed to give an opinion on Welsh coach Warren Gatland having been signed…

Connacht and Ireland flanker Johnny O'Connor is well-placed to give an opinion on Welsh coach Warren Gatland having been signed by the latter when at Wasps. Gavin Cummiskeyreports

“HE GOT me my first two-year contract at Connacht when he was in the Irish job. We lost contact for a while when he went over to Wasps but a friend of Warren’s suggested maybe I should go over. Warren is very blunt so when I went over, I walked in and he said ‘Do you want to join or not?’ I talked to my agent and that was that. He didn’t want to talk any rubbish or blow smoke . . . he was pretty straight up. ‘We would be happy to have you’, so I said ‘grand’.

“Warren is probably the coach to have the most influence on my career to date. As a coach, he got the best out of me. He always said no matter who was in contention if I’m playing well I’ll be picked.”

“He showed a lot of faith in me and I think I repaid him with my performances for Wasps at the time. He’s a good bloke too, I have lots of respect for him.

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“He’d emphasise your weakness but he’d tell you when you progress as well. As a player you start thinking this comes naturally when you are playing within that sort of structure. Sometimes players are given limitations and, as a result, think they can’t improve on them so they have them for the rest of their lives, which isn’t the case in any respect.

“He drove me on by telling me I had a chance to play. Not a lot of coaches told me that before so it gave me a lot of confidence.

“In my first year at Wasps we won the Premiership but a few of us didn’t go up to get medals because lads had gone up who shouldn’t have. But the kind of guy Warren is, he arrived over to Galway last summer and goes, ‘how’s it going, I got your medal.’ I was wondering what he was on about as I got one for every other year I was there but then he handed it over. He remembers those things and that was four years ago so I got a Premiership medal last year!

“It’s more as motivation as a coach. I wouldn’t say we have spoken about things in depth but anything he ever did say got me motivated. He just used to get the best out of lads; the best out of big-name players. Sometimes when a big player does something wrong it gets passed on but the young fella does it and he gets eaten. Everyone got crucified for everything at Wasps.

“I remember when Lawrence (Dallaglio) was coming back from injury after doing his ankle on the Lions tour, and at a video session he said: ‘Lawrence, listen, this isn’t a f***ing sponsored walk.’ Stuff like that.

“He made everyone feel comfortable in the environment. Sometimes in rugby you are treated like a schoolboy but at Wasps if you show up, train hard and play well you can almost do what you like, within common sense, afterwards.

“It was an environment where you could be yourself. It was always great craic. We trained really, really hard. Our sessions were short and sharp; the squad was mixed with youth and experience but the older guys put in a big effort with all the young guys.

“I think Warren helped instil that in the club. Wales kind of came out of nowhere last year. It wasn’t a great Six Nations in any respect but Wales still won it because they got the formula right.”