We all know what a Warren Gatland side is built on. Rock hard defence, ferocity at the ruck, solid kicking game, and big ball carriers in attack.
It’s the ingredients that led him to winning four six nation titles including four grand slams. But why has it never quite worked on the biggest stage of all.
Gatland laid out his expectations for his squad at the beginning of the campaign at the start of the summer.
Rhys Carre unceremoniously cut out for lack of fitness, and old boys, Webb, Alun-Wyn Jones, Owen and Tipuric all calling it a day due to the expected physical demands of the upcoming campaign.
As I mentioned in this blog in August, Gatland prides his squad on being the fittest and best conditioned.
And this the central requirement to his teams success.
Gatlands abrasive style of play relies so heavily on the health and fitness of his squad. To demand his players to defend as valiantly as they did in Week 1 against Fiji making over 250 tackles, is quite the ask. His players delivered did as he asked, and delivered the win, but to what lengths will he make them go to get the victory.
They laid it out on the line a week later with another monumentally physical performance against Australia. But the problems started to surface. Biggar went off with a knock, Liam Williams and Gareth Anscombe both hobbled off.
Simply put, Gatlands teams do well in the Six Nations, a five-game tournament with two rest weeks, but come to a potentially seven game tournament with four warm ups in the space of two months, and the demands are far higher.
He asks too much of his players and their bodies with his style of play. Especially when his key players are the other side of 30 (Biggar, Williams, Falateu all out).
Gatlands game plan, as good as it is, is simply not compatible for a drawn-out World Cup campaign. Yes, squad depth is necessary to win a World Cup, and Wales have never been blessed in that department, but no other team incurs more injuries than his own.
Even had Wales made it past Argentina, the prospect of facing the All Blacks was daunting, Davies, Biggar, Rees-Zammit, Williams and Adams would have all been unavailable! As good as their conditioning may be, Gatland’s style of play is harsher.
Yes, it may just be unlucky this tournament, but it’s been the same each time! 2015 they famously had half a team yet still beat England to get out of the group but ran out of juice against South Africa in the QF.
Same story in 2019, Jon Davies was effectively playing on one leg and had surgery weeks later. While Liam Williams, Navidi, Francis and North all got injured in the 2019 tournament.
I’m confident to say Gatland will never win a World Cup with any side. He’s a master of the Six Nations, but the demands he places on his players are too great for a longer campaign. Thankfully, World Cups aren’t quite his thing.
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