Shane Williams believes that underdog status will suit Wales perfectly going into their Six Nations match with Ireland this weekend. Speaking to Ger and Eoin on OTB AM, Shane gave us his unique insight into the psychological tug-of-war between the two camps.
“I think [Wales] have got a ten-point start, and I’ll take that all day long, thank you! They are very evenly-matched. Ireland have got the experience of a [Johnny] Sexton or a [Conor] Murray, and they’ve got players that have been there and done it.
“But Wales also have got experience, a lot of new blood coming through – a lot of youngsters that are playing out of their skin. Steffan Evans, Josh Navidi, [Aaron] Shingler– players that probably wouldn’t have started the Six Nations had George North, Liam Williams, [Dan] Lydiate, Sam Warburton and [Justin] Tipuric been fit. So it’s a little bit of a blessing in disguise really. You look at both teams player for player, and it’s very evenly-matched. I think home advantage is huge in the Six Nations - you ask any international player and they love playing at home. It is a big factor.”
Dublin is a key battleground for the two teams, with Celtic superiority fluctuating between the two nations over the past two decades. Prior to the Six Nations clash between the two last year, Wales coach Warren Gatland publicly targeted perceived Irish weaknesses, and Williams believes that this kind of verbal jousting is likely to recur in the coming days – but that it will focus on the teams’ respective standing this time around.
“I’m sure Warren will be saying that we are not favourites for this game and that no-one really expects us to go and win in Dublin. But look at our record in Dublin, look at what we’ve done against these guys. We were written off in the World Cup, we were written off two years ago. [Gatland] will just be putting all the positives back in the minds of these guys.
“He’ll just be putting all the positive factors into the team, telling them that they should have won against England in Twickenham. They didn’t score a point in sixty minutes. We can do the same in Dublin – if we start a bit better, we’ve got this game. That’s what a good coach does.”
The dichotomy in the public pronouncements of each coach is likely to be the theme is week, with Ireland coach Joe Schmidt expected to make sure the Irish players pay no mind to their former coach’s
“Schmidt will be doing the opposite – [saying] ‘That’s a load of nonsense – look at their record against us, they know how to beat us in Dublin. So no complacency - we go for the jugular after five minutes and we keep it there. We do what we did in Paris, stay ruthless and win the game.’”
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