I was asked this week what I’m like when I’m watching a game? The answer is I am as mad as a bag of frogs. I can’t control my emotions. I behave like a crazed fan. When things are going good I’m jumping around and when things are going bad I’m very similar. I can’t stay seated and calm.
The ITV studio during the Wales versus Australia game was very interesting. I am not sure that Craig Doyle, Michael Lynagh and Brian O’Driscoll realised what was going on. Everyone looked at me as though I was crazy.
You see so much more in a studio but I’m not so much giving the boys advice. For me, it’s more a case of egging people on and hoping they do well. It’s easy to say “you should have done this” or “you should have done that”. Remember, I have the understanding of having been on the field and there are things that people see from the stand (or a studio) that are impossible to see down on the field.
When Australia were down to 14 and then 13 men, I wasn’t shouting instructions at the screen. As much as you can say that Wales should have controlled it more, as much as I was thinking “OK, somebody needs to take control and get the boys to build the phases, do this, do that”, I think it was an impossibility not to have been impressed by what Australia were doing. When teams are willing to put their bodies on the line like that, it becomes a very difficult task to break them down.
I know that people were saying that Wales should have moved it wider, but I also know from being a captain and having been in similar situations that the Australians didn’t allow us to get the ball wider.
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There’s something else too, and it happened in the Wales game against England. It becomes a psychological battle. When a team lose a player, then another, they grow in stature and mentally you want it more. Equally, the team who have the numerical advantage sometimes think they have a God-given right to score.
Believe me, I’ve been in both situations. It can be hard to calm the boys down because they are so excited. Teams with an advantage think it is naturally going to happen and they lose that edge. I think that is what Wales were guilty of. When you’re on the other side, you haven’t got to say anything because all of a sudden everybody grows and everybody becomes a leader in their own right. You’re turning a disadvantage into an advantage. Great teams like New Zealand, when they have an advantage, still work as hard. They don’t expect anything. They continue to work to get it.
To try and make sure it doesn’t happen again, in practice Wales have to focus on putting themselves under as much pressure to attack as to defend. At the start of the game, when Wales had such a huge territorial and possessional advantage, they should have made that count, but didn’t.
Wales do not play an open style of rugby. They are predictable but very good at what they do, so they stick to that. Having that reliability and the ability to keep the scoreboard ticking over because they rely so strongly on our defence, it is not very often that teams run away with games against them. Wales’s best option is going for three points to keep them in the game rather than having to chuck everything at it and going for tries.
It will be good for Wales in the build-up that they beat South Africa last autumn, but I don’t think it will have a bearing on the result. Both teams have so much respect for one another that it will be whichever team turn up on the day.
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Since losing to Japan, South Africa have reverted to type, having a strong, physical forward pack that are going to take the grunt out of you. With them the set piece — the scrum, the lineout — is huge. Wales’s scrum will have to be solid. That is a big, big part of the game and will determine winning or losing at the weekend.
I think that Gatland will pick his trusted players: Gethin Jenkins at loose-head prop, Dan Lydiate in for Justin Tipuric, and keep Luke Charteris in the second row. I thought he was outstanding against Australia. I think he will put George North back on the wing and bring in Tyler Morgan, who is an out-and-out 13, alongside Jamie Roberts. Of all the quarter-finals, this is going to be the one for the connoisseur.
I’m commentating on it on Saturday and doing Ireland versus Argentina on Sunday.
No doubt for the Wales game I’ll be the same as I always am, jumping around. Everyone in the studio looks at me a though I’m crazy but I am sure they know what is coming on Saturday.