Shaun of the dread as Wales take a dig at England over Edwards

13 April 2012

Warren Gatland acclaimed his cross-border capture of Shaun Edwards on Monday as a 'huge coup' for Wales before firing a sharp riposte at England rugby director Rob Andrew.

Despite talking Martyn Williams out of Test retirement and appointing the dynamic Ryan Jones to the captaincy for the Six Nations, nothing pleased Wales's new head coach more than the renewal of his Wasps' alliance with Edwards — a move Gatland clearly interpreted as a piece of oneupmanship before taking his adoptive country to Twickenham on February 2.

Scroll down for more

Case for the defence: Shaun Edwards

Responding to Andrew's implied criticism of the practicality of Wales sharing Edwards with Wasps on a part-time basis, Gatland said: 'Was that Rob's view because he couldn't retain Shaun's services? I'm incredibly surprised Shaun has not been snapped up by England.

'Whether England were really interested in him, I'm not 100 per cent sure. It was a little embarrassing from their point of view that I was signing up Shaun without them offering him something, so they offered him the Saxons job. Working at the highest level or coaching the Saxons is not much of a comparison.'

There was never any question that Edwards would find the role of running England's secondstring team an acceptable alternative to crossing the Severn Bridge and working with the New Zealander whom he calls his 'brother'.

The RFU approached Edwards two years ago with a view to him succeeding Phil Larder as full-time defence coach, but the Wasp dealt himself out of the running by insisting that he would only be interested in a part-time role.

England chose Mike Ford, whose success at the World Cup, where England conceded just one try in their last three matches against Australia, France and South Africa, justified his re-appointment.

Edwards has signed for two years with the Welsh Rugby Union having hammered out a compensation deal with his club employers.

Gatland, who has strengthened the Welsh-Wasps connection by appointing the London club's former European Cup-winning scrum half Rob Howley as backs' coach, said: 'It's not just Shaun's ability as a defence coach but everything else he brings. His personality and a winning track record in rugby league and rugby union. This is a huge coup for Wales.

'His title will be defence coach but he will have more responsibility than that. Shaun has never had the opportunity to work with an international team and he's incredibly motivated by it.'

Typically, Edwards has been immersing himself in Welsh history by watching the famous team of the Seventies and requesting an 'audience' with his scrum half namesake from the so-called Golden Era, Gareth Edwards.

Gatland said: 'Shaun's studied the teams and come to the conclusion that Wales were successful then because they had the best defence, not the best attack, and he includes the 2005 Grand Slam in that. I think he's an incredible defence coach but I also think he's better on attack.'

Edwards, 40, described the club-and-country deal as 'the perfect scenario'. He said: 'It means I can be involved with international rugby and still continue at Wasps. I'm under no illusion as to the size of the job. Wales are currently ranked 10th in the world and I'd like to think that with hard work, dedication, desire and drive, they won't be ranked 10th in years to come.'

Jones the skipper: Ospreys' Ryan is the choice to lead Wales in the Six Nations

He will work with a Wales squad shorn of their oldest players. Colin Charvis, the 93-cap back row forward who turned 35 last month, is omitted along with six more of those involved in the World Cup heartbreaker against Fiji last September — Gareth Thomas, Dafydd James, Kevin Morgan, Michael Owen, Jamie Robinson and, because of injury, Worcester prop Chris Horsman.

Williams' swift about-turn on his recent decision to quit Test rugby says much about Gatland's persuasive powers and Welsh desperation over filling his boots in the back row. Only last week, the 32-year-old Lion was adamant that the new coach would be wasting his time trying to talk him back.

'I phoned Martyn and told him he was free to tell me to get lost if he wanted to,' said Gatland. 'We talked about the positives, about the type of rugby we're going to play and about him having some fun and enjoying himself. There was going to be a significant hole without him.

'He took a little persuading, then called me back on Sunday night to say he was available. It's a huge boost for the rest of the squad to see that he is there. He will give us a lot of confidence.'

Skipper Jones summed up the surprise over the return of the flanker they call 'Nuggett' by saying: 'He retired after the World Cup, didn't he? It's a pleasant surprise to know he will be continuing. He's the type of big-game player we'll need going to Twickenham.'

WALES SQUAD

BACKS — L Byrne (Ospreys), J Roberts (Cardiff), T James (Cardiff), M Jones (Llanelli), S Williams (Ospreys), T Shanklin (Cardiff), S Parker, G Henson, J Hook (Ospreys), S Jones, D Peel (Llanelli), M Phillips (Ospreys), G Cooper (Gloucester).

FORWARDS — G Jenkins (Cardiff ), A Jones , D Jones (Ospreys), R Thomas (Newport), H Bennett (Ospreys), M Rees (Llanelli), I Evans , I Gough, AW Jones, J Thomas (Ospreys), M Williams (Cardiff), R Sowden-Taylor (Cardiff), G Delve (Gloucester), A Popham (Llanelli), R Jones (Ospreys, capt).

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in