4:24pm Monday 17th March 2008
By Tim Edwards
What a weekend it has been for British sport.
We witnessed an exciting climax in the Six Nations, things are starting to hot up at both ends of the Premiership and Lewis Hamilton breezed to glory in the opening race of the new Formula One season.
I could happily spout on about the trials and tribulations from all of the above but, being a proud Welshman, it will come as no surprise that the rugby currently dominates my thoughts.
Wales have gone from World Cup zeros to Grand Slam heroes in just five matches with the new coaching regime of Warren Gatland, Shaun Edwards and Rob Howley rightly credited for leading such an astonishing turnaround.
The shrewd Kiwi, along with his heralded defence guru and mild-mannered forwards coach, have dragged a proud rugby nation out of the gutter and covered it in red glory.
Unlike his predecessor Gareth Jenkins, Gatland swept into Cardiff four months ago and made his authority known immediately. Jenkins, however, was never a strict disciplinarian and probably had his fair share of player power revolts to deal with as his tactics came under increasing scrutiny when Wales slumped to an all-time low with a World Cup quarter-final exit to little Fiji.
Gatland arrived, told the shattered squad they all started his regime with a clean slate and they have never looked back since. He set the ball rolling by tempting the influential Martyn Williams out of retirement and has really got the players working for one another with a belief and confidence unrivalled in this Six Nations tournament. Gatland demonstrated a ruthless streak by chopping and changing his starting XV and his decisions were merited by the results his rejuvenated side achieved.
A winning team though, is built on a solid defence and Edwards has made Wales virtually impregnable. Even the most dyed-in-the-wool Welsh fans have toasted England rugby bosses for letting the former Wigan Warriors legend slip through their grasp.
Edwards, having struck up a superb partnership with Gatland in their trophy-laden time together at London Wasps, knows his own qualities and being offered the job of coaching England's reserve side, the Saxons, is the equivalent of asking Lewis Hamilton to spend another year karting - it was such an insult to one of the hottest prospects around.
The part-time defence coach has a gentleman's agreement with Gatland to stay with Wales until 2010 but the WRU top brass must act quickly and tie him down to a lucrative deal before England try and rectify the error of their ways by offering him the top job at Twickenham.
The man currently in charge of the red rose, Brian Ashton, must surely be on borrowed time. England were hit and miss en route to the 2007 World Cup final and have gone in reverse ever since.
Their second-half capitulation against Wales in their opening Six Nations game was followed by an unconvincing display over Italy, before a morale-boosting win over France kept the wolves from Ashton's creaking door.
However, England were rudderless in defeat to Scotland before Saturday's closing win over Ireland may have earned the beleaguered head coach a brief stay of execution.
Ashton's tactics have been questionable while his decision to axe the exciting Danny Cipriani less than 48 hours before the Scotland clash merely served to deflect mounting speculation over his own future.
He is due to meet Rugby Football Union elite rugby director Rob Andrew tomorrow (Tuesday) to discuss that. If he is given the bullet, as many England fans hope, Ashton might argue his squad are going through a period of transition and he needed more time to turn things around.
If that turns out to be the case, he should wake up and smell the coffee. Every Six Nations team are in fine tuning after the World Cup, it just so happened Wales stumbled across a winning formula - their coaching team - ahead of the other participating countries.
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