Does Gatland have his favorites or do Wales just not have the playing numbers to have 8 identical choices in every position like teams including England can. People need to stop pretending that it is even remotely comparable to what Lancaster can choose from. Totally different jobs in so many ways.
Wales have some tremendous talent on the top couple of layers, but go below and it gets pretty average pretty fast. It's a miracle we can even produce the team we can, and a lot of it is thanks to the vision of fatland and his ability to pick mostly right players and nurture them. NZ pick the same team as often as they can, because they have a similar principle. Changing selection constantly when players have one or two bad games isn't always the answer. It can result in consistent mediocracy or nearly wins. England haven't won anything in years and I think this thinking has a hand in it. Wales are more likely o lose 10 games in a row, but then when they manage to turn it on, they can keep it well enough to win grand slams and championships.
Some will definitely disagree, but in my opinion if you compare the performances of the Welsh and English teams since the last World Cup, Wales at their best have shown a higher capability than England at their best. But I would also say Wales at their worst have been worse than England. It's interesting because the less consistent selection policy of England has actually been more consistent in overall performance than Wales has. In contrast to this, with his consistent selections, gatland has generally been able to create a base team which when together over longer periods is capable of performing to a higher standard than England, but then with a dip in form, also much worse than them.
You may disagree, but I think this is a reasonable explanation, even if it's not what you feel is true.
With this, you can understand why some, like myself, feel that with a good long pre World Cup prep for Wales, with a limited amount of injuries, and plenty of time together I would expect us to beat England if we do all this properly. If it's anything like the prep done on 2011, we will come out as big dark horses in many minds. Must say though that England are definitely improving, year after year with Lancaster, and I think it will be incredibly hard to call on the day.
Edit - called gatland, fatland. Noticed but too amused to change.
Also I'm high on fever mess and typing on a phone, forgive the terrible grammar and punctuation.
Wales have some tremendous talent on the top couple of layers, but go below and it gets pretty average pretty fast. It's a miracle we can even produce the team we can, and a lot of it is thanks to the vision of fatland and his ability to pick mostly right players and nurture them. NZ pick the same team as often as they can, because they have a similar principle. Changing selection constantly when players have one or two bad games isn't always the answer. It can result in consistent mediocracy or nearly wins. England haven't won anything in years and I think this thinking has a hand in it. Wales are more likely o lose 10 games in a row, but then when they manage to turn it on, they can keep it well enough to win grand slams and championships.
Some will definitely disagree, but in my opinion if you compare the performances of the Welsh and English teams since the last World Cup, Wales at their best have shown a higher capability than England at their best. But I would also say Wales at their worst have been worse than England. It's interesting because the less consistent selection policy of England has actually been more consistent in overall performance than Wales has. In contrast to this, with his consistent selections, gatland has generally been able to create a base team which when together over longer periods is capable of performing to a higher standard than England, but then with a dip in form, also much worse than them.
You may disagree, but I think this is a reasonable explanation, even if it's not what you feel is true.
With this, you can understand why some, like myself, feel that with a good long pre World Cup prep for Wales, with a limited amount of injuries, and plenty of time together I would expect us to beat England if we do all this properly. If it's anything like the prep done on 2011, we will come out as big dark horses in many minds. Must say though that England are definitely improving, year after year with Lancaster, and I think it will be incredibly hard to call on the day.
Edit - called gatland, fatland. Noticed but too amused to change.
Also I'm high on fever mess and typing on a phone, forgive the terrible grammar and punctuation.
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