IRB Rugby World Cup
Warren Gatland proves his tough-mindedness with Wales World Cup cull
Huw Richards
August 14, 2015
© Stu Forster/Getty Images

No wonder coaches routinely describe cutting players from World Cup squads as the toughest decisions they make.

Ambition is denied, dreams crushed and a fellow traveller expelled at short notice from the team camp. Given the extent to which the World Cup cycle defines the international game, it may mean the end of an international career, or the hope of it ever happening extinguished.

And the toughest cuts are yet to come, the last few, making decisions which deny the hopes which have been cherished longest, and on margins which are often impossibly narrow. We can be sure that whatever Graham Rowntree says in advising Stuart Lancaster about his final choices for England's pack, he'll be remembering his own experience in 2003 - denied a World Cup place, and everything which went with it, only a few weeks after anchoring a heroic goal-line stand by outnumbered England forwards against the might of the All Blacks at Wellington.

But whatever they decide, no World Cup team is likely to come up with anything more striking than the choices made by Wales on Wednesday. Tough as they are, most culls tend to be of the not-quites and the marginal. Warren Gatland's cuts - not even the final ones - included three British Lions with more than 200 caps between them.

The usual assurances of doors remaining ajar have been offered. Everyone can remember those who crept through them - Mike Catt in 2003, going from last-minute choice to kicking the ball to touch to win the Cup, Shane Williams in the same tournament, picked for utility value and kickstarting a record-breaking comeback career, and of course Stephen Donald in 2011.

But there was an air of finality about the way Mike Phillips, James Hook and Richard Hibbard were discarded. Every camp is a learning exercise for players and coaches, but when players about whom so much is known are dropped, there is a strong sense that they have been found wanting and will have no easy way back.

It is also striking because Gatland places a high value on experience. He talked when first appointed in 2008 about the vital importance of creating 'an experienced group of players with 50 to 60 caps'.

There are still a fair few of those around - Gethin Jenkins, Alun-Wyn Jones, the back row, Jamie Roberts, George North and Leigh Halfpenny supply a core of hardened experience. But the discarding of Wednesday's trio follows the decision to dispense with Adam Jones last season. That's an awful lot of caps to be discarding in a short space of time.

Hibbard, strictly speaking, falls short of Gatland's desired category on caps, having taken a long time to bring the New Zealander around to the Ospreys view that he was a better all-round hooker than Huw Bennett. But it is his exclusion which is the greatest surprise, particularly given the limited experience elsewhere in the Welsh front row.

It leaves Scott Baldwin, yet to reach double figures, as the man in possession, with Ken Owen - who has played 25 minutes international rugby in the last year - and the uncapped Kristian Dacey in pursuit. It also places immense responsibility on Gethin Jenkins and, in particular, Alun-Wyn Jones as the experienced binding agents for a fresh-faced front five.

But just as leaving out Hibbard shows faith in three youngish hookers - Owens is the oldest at 28 - the discarding of Phillips is a huge vote of confidence in Rhys Webb. Even more than experience, Gatland cherishes power and until this season there was always a sense that he would opt for Phillips' strength and aggression for the big matches, buoyed by the memory of his performances on days like the championship decider against England in 2013.

Webb's outstanding performance against the All Blacks, where Wales's best hope in years of a victory seemed to depart with him, signalled a passing of the torch confirmed by an outstanding Six Nations, but Phillips remained a useful insurance policy seen as capable of inflicting real damage on tiring opponents when unleashed as an impact replacement. Discarding this particular comfort blanket also shows confidence in the lively alternatives offered by Gareth Davies and Lloyd Williams.

Hook's departure is less surprising. He never has seemed to enjoy the full confidence of Gatland and his team, with doubts voiced about both his defence and a tendency to run laterally rather than straight. Gareth Anscombe, or possibly Matthew Morgan, whose versatility might just be a plus when only 31 places are available, could benefit here.

If Hook and Phillips, his half-back partner when Wales clinched the Grand Slam in 2008, depart together from international rugby there will be a certain irony. Each has numerous devoted admirers, but they are not invariably the same people.

Phillips has epitomised power and aggression, while Hook traded on subtlety and creativity. Good rugby teams need both, with the issue being how the balance is struck. Gatland has habitually prioritised power, and reckoned Phillips, in spite of his limitations as distributor and decision-maker, more of an asset than Hook's capacity for the unexpected.

It will be strange if a player who has 78 caps - more than Barry John, Phil Bennett and David Watkins combined - ultimately comes to be seen as an under-achiever. Initially he was seen as offering many of the same qualities as Gavin Henson without the troubling hinterland.

Perhaps Hook was one of those players too versatile for his own good, with ability to play three positions to international quality militating against his ever completely nailing down one. There was also that very Welsh hankering to play at outside-half, when he seemed truly best suited as a New Zealand style second-five.

He is perhaps entitled to grind his teeth at the irony of finding his international fortunes in the hands of the Kiwi who seems least convinced of the value of that role.

Warren Gatland will have found none of this easy. But he's never ducked big, tough decisions. And that he's been willing to make this one (or three) means that, whatever we may think about some of the detail, the tough-minded self-confidence that has marked his career remains in full working order.

© Huw Richards

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