Gatland to go ... on for a while yet

In public, the mask rarely slips but within what he thought were the unseen bowels of the Millennium Stadium soon after the final whistle, Warren Gatland let out a little yelp and punched the air. But Peter Stringer had seen it and allowed himself a little chuckle.

Only the most churlish could begrudge Gatland, Eddie O'Sullivan and Brian O'Brien - and, indeed, their players - a celebratory footnote to what must have been an intolerably tense build-up to this game.

Bad and all as Wales were, to respond with a record win in the fixture brooked no argument about the team's resolve. And so now, there Ireland stand, almost preposterously, with their highest final placing in 16 years. Gatland to go? "To go all the way to the World Cup," retorted one player. "Make that your headline."

To a degree, of course, the pressure was justified and even a little self-inflicted. Whatever about publicly agitating for security of tenure until the next World Cup (something all his Six Nations counterparts have), the performance against Scotland was unacceptable, and mistakes were made.

"Against Scotland if you look at the stats we had 70 per cent of the ball and territory as well. We just put ourselves under pressure by not doing the simple things well, not playing on the front foot, not kicking to the corners and not getting across the gain line. We did that today," said Gatland.

The more one reflects on the Murrayfield non-show, the bigger the blip it is going to seem. Ireland have now won six of their last eight championship games, and have lost only four of their last 14 games, or two of their last nine (the other being to South Africa).

"I think we got the balance of the side pretty good today. I thought Miller and Wallace were outstanding, carried the ball well; Humphreys did the basics well, I thought he had a super game. And maybe the changes of one or two personnel made a difference. At least we've got Mick Galwey to tie all the laces before they went out of the changing room today."

Grand Slam-chasing England will, of course, provide a huge challenge next Saturday. But they have their own worries ahead of the game at Lansdowne Road. Whereas the same 22-man Irish squad re-assembled last night, as a prelude to an unchanged team being announced, Clive Woodward will have to replace skipper fMartin Johnson.

Johnson's team-mate Ben Kay, Wasps' Simon Shaw and Bath's Steve Borthwick are vying to stand in for him at lock. As for the captaincy, Clive Woodward was reputedly thinking of playing Austin Healey at scrumhalf and was at Franklins Gardens to watch him face Matt Dawson.

But in the light of Johnson's unavailability, the fiercely competitive Dawson may get a chance for additional redemption after captaining England when they failed to nail down the Grand Slam in Edinburgh last year.

Martin Corry, has also emerged as a doubtful starter due to a hamstring strain.

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