Doses of brutal honesty drive Waikato to victory

There is a brutal honesty at the core of Warren Gatland that must be considered one of the driving forces of his side's success.

Known as Sumo, Gatland sure knows how to deliver the explosive hit. Waikato suffered a nasty, ugly year in his rookie season and comments that he'd brought home an English style-game got right up his snorting equipment.

So after Waikato's deserved title win last night, you'd think he would climb atop smug mountain and wave a couple of fingers at all those who said he was a home boy gone bad.

But Gatland is driven by loftier ambition than revenge. He wants to help Waikato leave a footprint the rugby gods can see. And that won't happen without brutal honesty.

"I was pretty disappointed with the way we played," he said. "I was trying to get the message out there that we needed to pick up the tempo. We were playing at a pace that Wellington were comfortable with and we were making some errors.

"We talked at halftime about going out there and playing rugby. I thought we were 20 to 30 points better than them. That's how it felt from where I was.'

The reason Gatland wanted his side to pick up the pace was that he has put huge emphasis on reconditioning. Asked if he believed they were fitter than Wellington, there was no hesitation. "Yes." That's kind of refreshing in New Zealand where coaches trip over themselves so they answer a direct question directly.

But direct is how Waikato want to be. They are also focused in a way that has previously eluded them.

Mid-way through the season Gatland hit upon an idea to make up T-shirts with 9206 on them.

The numbers referred to the last time Waikato won the championship and, hopefully, the next time they would win it.

The idea came from Germany where the locals had T-shirts that said 7406 at the football World Cup.

"What it said was that we weren't necessarily going to win this competition, just that we were going to try really hard," says Gatland in reference to the kit. "But it did mean we were going to try pretty hard to win it."