KEY POINTS:
Four tours as understudy to the incomparable New Zealand rugby hooker Sean Fitzpatrick without playing a test instilled patience, resilience and stoicism in new Wales coach Warren Gatland.
The first two virtues will be paramount when Wales take on England in their opening Six Nations clash at Twickenham on Saturday after the embarrassment of being eliminated by Fiji at the World Cup.
Wales scored five tries to the Pacific Islanders' four but still lost 38-34, a defeat which cost them a quarter-final place and coach Gareth Jenkins his job.
"I have come out and said I would rather win 3-0 playing really ugly rugby than to lose 44-48 playing really fantastic rugby," Gatland said at the Six Nations launch in southwest London.
"We can get the balance, we can move the ball and play really fantastic rugby if we can dominate in the collision areas and get our set pieces right. If we don't do that we need to play smart and play territory."
Gatland, abetted by the acute brain of former British rugby league international and current Wasps coach Shaun Edwards, has been recruited specifically to instill discipline and eradicate the mental weaknesses which contributed to the Fiji defeat.
Since the heady days of 2005, when they won the grand slam for the first time since 1978, Wales have twice finished fifth in the championship and they are 5-1 underdogs with the bookmakers for Saturday's game.
England humiliated Wales 62-5 at Twickenham last August in a World Cup warm-up match, brutally exposing the Welsh forward weaknesses. Accordingly, Gatland expects his opposite number Brian Ashton to adopt a similar approach at the weekend.
"We are trying to decide on what type of game England are possibly going to play against us," Gatland said.
"Is Brian going to be a bit more risky in terms of wanting to throw the ball around and want to expand the game? Or will England play their pre-World Cup game where they try and crush the Welsh up front? I think it will be the second approach. I think they will try to bully us."
Wales also have a new captain in No 8 Ryan Jones, the one undisputed success in the unhappy 2005 British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand, and he will be a pivotal figure in the early confrontations.
"He's not the smallest person in the world," Gatland said. "When you're big and got some physicality about you, you've got a chance. We have definitely got some players who have got some size and physicality about them."
Jones added: "It's about getting the balance. Rugby is changing and evolving all the time. It's about keeping up the speed and developing a game you're confident in."
- REUTERS
