By Graham Thomas
Craig Bellamy and Warren Gatland have more in common than simply being current Wales national coaches.
They now share a similar history in their opening half a dozen matches in charge of their respective teams, games in which they both hit the ground, running – hard.
Gatland’s first spell as Wales rugby coach – back in the now dim mists of 2008 – produced five successive victories and a hugely unexpected Grand Slam, before he lost his sixth game on tour to South Africa.
As Wales football manager, Bellamy is unbeaten after six matches – although three of them were draws – but like Gatland, he has already won something tangible, in his case promotion to the top tier of the Nations League.
Yet, listen to the two men and they have a very different view of the job and what they are trying to achieve.
For Gatland, the stress in his second stint in charge, is on the long-term. He consistently repeats that his aim is to build for the next World Cup, in 2027.
Whilst acknowledging that results are important, the New Zealander seems to make selection calls, as well as in-game substitutions, that appear designed to build experience – to broaden the talent pool – rather than to win in the here and now.
For Bellamy, it’s all about the here and now. Ask him if he is shaping a group of players for the World Cup in little more than 18 months’ time and he will insist that’s not on his agenda.
The former striker – who at 45 is 16 years younger than Gatland – believes once players and coaches are looking up the road towards locations in the distance, they lose their edge and focus.
Before Tuesday night’s emphatic 4-1 victory over Iceland, Bellamy even claimed he hadn’t looked at the table and wouldn’t be keeping one ear on the match between Montenegro and Turkey – which sounded a bit of a stretch, but fans got the point he was making.
But what point is Gatland making? That 11 defeats on the bounce don’t really matter? That Six Nations wooden spoons don’t matter so long as Wales get to the last eight of the World Cup?
It’s a measure of how different Gatland has become as a coach that back in 2008 there was no talk about the 2011 World Cup.
In his first match in charge, he picked 13 Ospreys players for the opening game against England. Not because he thought they would form the backbone of the 2011 World Cup squad – they didn’t – but because he believed they could win that way at Twickenham.
In fact, whenever Wales have been successful in their past – the 2005 Grand Slam under Mike Ruddock, the 1994 Five Nations Championship picked up by Alan Davies, the entire golden era of the Seventies, no-one uttered a word about “building” or “development”.
Welsh rugby lived on its wits. Coaches and players worked out a plan for the next game, then the one after that.
Nor is Gatland’s insistence on the long-term that of a typical Kiwi. All Black coaches would be laughed out of the room if they asked for patience for the next three years.
Their autumn plan was to beat England at Twickenham, rub Irish noses in it again in Dublin, then bring the French down a peg or two in Paris.
The World Cup? That can wait until 2027.
Even Australia – who were in an awful state a year ago when Gatland enjoyed his second-coming high point with a 40-6 thrashing of the Wallabies – don’t go on about the World Cup, or plea for leniency whilst they sort out their affairs for the next three years.
The Aussies arrived in the UK looking to beat England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in order to achieve a tour Grand Slam. They are halfway there.
If Wales lose to South Africa on Saturday, there will be further stress on learning lessons for the future, further appeals for patience, more references to progress being made in performance if not results.
That might be understandable against the current world champions if results had been achieved elsewhere over the past 12 months.
But they haven’t been. So, these new appeals will sound like the old appeals – hollow. They were said after defeats to Italy and Fiji, so what’s different about them after losing to South Africa?
Professional sport is about this weekend, not 2027.
In fact, what Gatland does by talking about development is to let WRU director of rugby Nigel Walker off the hook.
The future is Walker’s job. Gatland’s job is to win on Saturday.
The bookmakers reckon it’s a job likely to prove out of reach.
You can get Wales at near even money with a 24.5 points start.
