Gatland deserves praise, not vitriol, from Ireland fans

The reaction over the Warren Gatland decision to drop Brian O’Driscoll was instant and dramatic, triggering mayhem, fury, disbelief.

Everyone was up in arms about it: on the phone, on the phone-in shows, the streets. How could he be cut, with his record? While the guy coming in for him was a capable player, it still didn’t make sense. What kind of idiot felt the team would be better served without his services? November 2001 is a long time ago now, when Warren Gatland was summarily dismissed as Ireland manager, to be replaced by Eddie O’Sullivan. So long that a lot of the people so outraged that O’Driscoll was replaced by Jamie Roberts last week either had either forgotten or didn’t even know that Gatland had once been harshly dispensed too.

Of course there were people who did remember that day of the long knife and somehow suspected that the demotion of O’Driscoll for Saturday’s third Test was some form of vengeance for the rough justice the IRFU dealt Gatland only days after his team had almost beaten the mighty All Blacks and beaten an exceptional England team a month earlier.