Gatland: I don’t feel anything for Munster

WARREN GATLAND had absolutely no sympathy for Munster as they tumbled to yet another defeat in the closing stages of the Heineken Cup. Nor would he entertain any suggestion that his side carried a cynical attitude into yesterday’s game.

"I don't feel anything for Munster, you take your chances and your opportunities in this competition", he stressed. "It's easy for Munster to qualify for the Heineken Cup every year. For us, the Premiership is incredibly important because it's really difficult to qualify. You take your opportunities and we took ours today."

Gatland denied it but the understandable resentment he clearly still feels as a result of his dismissal by the IRFU lives on.

And as he left the press tent, some swear they heard him mutter something that sounded like "f*** off."

As for the apparent cynicism of his players, Gatland was equally dismissive, insisting: "it's the way we play the game. From our point of view, it's not something we like to do giving away penalties. There were two teams out there not holding anything back. Perhaps Munster's advantage was that they had the referee in the quarter-final and so were more familiar with him. As for being cynical, we are not a cynical team we like to play rugby."

It was Gatland's and Wasps day and nobody can deny that or the merit of their victory.

"We said at half time, just keeping our shape and keeping our patterns like we did in the first half when we put them under pressure and making them go through a lot of phases, was the key", said Gatland.

"We have a good work ethic, we work incredibly hard and don't want to leave things behind us. We were probably a little too emotional before the game. We gave away a few penalties and that was about emotion as anything. "You saw the character today. It starts with Lawrence and runs right through the squad.

"I didn't think we played particularly well at times. We are concerned about the penalty count and getting that right. I just felt it was a start, stop, game. "When the referee blew his whistle, there were players going down needing attention so we struggled to get into a rhythm and momentum. I was happy seeing Toulouse reach the final, I wouldn't have fancied facing that Biarritz pack."

While Lawrence Dallaglio represents the heart and soul of the Wasps team and club, their talisman is the Samoan hooker, the near 20 stone Trevor Leota, whose fourth try yesterday proved so crucial. "He's pretty inspirational for us in terms of carrying the ball forward and of course defensively", said Gatland who admitted that he has to keep a close eye on Leota to try and keep his frame some way in shape. "We keep tabs on him as much as we can, I don't think he's be as successful with any other club. We monitor him so closely on the physical and mental side. He has been known to sneak off the McDonalds at times."

As the feel good factor kicked in further, Gatland elaborated: "The carrot today was that winning meant we were going to Twickenham where we had played before. That may give us an advantage."

Gatland's assistant Shaun Edwards clearly loved every minute of yesterday's match: "You wouldn't rub out any of the video of that game. It was incredible, the best I've ever seen. We dug deeper. We have a saying in Wasps that the big games are won in the last ten minutes."