Honest policy
WARREN GATLAND ambles by, looking at ease with the world. The former Ireland coach was deemed surplus to requirements by the IRFU at the end of 2001 and left Galway for the lights of London where he has turned Wasps from a collection of talented individuals into a team.
A team that captured the Zurich Premiership and Parker Pen Shield last season, tops the Premiership this season and stands four-square between Munster and their third appearance in a Heineken Cup final.
In doing so, the Kiwi has shown theIRFU head-honchos exactly what they gave up and, in Lansdowne Road next Sunday, he has the chance to send a two-fingered greeting to the Irish blazers in their own backyard.
Gatland knows what he is talking about, and is well aware of the threat Munster present to his dream of European domination.
"Talk them up Dowdy," he shouts across, "be sure to say nice things about Munster."
We're sitting in a hotel foyer in Leeds, the night before Wasps take on the local side, and the 'Dowdy' that Gatland is referring to is Craig Dowd, ex-All Black legend and Wasps' loose-head lynchpin.
Dowd chuckles at the instruction.
"You guys in Ireland were mad to leave that man go," he shakes his head.
"Warren is a fantastic coach. We had a good side before but he's organised us and now we're producing the goods. He gives the players space, lets us express ourselves.
"Warren knows the game backwards. He was a bloody good hooker and if it wasn't for Fitzy (Sean Fitzpatrick) would have won a lot of caps. We had some real ding-dong battles when I was with Auckland andWarren was with Waikato, real eyeball to eyeball stuff but, off the pitch, the front row club always got on. A good guy."
It seems as though Dowd has been around for an age but he is only 34, and looks younger. Tall and lean, he is not the most imposing prop around, but the man is in superb physical condition.
"Yeah, I've been around a while now haven't I? It's gone by pretty quick and I've been very lucky to have lasted as long as I have doing what I love.
"I always wanted to play rugby since I was a ball-boy at the local club in Auckland when my dad was playing for them. I started playing for the club and came through to the Auckland side in the early 1990s."
Auckland were all-powerful in New Zealand at the time, providing two thirds of the national side, and it wasn't long before the form of the young prop came to the national selectors attention.
"I won my first cap in 1993 against the Lions. I will never forget it. My whole family was there and that was a great series. We won it 2-1 but they were all good contests. I scrummaged against Paul Burnell and Jason Leonard and that was a great way to start Test rugby, you can't come in at any higher level than the Lions and if you can come through that you've proved yourself."
That was a good period for New Zealand rugby. They became the first All Blacks to win a series in South Africa, were the best team in the 1995 World Cup, although they were not crowned champions, and between 1995 and 1997, played some of the greatest rugby the world has ever seen.
Dowd was a constant in the number one shirt, a member of a celebrated front-row which included Sean Fitzpatrick and tight-head Olo Brown.
That trio started a record 35 Tests together, of which New Zealand lost only a handful.
"The All Blacks between 1995 and 1997 was the best side I was ever involved with. You felt invincible in a black jersey. You looked around the dressing room and there was quality everywhere, Lomu, Jeff Wilson, Zinzan Brooke, Christian Cullen, that was a hell of a team."
Ah, Cullen. The old team-mate of Dowd's who will line out against him as Munster's full-back next Sunday.
After a series of low-key displays, the Munster supporters are still waiting for Cullen to burst into life but Dowd has no doubts it will happen.
"You tell the fans not to worry mate," he smiles, "I hope he puts it off for one more game but Christian will come good. He is one of the best New Zealand has ever produced, an absolutely fabulous player. It's a different game here and what Christian needs are some deputies to help him out.
"He needs his wingers to work with him. You can have a fantastic attacking talent and put him in a side where he is not used to the style and he looks average.
"Defences are tighter over here and he needs to find his way with his new team-mates, when he settles I have no doubt he will be spectacular. I don't agree with the way New Zealand treated him by leaving him out of the World Cup, they left behind a few guys they needed over there and Cullen was one of them."
Dowd has experience of falling foul of the selectors and, like Cullen, getting dropped was the nudge he needed for a move to Europe.
The last of his 60 caps came in 2000 against Australia, when John Eales banged over the winning penalty from the touchline. Guess who gave away the penalty.
"I gave away that penalty but that's not why it was my last cap," he stresses.
"I was supposed to go on tour to France later that year but I picked up a few niggly injuries and decided not to, there were other reasons as well, I'd had enough."
Other reasons?
"Well, I don't want to say too much, but in that year's Tri Nations I was asked to go to South Africa a few days after the birth of my boy. I went, but then when we got there, I wasn't picked for the Test which really ... let's just say I wasn't happy."
So, is there bitterness at the way his international career ended? "No, I wouldn't say that. The coach then was Wayne Smith and I think he wanted to look at another prop and he made that call when we were in South Africa, it wasn't premeditated. But, it brought a few things home to me, what really matters.
"That's where I get the motivation to be still playing rugby after all this time. It's great over here in Wasps. There is a perception that a lot of us come to England at the end of our careers to give ourselves a pension fund but for me, the best thing about Wasps, is being with my family practically every night.
"There's no long tours, cooped up in hotels for weeks at a time. Being with my family relaxes me and I enjoy my rugby as a result."
How does he rate the All Blacks he left behind? "I think they made the mistake of trusting guys in the World Cup that weren't really ready for it and that's what cost John Mitchell his job. We lost that World Cup up front. We had good players but England proved the value of experience. Our guys were too young.
"The Super 12 is the best competition for ball-handling skills and attacking rugby but Northern Hemisphere rugby is far moreintense. Super 12 fitness is running-based but in the Heineken Cup it is physical, bruising rugby and that's why, when it came to the ding-dong stuff in the rucks and mauls, England had the advantage.
"But I think that has been realised back home and Graham Henry is the right man to coach the All Blacks now. He has the Henry Ford philosophy which is, surround yourself with experts and you can't go too far wrong. He's brought back Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen to help him out and he's got former All Blacks in to mentor the current guys, that's the right approach."
In the course of his career, Dowd has come up against Irish opposition on several occasions, and always ended up victorious, but there is one memory of the Paddies that stands out very clearly.
"What was that old boy's name? You know the guy with the grey hair who gave us the fingers in the 1995 World Cup?"
He means Gary Halpin, Ireland's colourful tight-head from the mid-1990s who digitally 'saluted' the All Blacks after scoring against them in the opening pool game.
"Yeah, Halpin, he was some individual," chuckles Dowd.
"We gave the Irish a bit of a thumping that day but I'll never forget afterwards, Halpin bursts into our dressing room and shouts 'Right boys, lets go on the piss'.
"I mean, there we were in the middle of the World Cup with another pool game on the Wednesday and here's this guy wanting to go on the beer.
"We all just looked at eachother, no-one knew what to say. A crazy man."
IT was time for Dowd to heed his coach's instructions. Time to talk up Munster. Surely he is concerned by their experience and the almost mythical quality surrounding their tilts at the Heineken Cup?
Dowd shrugs. "To be honest, I don't know much about them. I mean, I do know if you take a step anywhere near the place everyone starts talking about 1978 and the day they beat New Zealand but, in terms of the current side, I haven't seen much of them at all.
"Of course," he adds hurriedly, obviously remembering his brief from Gatland, "I know they are a very difficult side to beat, but we treat every opposition the same and I'll be looking at the videos before the game to see what we're up against."
Dowd will be up against the mountainous frame of John Hayes but, if he is concerned about their forthcoming scrummaging showdown, he hides it well.
"Hayes? He's a tall guy isn't he? Again, I can't say I know much about him. There's ways to scrummage against very tall props and I'll look at the footage."
Dowd gives off the impression of a player totally at ease with his own ability, which is confirmed when you ask him to name the most difficult opponent he has faced.
"The toughest guys I ever faced were the old stagers in my club in Auckland. When you come in as a young guy they put you up against these old wily props and they twisted me into positions I swore I would never get into again.
"It was an induction process, the way I learnt my trade and I've never forgotten what they taught me."
Fair enough, but what about international confrontations, who were the players that he knew, running out, would give him a tough day at the office? "Errmmm ... that's tough ... let me think ... I can't name any guy I was ever worried about to be honest."
What about Pieter De Villiers, France's fearsome tight-head and widely considered the premier prop in world rugby.
"De Villiers? I've played against him, he was okay, no real problems though."
When you look at the quotes in black and white, it is easy to misread Dowd'spronouncements as arrogant, stemming from years of domination in an All Black jersey. But this is certainly not the case.
Dowd is a friendly, open individual,motivated hugely by his family and by the desire to do a professional job for whatever team he plays for.
When he appears unconcerned about Munster or is dismissive of past opponents, he is not being arrogant, merely honest.
The last word goes to Gatland, who sums up Craig Dowd very simply.
"The best around."
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