There is a symmetry to the beginning and ending of Warren Gatland’s international coaching career in the northern hemisphere.

Matt Sherratt will be in charge of the home side as Ireland visit the Principality Stadium this weekend, after the Welsh Rugby Union and Gatland mutually decided to end their relationship.

Just under 27 years ago, the New Zealander’s first experience of what was then the Five Nations came after Brian Ashton’s abrupt departure as Ireland coach. Gatland was installed just before the trip to Paris to face France on 7 March, 1998.

Not since 1983 had Ireland beaten France; not since 1974 had they done so in France. And yet, they came agonisingly close to a victory, going down on an 18-16 scoreline.

That was the tale of that year’s competition – Ireland finished with the wooden spoon after four defeats but their scoring difference was better than both Scotland and Wales above them. The following year, they won once, against Wales at Wembley, before the major turnaround in the country’s fortunes came in 2000.

Now, Wales are the ones looking to halt a slide, with Ireland an unbackable 1/50 to make it three wins from three.

Former Lion’s take

While there are parallels with how Ireland were back in the late 1990s, one of the players who featured in Paris that day – former Lion Paul Wallace – feels that it was a case of growing pains as rugby adapted to professionalism.

“That day in 1998, I had a perfect try which was disallowed,” he says, “if there had been a TMO then, it would have been given.

“Even then, we probably should have won – we threw it away with some early substitutions that maybe shouldn’t have happened.

“The quality was always there coming through. The problem with Ireland at that stage, in the early stages of professionalism, was that the IRFU were slow in setting up the right structures and the training programmes weren’t quite there.

“It was mainly only the players that had gone to the UK that had really embraced the professional side. Eventually, Ireland caught up with what was happening in England and France and surpassed it and are now the shining light – especially in Leinster – in terms of what you need to do to be a top professional team.”

Given that Wales won the Six Nations in 2021, their current malaise (14 test losses in a row) might seem surprising, but it is something that has been brewing.

“My surprise is that they haven’t slid quicker,” Wallace says. “I think that they’ve been papering over the cracks for a very long time. If you look at their clubs’ performances and the players coming through – even the physiques of their players – you can see a difference compared to the other countries.

Connacht have done a fantastic job over the last 20 years, Munster have obviously slipped back and Ulster dramatically so. The big challenge for Irish rugby is to make sure that those provinces are developing players, identifying guys at 12 or 13 and bringing them through

“They’ve been slipping and slipping, you can see that with how badly the Welsh regions have been doing continually for the last God-knows-how-long.”

Ireland, and Leinster, provide an example of the opposite, though Wallace accepts that there are some domestic inequities.“Finance is one big thing,” he says. “In the schools game here, you have players coming out at 18 or 19, especially in Dublin, almost as fully-formed professionals, having benefited from a high level of coaching that the private schools can invest.

“Even down in Munster, the Limerick schools don’t have that and the Cork schools do and they’re pulling away.

“There’s a lot of that ongoing, in that you need to get the top coaching going at a very young age. David Humphries has taken over now as IRFU performance director and he’s looking to level the playing field between the provinces.

“A lot of people can be jealous of the Leinster system and where they’re at – Dublin being the capital city and the financial hub, they’re always going to be in that position – but instead of taking away from Leinster, it’s about getting the other provinces up to that level.

“Connacht have done a fantastic job over the last 20 years, Munster have obviously slipped back and Ulster dramatically so. The big challenge for Irish rugby is to make sure that those provinces are developing players, identifying guys at 12 or 13 and bringing them through.”

Former Ireland and Lions player Paul Wallace in action against Scotland in 1998. /Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Performances at senior level reflect the healthy picture overall, with Simon Easterby slotting in seamlessly as interim head coach with Andy Farrell on Lions duty. Wallace is certainly encouraged.

“Apart from Mike Catt, who has come in recently, the whole coaching team has been there a good while,” he says.

“The blueprint wasn’t going to change too much and Simon wasn’t going to pivot away from what they were doing, so it’s very much business as usual.

“In years gone by, the November results would have been considered a great autumn, though this time there was probably a bit of gloss taken off it. I think that some refereeing decisions went against Ireland, especially against New Zealand.

“There were a couple of unforced errors as well, which are unlike this side. The basic foundations were still strong but the individual performances probably weren’t where they had been.

“So, where you might have thought Ireland were slipping, they’ve come back well in the Six Nations. The first half against England was probably going away from the territory game that they play, but once they started playing territory when they needed to, things started going again and we saw that against Scotland, too.

“The clinical finishing of Gibson-Park and Lowe, their combination has been as lethal as ever.”