Gatland's triple crown bitter pill for Ireland

It is the changing face of rugby. On Tuesday night, in a smart hotel, London Wasps staged their end-of-season awards dinner.

Their unexpected triumph in the Zurich Premiership playoff final 48 hours earlier, when they beat Leicester to become English champions for the third year running, was perfectly timed.

End-of-season dinners are nothing new, but in this commercial age, the financial figures behind it are.

What once was a simple, basic club dinner is now a luxury bash at a top London hotel. Interest in the event was such that 500 people paid £200 ($517) a head for the privilege of sitting at the same table as a "name" such as Lawrence Dallaglio, Josh Lewsey and Warren Gatland.

All of them traditional Wasps supporters? Not likely. As one Wasps veteran told me, "Most of them wouldn't know a ruck from a buck, a maul from a hall."

They're all corporates, and at the moment you can't fail to make money if you market an event like that in the right places.

Add the cost of drink and contributions to the inevitable raffles, plus taxis there and home, and it's doubtful anyone would have much change from £400 ($1034) for the night. Yet there seemed no shortage of takers.

But we should not begrudge Wasps an annual milking of one particular cash cow. To win the highly competitive English Premiership title once is a significant achievement. To do it three times, in successive years, requires rather more than good fortune.

How ironic, then, that the person behind it all, the calm, quiet influence who has made Wasps the best in the country, is a man Ireland threw out with the bathwater a few seasons back.

The Irish Rugby Union showed Gatland the door before the New Zealander had the chance to demonstrate his supreme skills in player development, technical expertise, man management and calm handling of pressure and expectation.

Indeed, it is highly instructive to compare the records of Gatland and the man who succeeded him in the Irish national coaching job, Eddie O'Sullivan, since that time.

Gatland has led Wasps to three Zurich Premiership titles, one Heineken European Cup title and the secondary European competition, the old Parker Pen Shield.

When he joined Wasps, they were bottom of the English league. He steered them to a position of safety, halfway up the table, that first season, and they won the Parker Pen Shield. Since then, the major trophies have tumbled into Gatland's lap.

O'Sullivan was acclaimed as an outstanding choice to coach Ireland, and hopes have been high each season under his control. Yet Ireland have largely failed to deliver.

Their single achievement was a Triple Crown last year, and although they were within 80 minutes of the long-coveted Grand Slam, a 42-6 hiding by England painfully exposed the shortcomings of O'Sullivan's side.

In South Africa last year, hopes were high of a first series win. But, Brian O'Driscoll aside, few players fired properly and both tests were lost.

This year, Ireland have regressed. Further hopes of a Grand Slam were swept away by the French in Dublin and now, with a rebuilding task ahead, it appears inconceivable that O'Sullivan will be lifting many trophies in the near future.

Gatland is reported to have told a friend recently: "I left a side who we were developing to play attractive, self-confident rugby. But under this management, they are now progressively playing old-style, defensive Irish rugby in which they are frightened of making mistakes. That is what the whole thing has drifted back to."

Gatland is returning to New Zealand to coach Waikato.

But as he settles into an airline seat for the long journey home, he may not be the only man pondering the ultimate wisdom of the IRFU's decision.

* Peter Bills is a rugby writer for Independent News & Media in London.