Edwards: How I will give Wales back their passion and pride

is renewal of the Wigan- Waikato alliance with Warren Gatland kicks off at a place where Wasps never lost any of the four major club finals under their joint stewardship and where Wales have never won in 20 years.

Edwards said: 'The stats say we don't have a great chance but you never know. We'd like to think that, whatever happens, they will know they have been in a game.'

The 41-year-old Lancastrian did not need to roll up the sleeves of his new tracksuit to underline the point.

Wearing the Prince of Wales feathers was not quite what he had in mind when he enrolled at Wigan a quarter of a century ago but they provided the perfect insignia, considering how many feathers had been ruffled at Headquarters over his cross-border move.

Edwards, proud to claim some Welsh mining heritage through his great-grandfather's migration from the South Wales coalfield to the north-west of England, prepared for his new job during a series of conversations with former players, starting with his namesake.

'My first call was to Gareth Edwards,' he said. 'I needed to get into the mindset of the great teams of the Seventies. People always associate them with free-flowing rugby and great tries but the point they all made was that their success was built on defence.

My job is to make their defence rock-solid and gain respect. You can't expect to win games if you are conceding 30 or 40 points. If I can get that defensive aspect back into their game, we will start to move up the world rankings.'

If Wales fail, it will not be for any lack of passion from Edwards, impressive even by Welsh standards.

'Rugby is my life, has been since I was three or four, probably earlier, but I can't remember,' he said. 'I used to take a rugby ball with me to bed when I was three.

'Rugby is a working-class sport in Wales and that suits me down to the ground, coming from a working-class background. The emotions are exactly the same and I must say the national anthem really stirs the emotions. You know, if there were more than 24 hours a day to allow me to coach three times daily I would.

'We want to make Wales hard to beat. I will probably start off with the traditional defence because of the limited time available. Later we will adopt the blitz defence. Some of the Ospreys players are doing something similar and doing it very well.'

Given their track record at Wasps, the Edwards-Gatland reunion will make England all the more wary about Wales.

Lawrence Dallaglio, who knows them best in his capacity as the club' s perennial captain, describes Gatland's capture of Edwards on a part-time basis as 'a masterstroke'.

Dallaglio said: 'Warren's made quite an impact already, appointing a very good man as captain, Ryan Jones, and convincing one of the best No 7s, Martyn Williams, to come out of retirement. What you get with Warren is someone who's got a record of taking sides that are not necessarily performing well and making themsuccessful.

'Both he and Shaun have been in rugby long enough to realise they have got a big job on their hands. I'd prefer it if they were coaching England.

'Shaun is very passionate and emotional about his work. He's got so much more to offer than just expertise in defence.'

Not surprisingly, Edwards disagreed with RFU elite rugby director Rob Andrew's contention that he could not combine the twin demands of working for Wasps and Wales.

He said: 'Rob is entitled to his opinion. I am confident I can handle it all, add something to the Welsh set-up as well as Wasps.

'I was a far better coach when Warren left Wasps than I was before he arrived. Wasps will get the benefit of what I learn with Wales. If the Wasps players hadn't given their blessing to my working with Wales I wouldn't have come.'

France promoted six uncapped players to a 28-man squad for the Six Nations. They include Montpelier fly half Francois Trin-Dhuc and teenage Bourgoin scrum half Morgan Parra.

In his rush for young blood, new coach Marc Lievremont has swept aside all but 11 of the 30- strong World Cup squad, including Sale No 8 Sebastien Chabal.

Marco Bortolami, Gloucester's Italy lock, will miss most of the Six Nations with a double fracture of an eye socket.