Edwards Knows How To Win At Twickers

Shaun Edwards has been in the habit of cleaning up at Twickenham ever since his Wigan team made light work of what remained of rugby’s Berlin Wall. Winning the Middlesex Sevens more than 20 years ago meant more than removing what was left of the barricades put up a century earlier with the breakaway of the northern clubs from the RFU over their refusal to allow broken-time payment.

- Peter Jackson

His playing days behind him, Edwards reinvented himself as one of the new breed of League coaches crossing the Rubicon during Union’s early years of professionalism. What began as a novelty one May weekend at the end of the 20th century had almost turned into a regular event during the 21st.

Between 2003 and 2007, Wasps stormed Twickenham in three English Premiership Grand Finals and two European Cup finals with Edwards as their defence coach. They won the lot, initially under Warren Gatland’s direction, latterly Sir Ian McGeechan’s.

Despite collecting enough silver to have kept the Grimethorpe Colliery Band in splendidly euphonius tune, Edwards got the distinct impression from the RFU that they were less than impressed. If they had been, then theirs was a strange way of showing it, offering him nothing more challenging than a part-time role with the second string Saxons.

As the English kingmakers dithered, Wales went for broke and offered Edwards a reunion with Gatland under their banner. And the pair of relocated Wasps, one from Wigan, the other Waikato, duly announced the resumption of their Twickenham removal business at the earliest opportunity which happened to be ten years ago this very weekend.