I have no idea what Warrenball is meant to be but I love watching Wales. I don’t get all this negativity about Warren Gatland’s team, although most of it seems to come from Welsh fans on social media and former players.

Wales have never had it so good as under Gatland, certainly in the professional era. The team got slated for their performance against France and, yes, it was a poor game but you can’t play five-star, champagne rugby all the time.

It was their fifth win on the bounce against France and, although they didn’t play particularly well, I’d take a winning side every time over a team playing ‘beautiful’ rugby and losing every week.

Warren Gatland has been criticised for Wales' style of rugby, but his team are not boring to watch

Gatland, who took over in December 2007, Wales have won three Championships including two Grand Slams

Far be it from me to act as a cheerleader for the Welsh in the week of an England-Wales game that could decide the Six Nations, but surely the Welsh rugby public have to start appreciating their team a bit more.

Under Gatland, who took over in December 2007, Wales have won three Championships including two Grand Slams.

Can you imagine how he would be acclaimed if he was coaching England or any of the other sides in the Six Nations?

That’s a phenomenal record, especially given the state of domestic Welsh rugby and the regions throughout much of that period.

Wales always use the Seventies as their reference point but that decade of dominance has no relevance any more, and basing your expectations and dreams around a return to such rugby is nonsense.

Spending five years at school in Wales in the Seventies and learning my rugby there, I was also a big fan of that great Wales team. I loved their skills and panache, but many of the wonderful tries they scored were against powder-puff defences with no organisation.

Even though the performance wasn't great, last week was their fifth win on the bounce against France

The negativity about Wales seems to be coming from fans on social media and former players

No matter how great their backs in particular were, those same players simply wouldn’t be able to score those mesmerising tries against today’s defences, or at the very least such tries would be the exception.

Put it another way: if you could somehow parachute the current Wales players into the Seventies team, I fancy they would score just as many breathtaking tries as their illustrious predecessors.

And here’s another thing about that great Welsh team: they never produced it against New Zealand, and for all their brilliance they would not have come close to winning a World Cup in the Seventies.

If you include their two-Test tour to New Zealand in 1969 when all their greats were playing — JPR Williams, Phil Bennett, Barry John, Gerald Davies, John Dawes, Gareth Edwards, Mervyn Davies, et al — that Wales group played the All Blacks in four Tests and lost four times.

Because of apartheid they played South Africa only once, a 6-6 draw in 1970, and only against a then much weaker Australia did they have much joy, winning two and losing two of the four Tests against them in the Seventies.

Welsh rugby still harks back to their golden era of the 1970s, but in that time they still never beat New Zealand

If you include their two-Test tour to New Zealand in 1969 Wales lost four out of four Tests against the All Blacks

Gatland’s Wales, like England, must now focus on rising above the Six Nations. Their success should not depend on Grand Slams or Triple Crowns. They must start taking their summer tours more seriously and win consistently in the autumn against the Southern Hemisphere teams.

England and Wales can be fiercest rivals and strongest allies, in much the same way France were to my England team. Together they can raise one another’s game.

Wales possess some exceptional players. Without their calamitous run of injuries they could have reached the World Cup final. They should have beaten Australia and could have beaten South Africa in the quarter-final.

A month ago I didn’t hesitate to nominate Wales as my pre-tournament favourites for the Six Nations. And they are my favourites, albeit not by much, to win on Saturday at Twickenham where they won so memorably in the World Cup last September.

The criticism seems to revolve mainly around Wales’s allegedly limited game-plan behind the scrum, their hugely physical backs and a pack of forwards that — unlike some of their predecessors — are happy to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in, refusing to turn the other cheek.

When I coached England, our battles with France helped lift both sides above the level of the Six Nations

I read somewhere that physically Wales were the biggest team at the World Cup, with an average weight of 106kg (over 16½st) in their starting XV. I can believe it.

At one stage you could definitely bully and outmuscle Wales, but not any more. That has to be progress in my book. Which brings us to the dismissive term Warrenball. I don’t recognise the term. What does it even mean?

It basically boils down to ‘big men running hard’, but all I see is a very fit group of athletes — Wales have comfortably been the fittest of the home unions since 2011 — operating at a high level of intensity with no little skill.

Wales are an exhilarating team to watch in that respect and their back row, collectively, is probably the strongest in the world.

As a team they put everything on the line all the time. Watching Wales is not in the slightest bit dull. Listening to some of the past players has become very dull.

Wales’s 30-3 win over a Grand Slam-chasing England in 2013 was one of the greatest Championship performances I have witnessed.

I don’t remember any complaints then, nor do I recall any last autumn with that incredible backs-to-the-wall win against England in the World Cup when the more players they lost, the better they played.

Wales back row, with the likes of Toby Faletau and Sam Warburton, is probably the strongest in the world

I don’t remember any complaints when after that backs-to-the-wall win against England in the World Cup

Sometimes you have to cut your cloth accordingly. Joe Schmidt was rightly lauded for his two Championship wins on the bounce but Ireland played a very pragmatic game.

I don’t doubt that down the line Schmidt wants to play a wider game but he doesn’t have the right players in place yet and last week against England, Ireland tried to play too much rugby.

Eddie Jones goaded them into a wider game that suits England and Ireland got well beaten.

If you were the Wales coach and you had huge, powerful runners in Jamie Roberts, George North and Alex Cuthbert available, along with forceful linebreakers Jonathan Davies and Scott Williams, why would you play any other way?

When you have a strong, streetwise fly-half like Dan Biggar, who is possibly the best chaser of his own punts in world rugby, and a world class goal-kicker to boot, why wouldn’t you use those exceptional skills?

When Leigh Halfpenny is injury-free, fit and playing well, he is the best big-time goal-kicker in the world and when you have a player like that, why wouldn’t you pressurise the opposition into giving away penalties as often as you can? It’s a legitimate tactic and will win games for you.

When you have a strong, streetwise fly-half like Dan Biggar why wouldn’t you use those exceptional skills?

You have to use the players you're given, and Wales have produced a team of strong-running backs

Gatland is no angel. He’s had his run-ins with the Welsh media and, like Jones, he likes to use the media to wind up the opposition and indeed to create a bit of dynamic tension. He is very good at creating a controversy, sometimes when there isn’t one, and enjoys creating a bunker mentality.

It can seem a bit dour and, yes, occasionally Wales can seem dour as well. But wake up, guys.

What Wales have now is the total respect of the rugby world, a team on the verge of winning a fourth Championship under Gatland and a side with growing potential.