Harrington on Price becoming new World Number One: “It needed someone to shake it up a bit”

Rod Harrington discussed the recent PDC World Championship during an interview with the PDC.

The former World Matchplay champion admitted that Price had to perform in the manner that he did to keep Anderson away from any potential chance.

“Price was brilliant. He had to do that because Anderson, he may whinge a lot, but he is a superb player and if he starts to come back on a run, you know he can fire off five legs on the trot. And if he can win two sets in a matter of minutes and all of a sudden ‘oh damn what’s going on here,” said Harrington to the PDC.

“But to finish as clinical as Gerwyn did he kept Gary at arm’s length all the time. He couldn’t let Gary win that last set otherwise Gary would have started to think ‘hang on a minute I can win this’.

“It was a great performance and I think it was superb for the game.”

Harrington admitted that someone was needed to shake things up in terms of the World Number One spot and Price has done that: “When Gerwyn came in he was a breath of fresh air, someone different, someone who has come in from another professional sport.”

“He was a great rugby player. Another who gets on a rugby pitch and plays to that standard is a super-fit man. What I like about him is that he’s still kept that fitness.

“He could probably walk onto a rugby pitch now, because he still looks the same as he did scoring a winning try in a cup final.

“That emotion he shows is what he’s brought out of professional rugby. You don’t hear him moan, he just gets on with the job. If people don’t like him, that’s the way it is. I’m here to do a job, I’m here to earn money.

“Michael (Van Gerwen) dominated the World No.1 slot for too long and needed someone to shake it up a bit.”