Escaping the “goldfish bowl” of Welsh rugby is harder than you might imagine. It is just over a week since Warren Gatland made the bombshell decision to step down as Wales head coach. Yet even amid the anonymity of London, he is repeatedly stopped by well-wishers thanking him for the good times.
With the burden of a nation lifted from his shoulders, Gatland already looks a happier man than the sad and forlorn figure that stood in the rain in Rome watching his side lose to Italy, their 14th successive defeat and the final Test match of his second tenure in charge of Wales.
Speaking exclusively for the first time since he decided to walk away from a job he was first appointed to back in 2007, sparking a golden generation of success including three Grand Slams and two World Cup semi-finals up to 2019, Gatland insists he is holding up OK.
“I’ve had a lot of questions over the last week asking how I am doing,” he tells Telegraph Sport. “I haven’t been able to keep up with all the messages people have sent me. I had my wife Trudi typing for me at one stage. I think she did six hours solid on the laptop and she still couldn’t keep up. I’m doing good.”
Dressed in a smart jacket and shirt, the image he is projecting is of a man already looking forward. But the overriding feeling is that to do so he must first look back. And this is his first step. For a moment, just a moment, there is a glimpse of vulnerability.
“The negativity will go away, it will go,” he insists. “Am I hurting a little bit? Yes, of course I am hurting.
“But I will get over that quickly. I will be able to take the negativity to one side and then look back on some really fond memories and some great days at the Principality Stadium. Some great memories with some amazing people and with some brilliant players. Yes, I’ve made lots of sacrifices. But when I look back on it, I have loved my time in Wales. I have made some great friends and some unbelievable fans. That is what has made it special.”
Yet feeling special was far from his mind in the week leading up to the fateful and consequential defeat by Italy.
Gatland says the negativity that had enveloped his tenure last autumn had become too much to bear. The nervous energy he had previously enjoyed ahead of Test matches had increasingly turned to dread. But more than anything, he realised that the narrative that has placed his tenure under intense scrutiny was now affecting his players. Privately he came to the decision the day before the Italy game that if the team lost, it was time for him to quit.
The post-autumn review carried out by the Welsh Rugby Union had challenged him to turn around the results that had seen Wales go through the calendar year without a victory. The 43-0 defeat by France in the opening round of the Six Nations in Paris had left Gatland with nowhere left to go.
“It was always a must-win game,” he says of the Italy game. “We had a good week’s preparation in Nice and, you know, I understood there were a lot of people saying how important the game is. I was well aware of that. The Friday or the Saturday before the game, I made sort of a decision without thinking too much about it. If we didn’t win that game, then I’d have to seriously consider my position. It would be the best time and the best thing for everyone to walk away.”
Wales lost key forward Dafydd Jenkins on the eve of the game to illness and Liam Williams, one of his most experienced backs, failed a late fitness test on a knee injury. Wales lost 22-15 and while Gatland was left to rue some key moments in the game, he knew his time was up. He attempted to mask the truth in the post-match press conference, but internally his emotion was one of desperation.
“It didn’t go as planned,” he adds. “And, you know, we were disappointed. Probably in the past it would have been one of those games where I would have gone absolutely nuts in the change rooms afterwards.
“But the players were hurting. The staff were hurting. We shot ourselves in the foot in terms of some discipline accuracy. The kicking game was poor.
“And you go into a press conference, and you get asked the same questions about whether your heart is still in the job. You are questioning yourself but, of course, you’re never going to deliver a headline quote for someone saying you are.
“On the Sunday going back, I was amazed by how many supporters came up to me at the airport and said, ‘Good luck. Keep going. We are behind you’. I was a little bit overwhelmed by that, really. I wasn’t expecting that. That makes you have second thoughts a little bit about those decisions.”
But by Monday morning, the reality had bitten. He knew it was over, that it was time to call Abi Tierney, the WRU chief executive, and bring his second tenure, which saw him return as Wales’ saviour in December 2022, to a close.
“I’ve always said it’s not about me,” he says. “I’ve loved my time in Wales. There’s been highs and lows. The fans are incredibly passionate. The support that I’ve had has been amazing. I love the fans, but there’s sometimes you’ve got to ask yourself that question. And for me, I’ve always been pretty positive, I always believe. And maybe that’s my upbringing. And as a Kiwi, you sort of get out there and just say let’s give it a crack. And, if things go right in the day, anything’s possible. Anything can happen.
“In the past I have gone into games always nervous. But excited, a little bit apprehensive, nervous about what’s going to happen. Recently I’ve been going into games nervous, probably not feeling that sort of positivity and not having that belief. Almost dreading the game and the results and the negativity that follows.”
“When I’d made that decision, my wife Trudi said to me, ‘If you hadn’t made that decision yourself, I would have said do you think it’s the best time to move on?’” he adds.
“It was the best decision for Welsh rugby, first. That was the team first, and then Welsh rugby and then the best decision for me.
“Time to walk away and give everyone a bit of breathing space and for someone else to take over and see if they can have an impact.
“It wasn’t just about taking pressure off the team. It was about taking some pressure off the union, giving them a little bit of breathing space. Giving some of the other coaches some breathing space as well in terms of the pressure. Because everything was directed at me in terms of selection, the way the team was playing, the game plan.
“I’m quite happy to take all of that criticism and then be the fall guy. I think it was the right decision for everybody.”
Ex-player criticism ‘disappointing’
What had pierced the fall guy’s gruff and steely exterior was criticism from some of his former players in the media.
“Despite that look, I’m a reasonably emotional person,” he says. “You give that facade in terms of not showing everything or too much emotion.
“I felt there was quite a bit of negativity. Not from the fans, the fans were brilliant. I’ve felt a huge amount of negativity in the Welsh press and that just kept weighing down on me. I just kept thinking, ‘Where is someone in my corner or someone fighting a little bit for me?’
“It’s been tough. They [the former players] are trying to find their feet in the game and sometimes you have to be seen to be objective. And by being objective, be critical. I look and can say that there’s a number of them that wouldn’t be in the media if they hadn’t played for Wales, or hadn’t played for the Lions, or hadn’t been successful.
“It’s been a little bit disappointing. But we had someone in the media come and watch training the other week who has been a little bit critical. And then a few of the players came up to me when he was introduced and they said, ‘what the hell is… I can’t repeat the word here.
“A pretty nasty word in terms of ‘what’s he doing here?’ ‘Is he just here to criticise?’ That sort of thing.
“So it wasn’t just me who was feeling a little bit affected by some of the comments. It was definitely some of the players as well.”
One of the burning questions when Gatland decided to return to Wales following the dismissal of Wayne Pivac in the autumn of 2022, following the defeat by Georgia, having won just three out of 12 games that year, was the risk to his legacy. Howard Kendall at Everton and Sir Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool stand as shining examples of reasons for not going back.
At the time, he dismissed any concerns. Now, having matched his record-breaking run of 14 successive Test victories in his first tenure with as many defeats in his second, he remains defiant. He is proud of the achievement of taking his side to the quarter-finals of the 2023 World Cup. And backed his decision to invest in a young and inexperienced squad at the start of last year with a view towards the next World Cup in Australia in 2027.
He hopes Gatland’s Gate at the Principality Stadium, erected in his honour in November 2019, will remain for some time yet.
“No regrets,” he says. “Someone did say to me yesterday, ‘Should we get the spanner and the crescent out and go and take the gates off so you can ship them back home?’
“I’ve been asked about legacy a lot of times. ‘Is there a chance you’re going to ruin your legacy?’ Those things don’t bother me. What we achieved in the World Cup was above expectation. And what we’ve done now, we haven’t quite lived up to expectations.
“When you look back, there was the golden era of the 1970s. And hopefully people look back at my period, going back to when Wales won the Grand Slam in 2005 under Mike Ruddock to basically the World Cup quarter-final in 2023, as a golden era in terms of a generation of people sort of expecting success every few years. Whether that’s three Grand Slams or a championship or World Cup semi-finals. It’s been success every two or three years. We overachieved for such a small nation, massively. And I’ll be forever proud of that.”
‘It was never about the short term’
Balancing the need for results to salvage his job over attempting to unearth some fresh talent, as he had done in 2011 to such great success, was never an issue for Gatland. At a time when the football-like pressure on head coaches in the Six Nations feels like it has never been greater, his experience ensured that he was not afraid to roll the dice, with controversial decisions such as the omission of Gloucester fly-half Gareth Anscombe and his clubmate Max Llewellyn.
“It was never about the short term,” he says. “I have looked at it from how do you prepare from World Cup to World Cup? How do you get in the best possible position you can be to compete in the World Cup?
“It’s all about giving opportunities to some youngsters and putting some strength and depth in the squad.
“I can understand the criticism for not picking Gareth Anscombe at 10. Yeah, you could pick him, and you could play him, and he could probably do a job for you over the next year or two.
“But he, unfortunately, had a number of injuries and I’m thinking if you’re playing him for the next two years and then you get to a World Cup and all of a sudden he’s either come to the end of it or breaks down, well, who’s been in there in the meantime? Who have you developed as a 10 to take over the mantle? If you pick up an injury, you’ve always got someone like him to be able to go back to, to bring in into the squad because of experience.
“We made the decision that if we were looking at a young 10 and someone else, to give Ben Thomas, who can play 10, some more time.
“People are going to disagree with that selection, which is fine. But sometimes a young player needs the freedom to be able to express himself. And if you have an older, more experienced player around them, yeah, they can guide them, but sometimes they can overwhelm them a little bit, with them not having the confidence to speak up or express themselves.”
And Llewellyn? “That’s a tough one. We’ve got lots of 12s and probably struggled a little bit at 13. Is he a 12 that can play 13? He’s been playing well for Gloucester. We do a lot of analysis. People who are rugby nerds go back and have a look at some of the numbers, because that’s exactly what we do.
“He’s got some really positive attributes. Like I said, he’s done really well for Gloucester. Against South Africa, you can play out there for 80 minutes and you don’t touch the ball. So for me, if I was going onto the rugby field and I hadn’t had any touches of the ball, I’d make sure I went looking for the ball.”
Both players have been recalled to the squad by interim head coach Matt Sherratt, but Gatland is more surprised that Rob Howley, his trusted lieutenant, has been moved aside, too.
“There’s no doubt he’s hurting,” Gatland adds. “Sherratt has come in and decided he wants to take a lead in the attack. And so he wouldn’t require [Rob] for the last three games. To be honest, it did take me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting that as a decision to be made.”
Successor needs a ‘thick skin’
Speculation is already mounting about who will be appointed as Gatland’s permanent successor.
“They need a thick skin for a start,” Gatland jokes. “There’s a lot of people who want you to succeed, but there’s also a lot of people who want you to fail as well. And I’ve experienced that.”
Franco Smith, the Glasgow head coach, appears to be among the front-runners, but for Gatland the key appointment will be that of a new director of rugby.
“It’s a tough role because you cannot be in that role and please everybody,” he says. “I’ve tried to be consistent on a lot of my views. It doesn’t mean I’m right, but at least people respect you for having those views. And if you’re in that role, as a head of rugby, at times you have to be a b------, because you have to say no. And people aren’t going to be happy with the decisions. But what I found in Wales is they might not be happy with the decision, but at least they’ll respect you for making that decision.
“And if you try and please everybody, and you try and keep everyone happy, which you can’t do, people quickly lose respect for you because you don’t make decisions.”
Systematic flaws go back to Thatcher
Gatland believes the fault lines in the Welsh game run deep and stretch back as far as Margaret Thatcher’s reign as prime minister. A complete overhaul is required, and fresh investment in academies and schools’ rugby to compete with the Irish system and ward off English raids from across the bridge.
“Roger Lewis [the former WRU chief executive] asked me when I first went to Wales, ‘what would you do?’” Gatland adds. “And I said I would put investment into the schoolboy programme or the schools programme. If you look at probably the three top teams in the world at the moment in New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland, and the strength of their schoolboy rugby. Maybe initially £1 million a year to get 10 or 12 top schools up and running with investment into their facilities, even helping with the appointment of directors of rugby at the schools. I think I said we probably wouldn’t see the benefit of that for 10 or 15 years, but that 10 or 15 years is up by now.
“And I can imagine that if it had been 10 to 15 of the colleges or the traditional rugby schools in Wales, I think we would have had the benefit. And, ironically, Roger does agree with me that it’s something we probably missed out on. We should have put that investment into the schools and then to the colleges. It’s not too late.
“If you look back at the Eighties and the teachers’ strike under Thatcher, that sort of killed off a lot of the schools rugby in Wales, which was particularly strong at that time. And then the clubs picked up the slack and they don’t want to relinquish what they’ve done over a number of years, and I can understand that.”
Throughout the conversation, Gatland continues to refer to “our” and “we” when talking, with passion, about the Welsh game and how to save it. Time may still ease the pain of his departure and lead the Welsh supporters to remember the good times, not the bad, but his bond with the Principality is unbreakable.
And what of the future? There may yet be one last hurrah.
“My phone’s already been ringing,” he reveals. “I need a little bit of a break. I need to recharge myself. I need to be around positive people, and some family and some friends.
“If something comes up in the future about potentially being involved with a nation for my experience in terms of preparing for World Cups, I’d be excited by something like that.”
And with that he is gone, searching for anonymity in the London evening, but knowing better.
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