Gatland offers to quit as Welsh sink to new low
England’s turn for agony as France snatch late win in thriller
WARREN GATLAND offered to resign after Wales picked up their first Wooden Spoon since 2003.
Gatland said Wales had reached ‘rock bottom’ after a 24-21 defeat to Italy in Cardiff – their seventh successive Six Nations home loss – and revealed that he had offered his resignation to Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Abi Tierney after the final whistle.
The 60-year-old New Zealander is contracted until the 2027 World Cup, having returned to start a second spell as Wales head coach in December 2022.
Asked if he wanted to remain until 2027, Gatland replied: ‘Yes, absolutely. I’ve made that commitment. I just said to Abi in the changing room, “If you want me to resign, I’m quite happy to do that”. She said, “Like hell, that’s the last thing I want, that’s what I’m really afraid of”.
‘But I can promise you we’ll go away and review this really carefully. We’ve already done some review stuff and (we’ll) work on areas that need to improve.’
Wales last suffered a Six Nations whitewash in 2003 and have enjoyed plenty of glory days over the past two decades, many of them under Gatland.
The Kiwi was in charge of Wales from 2007 to 2019 when his side won four Six Nations titles, three Grand Slams and reached two World Cup semi-finals.
Gatland steered Wales into the quarter-finals of the 2023 World Cup last autumn, but a raft of senior players retired either side of that tournament and a new generation has come up well short at Test level.
‘We’re gutted and we are hurting as players and coaches – and I know the fans are hurting,’ said Gatland (right).
‘We’re probably a little bit rock bottom at the moment, but I do see light at the end of the tunnel. I see some excellent players who with time are going to be fantastic internationals.
‘We’ve got a huge amount of inexperienced players who haven’t played a lot of regional rugby. We’re exposing them at Test level, which is a bit of a challenge.’
Italy dominated the first half to lead 11-0 at the break and extended that soon after through a brilliant try from full-back Lorenzo Pani.
Despite a late rally, which brought tries for Elliot Dee and replacements Will Rowlands and Mason Grady, veteran centre George North’s final Wales appearance was to end in disappointment.
Meanwhile, England finished third in the Six Nations after a monster Tomas Ramos penalty in the final minute sent them spinning to a heartbreaking 33-31 defeat at Groupama Stadium in Lyon last night.
Steve Borthwick’s men have trailed at half-time of every match of the Championship and once more they faced an uphill battle, this time in the form of 16-6 deficit that included a try of the tournament contender for scrum-half Nolann Le Garrec.
But they turned the contest on its head by amassing 21 unanswered points through two Ollie Lawrence tries and a Marcus Smith touch down as their attack ran amok through the France midfield.
France regrouped to cross through Leo Barre and Gael Fickou but England were not done yet as Tommy Freeman stormed over in the right corner with five minutes remaining.
They appeared to have secured their fourth win of the Six Nations having staged multiple fightbacks but when they infringed just outside their half with seconds left, Ramos kept his nerve to hit the target.
Manu Tuilagi came on for what is likely to be his final England appearance and he could not have asked for a more dramatic sendoff.
Ireland may already have clinched the title by toppling Scotland but if evidence was needed that this match still mattered it came when Ramos kicked off before the countdown had even begun.
Once the false start had been dealt with, England were greeted with waves of attacks and a challenging opening was compounded when George Furbank departed with a calf injury and was replaced by Smith, who had a profound impact as his pace and verve hurt the French all night.