Awful Welsh record raises doubts about Gatland’s job credentials
OPINION: This week has been all about the British and Irish Lions squad reveal. The players – all 41 of them – are locked in, but do the Lions have the right coach?
It could be argued there were at least two better candidates than Warren Gatland for the coveted Lions coaching role.
Joe Schmidt was the standout contender, having plotted Ireland’s historic victory over the All Blacks and claim successive Six Nations crowns in 2014-15. Schmidt knows the New Zealand rugby landscape just as much as Gatland.
Fellow Kiwi Vern Cotter also brought a much more competitive edge to Scotland. And Eddie Jones matched the All Blacks’ 18 test unbeaten run with England.
Schmidt and Jones ruled themselves himself out of the equation, but that raises two questions: how hard did the Lions bosses try to get them? And did Gatland get the job as last man standing?
Gatland’s experience as Lions coach – assistant in South Africa in 2009 and the leader of a successful tour of Australia in 2013 – counts in his favour. But given his dire record both against leading southern hemisphere teams and those sides in their backyard, he has some question marks hanging over him.
Other than his 2-1 series win over an average Wallabies team with the Lions, Gatland’s record in the southern hemisphere with Wales is four wins from 19 tests. All those victories came at the 2015 World Cup in New Zealand against Fiji, Samoa, Namibia and Ireland.
Since taking charge in 2008, in 15 attempts across five tours not once has Gatland led the Welsh to a win over New Zealand, Australia or South Africa away from home. His overall record against those three nations reads played 32, won three.
Collectively, the Lions should be a much better team than those Welsh sides Gatland coached, but they also bring their challenges. In 2005 Clive Woodward was heavily criticised for bringing out a bloated 44-man squad.
Gatland has just three fewer after lobbying his paymasters to agree to stump up an extra NZ$1 million to include four more players than originally planned.
While that gives him more depth, it also means more personalities to manage and more players to appease.
On a side note, Gatland has made it clear he wants to win over the New Zealand public and right the wrongs of Woodward’s tour off the field.
A small section of fans who Gatland labelled arrogant for booing Wallabies playmaker Quade Cooper at Eden Park last year may not be so keen to get in line.
‘‘One of the things I was proud of as a Kiwi was showing humility,’’ Gatland said at the time. ‘‘The All Blacks try to do that but there’s a proportion of New Zealanders that have a little bit of arrogance and not humility. As a Kiwi I was sitting in the stands watching the game and I was a little bit embarrassed.’’
He’d better hope Kiwis are in a forgiving mood.