Lions boss Gatland has pop at Jones and then confirms he’ll never be England chief

WARREN GATLAND shut the door on England and hit back at Eddie Jones after being formally reappointed head coach of the British and Irish Lions.

No sooner had Gatland been confirmed as coach of the 2021 tour to South Africa than he took Jones to task for dismissing the role he was so honoured to accept.

England’s Aussie boss had said the “last thing” he would want to do was “spend eight weeks in a blazer”, adding: “That’s an ambassador job. I’m a coach. I’d rather coach the Queensland Sheffield Shield (cricket) team.”

Gatland countered: “I don’t know how you could coach a Lions team in a blazer. I was bemused by that. It is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do as a coach.

“There were guys down in the team room at 7-8am until 9-10pm, planning and preparing as well as coaching two teams twice a day, getting ready for matches. It is the hardest thing.

“Maybe that was a subtle way of Eddie ruling himself out of contention.”

Gatland (right) felt no need to employ subtlety himself when stating his third tour of duty as head honcho meant England could forget ever having him as boss. “I can tell you definitively now I will not be coaching England,” said the Wales gaffer.

“There is no way – unless I put a blazer on or something!

“Why? I’ve said they can’t afford me, haven’t I? I think my coaching path is going to take different directions.”

By which he means that post-Lions he intends to head back to New Zealand and coach in Super Rugby.

The last time he coached in his homeland, with the 2017 Lions, he found it so testing an experience he vowed “never” again to tour with the Lions.

But the 55-year-old says the combination of time being a healer and supportive letters and emails from Kiwis has persuaded him to have one last go.

This mission is likely to be every bit as tough given the length of tour has ludicrously been cut from 10 matches to eight to appease England’s top clubs.

As a result Gatland says he will take a smaller squad and probably travel with preconceived ideas on Test selection.