Gatland torment
I knew I was the only man for job Warren: I hated it
coach Warren Gatland admits the abuse he suffered in New Zealand left him “hating” the tour of his homeland .
Gatland (above) had been forced to suffer weeks of attacks in the Kiwi media and was even portrayed as a clown on the front page of one newspaper. After
WARREN GATLAND claims he is the only coach in the world capable of engineering a share of the spoils with the All Blacks.
The players may have been confused about whether to be happy or sad at the outcome.
But as the dust began to settle on an enthralling series, the Lions’ Kiwi ringmaster was in no doubt about the magnitude of his achievement.
And Gatland knows his success, qualified as it may be, has opened the door to another shot at the Lions in 2021 and perhaps his dream job of coaching the All Blacks one day.
“I thought this job was a hiding to nothing,” said Gatland.
“But it is one of those positions that you are offered and it’s very difficult to walk away from.
“You think you have the ability to go and do whatever it takes to make it successful.
“Having the chance to come to New Zealand, trying to win down here, is the ultimate challenge. Once I was offered the job, I couldn’t walk away from that sort of challenge.
“I think if anyone else had been doing it, we might not have drawn the series.”
Nought out of 10 for modesty but high marks for his stewardship of the hardest Lions tour of all, where his inside knowledge of New Zealand and New Zealanders reaped its benefits.
“In the past, people have come to New Zealand and haven’t been quite from PETE SAMSON in Auckland prepared about culturally what you’re facing,” said Gatland.
“Often, when you play All Blacks teams in New Zealand, the biggest challenge is to get 15 players going on the field believing they’re good enough to win. There was a lot of belief in our dressing room.”
It took everything the Lions had to salvage a draw on Saturday at the conclusion of an epic series.
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The All Blacks possessed the bigger punch but could never knock the resilient Lions out.
Even if the conclusion at Eden Park was ultimately unsatisfying, the monumental nature of the to and fro made for a terrific game.
“With two minutes to go players from both sides were saying, ‘What a game of rugby to be involved in’,” said Lions captain Sam Warburton.
“It was a special series to play in.”
The Lions led for all of three minutes in the three games but the record books will show neither that fact, nor the breaks they enjoyed with the crucial decisions. Gatland added: “When you play the All Blacks, you are playing at another level that you don’t experience that often. In the first 20 minutes of that Test they threw everything at us, but we hung in there. “To have lost the first Test and to come back and win the second and draw the third is a great achievement.” Gatland returns to the day job with Wales with his head held high. His Lions go their separate ways in the same vein. Not quite the history men, although after six weeks in New Zealand and a series to rank alongside any in living memory, a pride to be very proud of. D2939 3.6V Cordless Trimming Shears D2940 Extension Handle £12.99