The secret of a coach is how long you can con people before they see how c**p you really are!
WARREN Gatland has used his coronavirus lockdown in his beach house on the Bay of Plenty to open up about his time coaching in the northern hemisphere.
In an in-depth interview with The
Breakdown Show on Sky Sports NZ, the Grand Slam-winning Welsh coach revealed his true relationship with outspoken England boss Eddie Jones, why the much-vaunted Warrenball should have been named ‘winningball’ and the one radical change he would love to see World Rugby implement to make the game even better.
He also opened up about a video posted on social media recently of him dancing with daughter Gabby during the lockdown... it went down a storm with fans in New Zealand.
Here’s what the straight-talking Kiwi coaching legend had to say on a wide range of subjects...
Run me through that video that’s appeared on social media?
“Look, it was the weekend, there’s a few of us down on Waihi Beach, my daughter and her fiancee.
“We’ve been working pretty hard, I was sitting up on the deck having a little drink and I was just dancing away to a bit of music.
“It was videoed and put out there.”
Did you ever see your journey as a player continue into coaching?
“I think I was always going to be a coach.
“I played No.8 until I was about 19 or 20 until I realised I was too fat and too slow to be a quality loose forward even though I played there for Waikato Schools and North Regions.
“Someone said have you thought about moving into the front-row as hooker?
“I just loved it, the physical element, the opportunity to get your hands on the ball on a regular basis.
“Those experiences with the All
Blacks made me a better coach as I was always analysing my game.
“You go away on an All Blacks tour and you’re thinking how do I get a Test spot? There’s one of two ways. Either the team plays crap and you get four or five games and you don’t want to be a part of that.
“Or the player in front of you gets injured.
“You’re not wishing ill-will on anyone to get in there, so it’s difficult.
“It definitely gave me an understanding about my role and what was important. For me I expect my players to be really disappointed on missing out on selection and I want them to believe in themselves and want to be selected
“It’s how you respond to that disappointment afterwards because the team is more important.”
How do you respond to the emotional challenge of coaching against the All Blacks?
“I’m an incredibly proud Kiwi and every time the All Blacks go out and play, I’m supporting them.
“I want them to go out and win competitions and win games as with any New Zealand sporting team.
“But coaching against the All Blacks my job is to give 100 per cent of what I’ve got to do whatever I can to beat them.
“It’s difficult being a proud Kiwi but coaching against New Zealand I was desperate to win.”
Have you got a coaching template having taken charge of different teams and different characters?
“The secret of a coach is how long you can con people before they found out how crap you really are!
“To me doing things right off the field is more important.
“I’m a great believer in getting the balance right. Teams I’ve been involved with, we train pretty hard and you’ve got to enjoy each others’ company. You have a drink together, without being stupid and being responsible.
“It’s about having a laugh, family becomes incredibly important with environments I’ve been involved with.
“Probably the strangest request I got was from Samson Lee, who comes from the travelling background. He came up to me and asked if it was okay to miss training on a Tuesday before a Test match because he had a planning meeting with the Llanelli council for a travelling site on some land he bought.
“It was really important to him and I just treated it as if he’d got an injury. I knew in doing that, the next time I needed something from him, he’s going to do it.”
Who is the coach you respected the most and just loved beating?
“I loved beating Eddie Jones.
“We’ve been out for dinner a few times and the whole media thing is just a game.
“You’ll get asked a question and you might give a response to it. And they’ll use your answer which he’ll respond to.
“Before the Six Nations, we’ll go out to dinner and just have a laugh to what happens in the media.
“It’s just part of it. Before the Six Nations launch I’ll say ‘go in there Eddie and throw in a few grenades and he’ll say the same to me as well.
“But it’s always nice to get one up on him.
“Probably one of the guys I respect is Rassie Erasmus with South Africa. I really like his philosophy with the game and his attitude, he’s got a huge amount of respect for the job he did at Munster and obviously he’s done a fantastic job since he went back to South Africa.
“I enjoy conversations and enjoy coaching against him as well.”
Did ‘Warrenball’ annoy you and was
it something you wanted to play at the time?
Asked if he wanted to give it his own name, Gatland said: “Winning ball.”
“What happened at the time with Wales was that you’ve got to realise you play to the strengths of the side you’ve got.
“When I went to Wasps they were bottom of the Premiership and I looked at the team and wondered ‘how the hell are they bottom’?
“Ian Jones was there at the time, Lawrence Dallaglio, Joe Worsley, Stuart Abbott, Fraser Waters and Josh Lewsey.
“It was a pretty good team, but not a big team and we played some pretty exciting rugby. You go to Wales and you’re limited to just four teams to pick from.
“Each team had eight foreign players in their starting XV, so potentially you’re only picking from 28 players who were Welsh qualified.
“I think at that time, out of the four teams starting on the weekend, out of the 12 loose forwards, eight of them were foreigners.
“Physically the players I had were big, George North was around 108kg as an 18-year-old, Jamie Roberts was 110kg and Jonathan Davies was 105kg. We used those players to the best effect to get us across the gainline and to get some front-foot ball.
“I don’t think it was any different to what anyone else does.
“Brian Smith coined the phrase ‘Warrenball’ and no-one knew what it really was. Jonah (Lomu) was used that way, wasn’t he?”
If you could change one thing in the game what would it be?
“I’ll tell you what I think would be a positive thing in the game... I like the rugby league drop-out from the goal line.
“The reason I like it is that potentially, you can get the ball back to halfway which means if you carry again, you can attack from 35 metres out.
“If you drop out it must go a minimum of five or 10 metres, so you can drop-out short if you want.
“If you put that little kick through and the defending team have to touch it down behind their goal-line for a drop-out that will create a little bit more space in the game. That would be a positive change to the game.”