Adam: Gatland must get new coaches in – or consider quitting
WALES legend Adam Jones has suggested Warren Gatland either has to go – or bring desperately needed ‘fresh blood’ to his backroom team for the Six Nations Championship and beyond.
The prop great, who won two Grand Slams himself under Gatland, revealed his views when asked about the Wales coach on BT Sport’s Rugby Tonight show, screened on Wednesday.
Jones feels the current coaching set-up has gone stale and needs new impetus if Wales are to carry on challenging.
The tighthead has always been up for the challenge in a rugby career spanning nearly 18 years, 95 Welsh caps and five Tests for the Lions.
So when the 36-year-old was asked by a viewer on Wednesday night’s show: ‘Is it time for Warren Gatland to leave as Wales coach?,’ the current Harlequins player/ coach was straight to the point.
“He’s been there a long time, hasn’t he?,” said Jones. “It might be time for some fresh blood.
“Or get someone in to help him (Gatland), even if he’s the boss. Get new staff in underneath him.”
Gatland has kept with pretty much the same coaching set-up from when he took on the Welsh job for the start of the 2008 Six Nations Championship with Rob Howley, Shaun Edwards, Robin McBryde and Neil Jenkins among the backroom team.
He’s resisted calls from pundits in the past to freshen things up and in the autumn faced criticism that Wales were lagging behind the other home nations in developing a game plan for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
It throws huge weight on Wales’ 2018 Six Nations Championship opener with improving Scotland in Cardiff, with Gregor Townsend’s side last month putting a record 53 points on the Wallabies while running the All Blacks close.
A match against Scotland in March, 2014, was the last Six Nations Championship game Jones played in and the following January he dramatically retired from international rugby after being left out of Gatland’s squad for the 2015 Championship.
His omission followed being left out of the autumn series and not receiving a recall with fourthchoice Cardiff Blues tighthead Scott Andrews preferred alongside Samson Lee and Aaron Jarvis.
It was a sorry way to call time on a stellar Test career and Jones reflected on that in the BT Sport studio alongside Brian O’Driscoll, who too had his issues with Gatland on the 2013 Lions tour of Australia when dropped for the final Test decider with the Wallabies.
“I didn’t finish in the way I wanted to and was very bitter,” added the former Ospreys and Blues front-rower.
Looking at O’Driscoll, he added: “We’ve both had our runs in with Gats and been dropped, or not picked, rightly or wrongly.”