Gatland junior gets the drop on dad
Chiefs coach Warren Gatland couldn’t help but smile when quizzed about his son’s efforts to win the game for the opposition. Paul Cully reports.
Warren Gatland the rugby coach was a disappointed man after his Chiefs side were denied by son Bryn’s late drop goal against the Highlanders in Dunedin last night.
But Warren Gatland the father couldn’t disguise his pride when asked whether his son would be forgiven within a day, or whether the healing process would take a little longer.
‘‘We actually went out to dinner last night [Thursday] and I got a text to say Josh Ioane was out,’’ said a smiling Gatland snr.
‘‘I looked at him and I went, ‘Are you on the bench tomorrow?’ And he said, ‘I am’.
‘‘I said OK. He wasn’t going to tell me, which was good.
‘‘And then we had a joke, and he said, ‘I’ve got a feeling I’m going to come on and kick the winning drop goal’.
‘‘And it ended up happening. I just went and saw him afterwards.
‘‘I’m not happy about the result, but he showed a bit of calmness there, and he’s done that in the past and won games in clutch moments.
‘‘Unfortunately we gave him that opportunity and in fairness he was able to step up to the plate and deliver for them.’’
Bryn Gatland certainly did that.
During the week, Aaron Mauger said Gatland had twice nailed big moments in training as the Highlanders prepared for the possibility of the golden point, and he looked like he was the coolest man in the 19,100 people at Forsyth Barr Stadium as he stepped up to kick the crucial drop goal in the Super Rugby Aotearoa opener.
In fact, Gatland looked more uncomfortable afterwards trying to accept some praise than he did knocking over the kick.
‘‘Often those things come pretty late in the game, so once we got behind on the scoreboard by a drop goal margin, the plan was to get the ball back and get into an area where you win a penalty or land a drop goal,’’ he said.
‘‘It just happened to fall on our side.
‘‘It was a wee but wonky, a wee bit left to right and I was pretty lucky to get that over, and I was just happy to get on the field.
‘‘The credit goes to the team on how they performed.’’
Don’’t be fooled by the modesty. It takes significant composure to win a hugely important game, while Gatland hasn’t even played for 13 months after picking up a nasty foot injury against the Sunwolves in Tokyo last year.
‘‘That was my first long-term injury and my first training afterwards was actually on that field [in Tokyo], I just had a run around with the Welsh boys [at the Rugby World Cup].
‘‘It’s unfortunate for Josh to get that injury but sometimes you get that opportunity.’’
There could be more opportunities coming for Gatland.
Mauger revealed that although a scan revealed that Ioane’s injury wasn’t as bad as first feared, he could still miss the Highlanders’ next game, against the Blues in Auckland in round three.
For Gatland snr, the Chiefs will get the chance to take on the Blues in Kirikiriroa next week, but he acknowledged they would have to be far more clinical.
‘‘We need to look at ourselves and make sure we’re more accurate in terms of lineout time, their drive was effective and caused us problems, and exiting from our own half, and stopping the turnovers.
‘‘We will be better next week.’’