Critics scratch their heads over selections by tetchy Gatland
Wales coach is finding life much tougher second time around, and falling out with the four regions hasn’t helped
There appears to be two main schools of thought in Wales on Warren Gatland in the second year of his second spell as head coach. One advises him to scoot off back to New Zealand and take his expensive (a reported salary of £500,000-plus) and antiquated ideas of playing, mystifying selections and cantankerous relations with the four regional teams with him. The other is Gatland is better equipped than anyone to ride the transition being wrought by players retiring or injured; he can see the arguments between the regions and the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) for what they are, and he has a magnificent track record from his first stint, 2008 to 2019, including three Grand Slams and two World Cup semi-finals.
George North (right) announced yesterday that Saturday’s match with Italy in Cardiff, in which Wales are playing to avoid a first Six Nations wooden spoon since 2003, will be his 121st and final Test. The big wing who has relocated to the centre in recent times, and accumulated 47 tries and three Lions caps overall, thus joins Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric, Dan Biggar, Leigh Halfpenny, Josh Navidi and Rhys Webb in a core of great Welsh servants who have packed in the international game in during the past 12 months.
In addition, Liam Williams, Louis Rees-Zammit, Taulupe Faletau, Dewi Lake, Ken Owens, Cory Hill, Ross Moriarty, Jonathan Davies, Gareth Anscombe and Joe Hawkins have been ruled out voluntarily or by injury, or by the 25-cap rule, while the props Wyn Jones, Nicky Smith, Tom Botha, Rhys Carre and Henry Thomas, and hookers Sam Parry and Liam Belcher seem to be simply out of favour.
This last area of Gatland’s selection is causing major scratching of heads. The front-row bench picks to face the Italians are Kemsley Mathias, Harri O’Connor and Evan Lloyd, who have two caps between them. They may just fit an overriding plan of giving players experience well ahead of the 2027 World Cup. But there is an awful lot of scrummaging and carrying expertise that Gatland, a former hooker himself, is overlooking. Some seasoned observers are so baffled they think he is wilfully making a point about shoddy development in the regions. Gatland, 60, had to clarify remarks last month that appeared to criticise the regions’ coaches and ability to “reset”, saying what he meant was the regions need to prioritise infrastructure, that “will have so much more of an impact for us long-term than one or two players will do in a squad”. Surely the best way to have all this out would be for Gatland and those coaches to speak publicly together? Over to you, WRU.
Playing for fifth or sixth place in the Six Nations is novel for Gatland. In his first spell, it was Italy nine times, Scotland twice and France, once, who brought up the rear, and Wales finished fifth just once, in 2017. This tasted sweet to a generation who had choked on the wooden spoon in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995 and 2003 – a period of great success for England.
Gatland returned for the 2023 Six Nations, and Wales finished fifth, but this felt partly excusable by the failure of Wayne Pivac as boss in the
There is an awful lot of scrummaging and carrying expertise that Gatland, a former hooker himself, is overlooking
meantime to fully institute a new way of playing.
Last weekend, Gatland dropped his hitherto first-choice Test centres Nick Tompkins and North, and played Owen Watkin and Joe Roberts instead. With North retiring, maybe it made sense to start blooding the successor, and Roberts had a couple of good moments. But France won 45-25, thanks in part to a huge, gnarly bench in contrast to the mostly wet-behind-the-ears Welsh.
The Harlequins tighthead prop Dillon Lewis now gets his second Test start since last February, presumably for his jackal threat and mobility, while Keiron Assiratti and Corey Domachowski are out all together. The explicable shift of 21-year-old captain Dafydd Jenkins from the second row to flanker against the French has been reversed, and Tompkins and North are back.
Meanwhile, Hawkins with his ability to play 10 or 12, is kicking his heels at Exeter, due to the WRU rules, Anscombe left for Japan, got injured and has now signed for Gloucester, and England picked up Cardiff-born wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, whose connections have told i Wales did not make a persuasive enough case to keep him.
Gatland has always said selection is the Test coach’s most difficult task. North has been pretty reliable, Rob Howley has returned to the coaching panel after a betting ban, new blindside flanker Alex Mann, the turnover king Tommy Reffell and a revived Aaron Wainwright have brought hope to the back row.
Some in Wales are prepared to write off this Six Nations in the name of planning. Others are worried that it is a sign of long-term decline.
And whether Warren Gatland is a cause or a solution is a matter of bitterly divided opinion.