Gatland: Mental well-being will be a challenge
AFTER announcing his backroom staff for the British & Irish Lions tour, Warren Gatland spoke to the press. Here’s what he had to say...
Question: With the complications caused by the pandemic, how different will this be to previous Lions tours?
Warren Gatland: I think it’s a moving feast. One of the big things we’ve spoken about, and that I’m conscious about, is that it’s ‘players first’ and what sort of things we can do when we are in our bubble.
How do we keep them entertained? Mental well-being as much as anything is really important and it’s going to be a challenge.
I’ve spoken to the coaches about the things that they’ve done in the Six Nations to keep the players entertained and lots of ideas are coming to us at the moment.
Teams had card nights, games nights, pool games, golf simulations, they did a lot of different things to try to keep some sense of normality and to alleviate some of the issues of boredom. So it’s going to be a challenge but hopefully we’ll get that right.
Q: Did Alun Wyn Jones prove to you in the Six Nations that he still has more in the tank and that he’s a contender to be captain?
WG: He is probably one of the guys that we would be looking at in terms of captain material. I think it does help coming from a team that has done reasonably well in the Six Nations. It does help.
There’s also a process to go through. Whoever is captain, you need to make sure you have that conversation with them to say that you might be captain on tour but there is no guarantee that you are going to play in the Test matches.
You still have to perform well and play well. Kind of everyone else understanding that.
If you are a player on tour and you are in the same position as the captain then you are probably thinking that if you know the conversation has been had that it is important that the captain plays well enough to be selected and if I play better than him in the same position then I have a chance.
That’s important for me to have that conversation. There’s no doubt that he would be one of the guys that we would be potentially looking at.
Q: Given the circumstances and the potential for having to quarantine upon return, do you worry that some players might turn you down?
WG: That’s a huge possibility. It’s something we’ve already spoken about.
It’s about contacting those players and saying you are on a list to be considered for the tour. We fully understand the challenges of being away from your family, being in a bubble and maybe having to quarantine, but we’re hoping to get the squad of players, coaches and staff vaccinated beforehand, that would be a real boost for us.
I fully understand if players maybe don’t put their hands up to tour, so we want to sound them out before we do finally select the squad.
The last thing I want to do is pick a squad and then have half a dozen players pull out, but I wouldn’t hold it against any player and I’d understand their personal situation of being away from home, family and the challenges that’s going to bring.
We’ve got to be flexible and innovative. We’ve got to make sure the players’ welfare is paramount for us to get things right and hopefully have a successful tour.
Q: What did you make of Wales’s turnaround in the Six Nations
WG: It was a strange Six Nations. There’s no doubt that you need a little bit of luck and some momentum and Wales took the luck with the two red cards.
I thought the Six Nations was brilliant from the perspective that there were five teams who, on their day, were all capable of beating each other. With the bounce of the ball and a couple of things, Scotland could have been playing for a Grand Slam, Ireland could have been playing for a Grand Slam as well, same situation with France.
It was pleasing from a Wales perspective that they had improved from the autumn. I went and watched them train one day of the Irish week and they looked sharp.
I was lucky enough to see Ireland train before they played England and I thought they were sharp as well.
I was pleased for them [Wales] and pleased that they did well.
Q: England finished fifth and the core of their squad are Saracens boys who don’t have any big matches now to prove their worth – will you allow yourself to pick on reputation or must you see guys playing well?
WG: It’s a little bit of both. There’s no doubt that some of those players didn’t have the greatest Six Nations this year, but a lot of them have credit from past successes – whether it’s winning in Europe, winning the Six Nations, performing well at World Cups or on previous Lions tours as well.
It’s probably not like it was 12 months ago where some of them would have been the first names on the sheet. Now you’re having a discussion about them and it’s a good discussion to have, in terms of knowing what they can do and what they’ve done in the past.
There’s nothing wrong with having a discussion about those English players.
There’s also… I’ve got to be conscious of the fact that we still don’t know what the situation is with PRL.
It’s not just the English players – looking at the [possible] squad there could be 16-20 English-based players.
There’s so much competition at the moment, so we’re trying to get a resolution on what PRL’S stance is on the release of players.
Q: Do you think you’ll be facing a top Springboks side given the fact they may not have played for 18 months by the time you arrive?
WG: It’s been hard to look at South Africa and watch them. My understanding is that they are hoping to have a couple of warm-up games before they play the Lions.
In the tour agreement, the South African players will potentially play against the Lions in those warm-up games as well.
It has been hard to look at South African rugby. There are a number of players based out of South Africa as well that we’ve been having a bit of a look at.
We’ve been watching Faf de Klerk pretty closely at Sale. It’s going to be a challenge, it’s going to be different.
South Africa were outstanding and got better as the World Cup went on. They’ve got back – Rassie’s gone back –to their DNA in terms of their physicality.
We’ve got to be mindful of that. Whatever South Africa team we play is going to be tough. Playing against
the world champions is incredibly exciting and also a massive challenge.
Q: There are no England coaches – is that a reflection of how they performed in the Six Nations?
WG: People are trying to make a story out of that. It’s nothing to do with ‘do I feel like I’ve got to have an English coach?’ It’s about me picking who I think are going to be the best fit for myself, people who I want to work with or people I’ve worked with in the past and people I think will work well as a group.
It’s nothing about... no-one made an issue of it in the past when we haven’t had Scottish coaches, it’s not about that, it’s just about trying to pick who you think are the best people to come into your environment, who I think I can work well with and hopefully put a good team together.
Q: Can you talk us through your plans for a pre-tour camp and the reason for potentially picking Jersey?
WG: We had an approach from Jersey and we have had confirmation from the government. We are definitely looking to go there.
The gym facility next to the rugby club is outstanding and fits our needs.
Looking at the Covid situation and Jersey being open, we still need to be really, really careful. We will be testing the players on a regular basis and being in our own bubble and understanding we may need to quarantine.
But there is a sense we could almost have some normality in preparing for that first game against Japan before we have to go into a pretty secure bubble when we get to South Africa.
That was one of the factors we looked at.
The positivity that we have had from the Jersey people and the government about us potentially going there has been absolutely outstanding.
I can’t speak highly enough about how welcoming everyone has been. It’s been a real positive.