The last rites, if that is what they are, are going to drag on a while longer yet. On Wednesday, Warren Gatland reiterated that he would resign as head coach if it were “in the best interests of Welsh rugby”, while also making it very clear that in his opinion it is not.
Gatland says he had the conversations with his family and his employers after Wales lost 52-20 to Australia on Sunday, their 11th straight defeat. Whatever was said, it has left him “focused solely on preparing the team for this week”.
Which brings the ominous prospect of a match against South Africa, the back-to-back world champions. The only thing Wales would gain by making a change at this point is a bad start for whoever they let take over.
Whether Gatland is still there for the first game of the Six Nations, which is away to France at the end of January, is another question. He would not be drawn on it: “If you start thinking about other things, it’s a distraction you don’t need.” But he did confirm there is no break clause in his contract, so the WRU would need to buy him out.
“I do care passionately about Welsh rugby and that’s why I’ve said that if people feel that the best decision is for me to go, then that’s OK, I’ll move on and look for something else,” Gatland said. “I honestly believe that if you make that decision now, what are you going to achieve? Is someone else going to come in there and start again, how long is that process going to take? What players are available to us at the moment that are potentially going to affect results?”
Gatland insists this team are as good as there is out there, because of the dire state of the regional game in Wales, and he is right that firing him is not going to fix any of the broader problems. “I know for a number of years that we felt like the success we had with the national team was papering over the cracks that were underneath,” he said. “I mentioned in the past that when the dam burst, it was going to take a while to plug it up again.
“That’s probably where we are at the moment. We need to look at the future, the pathways and the structures. I’ve encouraged the union on a number of occasions to be bold about making changes in the best interests of Welsh rugby.”
Gatland said he has had a lot of private messages of support in the past few days, “by phone, email and through my family”, but there are not many people who seem to be willing to offer him the same sort of backing in public. When asked how he was handling all the criticism, Gatland said: “I try and stay away from it. You’re not human if you don’t ask yourself some questions about why you’re doing it and whether you enjoy it. But those things are understandable. It’s part of the job, isn’t it?”
He has made five changes to the deckchairs. Blair Murray is moved to full-back, Rio Dyer is on the wing, Sam Costelow starts at fly-half, and Christ Tshiunza and Taine Plumtree come into the pack. No one in the XV has 50 caps, only two have more than 25. South Africa have more than 900 in their matchday squad.
It was two years ago that Wales beat South Africa 13-12 in Bloemfontein, but things have fallen so far so fast that Gatland’s pre-match chat turned into an exercise in expectation management. “Hopefully we go out and give a better performance than we did last week.”
Which made it sound as if it was all beyond his control. Perhaps the New Zealander is just too smart to put himself on the hook by promising things he cannot be sure he can deliver. Asked what the Welsh public should expect from the side on Saturday, he said: “The public want to see some passion and desire and for the players to go out there and show what it means to put the red shirt on. If they see that, I think they’ll be happy.” Winning, or even going close, did not come into it.
“We’ve been pretty clear in terms of the plan we’ve had,” Gatland said, “We’ve got a group of young players that need a bit of time. I’m aware of the pressure and that decisions could be made that are outside my control. We’ve just asked for a little bit of time. Whether we get that time, we’ll have to wait and see.”
He has at least four days.
