It’s official, Warren Gatland is no longer the head coach of the Wales men’s senior team after a torrid run of results.
Hindsight is 20/20, but when the New Zealander offered his resignation last March, the Welsh Rugby Union board should have leapt at the opportunity.
Gatland put his head on the block after a first Wooden Spoon finish in the Six Nations in 21 years as the men in red failed to win a single match.
A nightmarish 2024 for Welsh Rugby
Granted it is far easier to look almost 12 months down the line and state that they should have shown him the door, particularly when one considers Gatland’s pedigree and proven track record of turning Wales into a powerhouse of international rugby.
The optimistic view was that the team had hit rock bottom and couldn’t fall any further but truthfully, it was only the start. He paid his dues and frankly deserved the opportunity to turn things around but the writing was on the wall then already.
Before heading off to Australia, Wales met the world champion Springboks at Twickenham Stadium for a profitable money-grab fixture and while the bank statement might have looked more presentable afterwards, the team’s performance was not.
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A changed Bok team void of a handful of URC semi-finalists and fielding several players lacking match fitness turned up at Twickenham to hammer Gatland’s men 41-13 running in five tries. It was yet another indication of how far Wales had fallen that a once closely fought and brutal Test rivalry was now not much more than a glorified training session.
Still, hopes were high that ending a losing streak of seven games was possible in Australia as Joe Schmidt had little time to prepare a wounded Wallabies outfit that had been embarrassed at the World Cup the year before.
But this was not the same Wallabies outfit as Schmidt masterminded yet another victory over his old sparring partner going back-to-back with Wales’ tour ending with a woeful performance against the Queensland Reds just eking out a win.
It was a disastrous tour but time after time the team produced glimmers of hope that could keep the board and fans believing that maybe just maybe Gatland can take Wales from their lowest low yet again but as every sports fan knows it’s that hope that kills you.
The hope reappeared for the opening game of the Autumn Nations Series against a Fijian outfit that had only got their Top 14 stars into camp earlier in the week and after coming so close to knocking over the Welsh at the World Cup, the Pacific Islanders got their cigar in Cardiff clinching a 24-19 victory. Perhaps on home turf, they had a better chance against the Wallabies? Nope, a 52-20 hammering occurred. In the aftermath of that result, Galtand looked a broken man.
“Whatever the best decision is for Welsh rugby, I’m comfortable with that,” he said. “If that’s about me going, then make the decision. We’ll talk about that and make that together.”
Another meeting with the Boks concluded the window and any hope of not going winless for the first time in 87 years quickly dissipated when South Africa scored a point a minute in the opening quarter.
Gatland’s rise
After two more defeats in 2025, the hope is non-existent and the Welsh Rugby Union have swung the axe on the greatest head coach they have ever had.
That’s the telling bit and why the run of deplorable results have been allowed to continue because, without a shadow of a doubt, Gatland has been the reason for so much of Wales’ success.
When he arrived for his first stint in charge, Wales were licking their wounds having been knocked out of the 2007 World Cup at the pool stages by the hands of Fiji.
“Wales is the sleeping giant of world rugby, I want to achieve potential,” Gatland stated upon his arrival and boy did he deliver.
In his first Six Nations campaign, he led Wales to their first title in three years but their first Grand Slam in a century. He had emphatically thrown down the gauntlet of what to expect in the years to come.
While his style and tactics have been criticised time and time again over the years it was effective. He took the small nation of Wales with an even smaller player pool and turned them into world-beaters. A team that understood their strengths and weaknesses but wasn’t fussed about how they won just that they did.
During his first tenure in charge which spanned 12 years, Gatland won three Six Nations titles all of which were Grand Slams with Wales winning another title in 2013 when he was away preparing for the British and Irish Lions series.
Simply put, for much of his coaching career with Wales, Warren Gatland was beating the odds that were very much stacked against him. Sure, there were truly world-class and generational talents like Alun Wyn Jones, Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric, Leigh Halfpenny, Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies and so on at his disposal but his pool of players was always smaller than many of the other top nations.
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Overwhelming odds
Wales were punching above their weight and were always competitive against the biggest and best teams in the world.
Gatland had the right formula of having the right coaches around him to get the best out of the team and had experience and talent in his player pool to outperform expectations.
But when he returned in 2023, the odds doubled, if not tripled, against him. Not only did he return without his trusted defence guru Shaun Edwards but returned with Welsh Rugby in turmoil.
Player strikes, budget slashing at the regions and sexism and misogyny allegations at the WRU meant that he returned with his empire already starting to crack.
The crumble then started just before the World Cup with Jones and Tipuric announcing their retirements before Gatland announced his final squad. While the foundations held on for France 2023, it was only going to last so long.
The retirements of Halfpenny, Biggar, Ken Owens and others followed as Gatland was gutted of all the experienced campaigners who very much set the standards and pushed the team to the heights of his first tenure.
So much so that when George North earned his 121st and final cap just four players had at least 50 Test caps to their name.
The enormity of the task that faced Gatland cannot be understated and was a nigh-on impossible job with experience being a crucial factor in international rugby.
Gatland witnessed the demise of his empire with the foundation completely removed and while tried as mightly as possible to fill those voids with the rising youth, it was simply not enough.
Unsavoury dismissal
As mentioned above, the decision should have been made in 2024 and Gatland was given one last hurrah, the Six Nations, to turn things around but the task was just too great even for a coach of his pedigree and experience.
The failings of the WRU are well-documented and remain consistent as they usher out their greatest coach of all-time in Premier League-esque fashion showing him the door midway through a tournament. Gatland has been a selfless servant to Welsh Rugby spending well over a decade working tirelessly to get the team into the highest tiers of international rugby taking Wales to heights few fans would have ever imagined and his final reward is this.
Gatland only returned to Wales from New Zealand to turn the tide and get the proud rugby nation back on track. He answered the SOS and in March last year when he offered his resignation, his departure would have been on his terms. Again, he was asked to stay on and steer the ship despite the odds. Yes, he has his shortcomings as a coach which is painfully evident over this run but he is a fierce fighter and one that will continually get back off the mat and go again regardless of how much blood is poor from his face.
He proved time and time again in his first tenure and now again in his second. After again offering to step aside in November last year if that is what the WRU deemed was the right call, he was asked to soldier on. But has now been sent packing in an unsavoury manner.
Gatland’s final statistics as he departs the Wales head coach role for a second and possibly final time is that he has overseen their worst-ever losing streak of 14 straight defeats. But his legacy should be what he achieved over more than 150 Test matches in charge of the team.
He deserves to go down as not only a legend of Welsh Rugby but of international rugby with a spot reserved in the World Rugby Hall of Fame. The writing was on the wall in 2024, Gatland had to go but not like this.
READ MORE: Warren Gatland gone! Wales confirm drastic mid-Six Nations sacking after 14 successive defeats
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/opinion-warren-gatlands-sacking-was-overdue-but-he-deserved-a-better-farewell
