I turned down the All Blacks
Exclusive: Warren Gatland on why he has put his loyalty to the Lions ahead of his home nation
Warren Gatland says he turned down New Zealand’s invitation to apply for the All Blacks job out of loyalty to the British and Irish Lions as well as the Chiefs, the Super Rugby club he joined after leaving his post with Wales.
Gatland was on New Zealand’s list of candidates to succeed Steve Hansen, but stuck with his plan to lead the Lions to South Africa in 2021.
“I was asked to apply for the position now and I’ve gone back to them to say I won’t be putting my name forward, because at this point I’ve made a commitment to the Chiefs and I’ve made a commitment to the Lions,” Gatland tells The Daily Telegraph in an interview to launch his autobiography.
“They appreciated it, they understood it,” Gatland says. “I just think it would look poor me applying [for the All Blacks job]. It wouldn’t sit well with me, having already made those commitments to the other two parties.”
Commonly seen as the No 1 in international rugby coaching, Gatland was coy on the possibility of one day managing England, but reflected on his history of mind games with Eddie Jones while criticising the Rugby Football Union for not building a national training centre to match the one Wales have: “I don’t know why they haven’t recognised what a difference that would make.”
The Lions will be relieved to learn that Gatland deferred his wish to coach his home nation. He says: “The thing about the All Blacks is, going back to New Zealand, being involved in Super Rugby, seeing how the Lions go – in another couple of years with the Chiefs, if you’re successful where you are, the opportunities come.
“I’m not saying, ‘How do I become the All Blacks coach?’ That will happen if you do a good job and you’re successful. That means that if I’m successful with the Chiefs, that opportunity might come along. Maybe it won’t. It’s not at the forefront of my thinking.”
In Gatland’s absence, Ian Foster, Scott Robertson, Jamie Joseph and Dave Rennie are the front-runners to coach the All Blacks, beaten by
England in the World Cup semifinals. “The next six weeks will be interesting. I’ll kind of sit back and enjoy the process,” Gatland says.
With Jones staying on at Twickenham, the possibility of Gatland coaching England has receded. The suspension of their rivalry, meanwhile, will deprive the Six Nations of much spice. In the latest round, Gatland suggested England may have already played the World Cup final in their semi, prompting Jones to say he hoped Gatland would enjoy “the third and fourth-place play-off ”.
“I wasn’t talking specifically about England,” says Gatland, who cites New Zealand’s laboured performance against France in the 2011 World Cup final after they had beaten Australia 20-6 in the semis.
“I was referring back to that. What people have got to realise as well was that in that England semifinal, when you get to a performance like that, it’s right at the highest point of emotion. People don’t realise it’s very, very difficult to bring that emotion the following week. I’ve experienced that in the past. That’s sport. Potentially it may have happened to England.
“New Zealand had beaten South Africa in pool play and England had dominated their semi-final; there was so much expectation, with people thinking they were going to win, but it just didn’t happen for them in the final. I thought that England performance [against the All Blacks] was one of the best rugby performances I’ve seen for a long, long time. A different team turned up the following week.”
Gatland says of the friction with Jones: “It’s a game. We realise it’s a game. I think we both know how it works. Sometimes the questions that are asked of us, if we haven’t seen the comments of the other, are twisted a little bit, manipulated. We’ve been out for dinner a couple of times with the coaching staffs, before the Six Nations. I think we’re aware there’s a bit of side games that go on sometimes. You might say things where you’re taking a bit of pressure off the players and that becomes the focus. I’ve learnt not to get too involved in that.
“In the past I would have thrown a few hand grenades in there and said things, but you’ll have noticed in the last few campaigns and even the World Cup I didn’t say a lot of things publicly, just kept my head down. And Eddie’s brilliant at it; [he can] do enough talking for all of us.
“He talked about them [New Zealand] being the greatest team in the world and Kieran Read being the greatest captain in the world. He was obviously contrived with some of the comments. One of the things you learn about New Zealand is that they take it so much to heart if you’re critical about them.”
As his book amply demonstrates, Gatland is a worldly figure. He speaks movingly of South Africa’s World Cup win: “I was at the dinner on the Sunday – the World Rugby awards dinner – and Siya Kolisi [the black Springbok captain], the way he spoke was outstanding. It kind of brought everything back into perspective – that sport is bigger sometimes than the game or the result. What winning to South Africa actually meant, to the nation, the country.”
Coaching England was a prospect that enticed him, he says, during his spell at Wasps from 2002-2005. “Definitely at that stage it would have appealed to me. I went through an exercise in my mind and looked at the two squads at this World Cup and thought, how many of our players would make the England squad? I thought maybe eight or nine.
“How many would have started? I’m not too sure. Our guys gave us everything, yet there’s probably 10 or 15 England players who didn’t make the England squad who would possibly be good enough for our squad as well. That’s a testament to the Welsh boys in how much they gave.
“You’re right about the resources England have. I know they’ve got Pennyhill Park, but one of the things that’s surprised me is why they haven’t got their own training centre.
“I’ve been surprised over the years that England have spent millions and millions of pounds on Twickenham and haven’t gone and built a purpose-built training centre that would be the envy of the world. That’s a step they’ve missed along the way in the time I’ve been here.”
Of the home of the Grand Slam champions, Gatland says: “Players come in for the first time and go, ‘Wow, I can see why Wales have done so well’.”
‘It surprises me England have not built their own training centre that is envy of the world’