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What Joe Schmidt said to Warren Gatland before thumping Wales
By AAP
Joe Schmidt has all the sympathy in the world for Warren Gatland’s plight even while sending his old New Zealand friend and foe ever closer to the exit door as Wales coach.
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Amid the satisfaction of a job well done, Wallabies boss Schmidt evidently also felt just a bit pained in inflicting the crushing 52-20 victory on his old sparring partner in Cardiff, a drubbing that left Welsh rugby agonising over the wreckage of a record-breaking 11th straight Test defeat.
It also left 61-year-old Gatland cutting an oddly melancholic figure as he mixed a defiant protestation that he was willing to fight for his job with an almost resigned shrug that he was happy to go along with whatever his WRU paymasters decided.
Asked if he could feel for his fellow Kiwi, Schmidt said: “Yeah, absolutely.
“We were talking before the game, we both shrugged our shoulders at the end of it, and said, ‘Who’d wanna be a coach?'”
Well, Gatland apparently still does. The man who once oversaw the best winning streak in the 143-year history of the Welsh national team – 14 in 2018-19 – may now also own the worst sequence, but some things never change.
“Absolutely, I’d be prepared to fight for my job … I do it because I love being involved in the game,” Gatland said.
“I have so many good memories with Wales and am incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved. It’s challenging. I’m only human so I ask myself if it’s the right thing to do. But I’m happy doing it.”
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With one match left in his November campaign, the most daunting of the lot against world champions South Africa next week, one more drubbing like Sunday’s looks as much a probability as more Gatland-beating from the Welsh media.
“It’s the most challenging time, there’s no doubt about that, and what will be will be,” he sighed.
“I am passionate about Welsh rugby but there’s a lot of negativity around the game right now. I want the best decision to be made about Welsh rugby. I will respect the decision and if that means me (going), I’m comfortable with that.”
Gatland did offer his resignation amid the losing streak after their Six Nations blowout, but amid this transitional period for a team that’s lost so many of its old luminaries to retirement, the real question in Wales remains: could anyone else do any better?
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“It’s tough,” said a sympathetic Schmidt, who felt the Welsh performance had been far better than the 32-point margin suggested.
“It’s tough for the Welsh players at the moment. I could see how hard they were working, the way they built their way back into the game at 19-13. That’s admirable stuff … and they probably just needed a couple of breaks to go their way.”
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Not many could do a better job, I'm not a Gatland fan, he regularly disses ref's and WR rules and gets away with it. Always bemoaning rules that disadvantage his players, typical of a NZ'der. But at present there isn't much even in URC teams from Wales to seem upbeat about. Some of the games won have been gifted to them by substandard reffing, so until the WRU start investing in their youth program, it's going to take a long time, but Gats is not the main problem. It's like the best chef trying to turn dig 💩 into a 4 course 5 star meal, not possible at the moment.
Talk about chucking a man under the bus..
Garland if I was you I'd get on the next plane and go and enjoy your life with your family! Gatland as been a legend for Welsh rugby and as given all of us our best day being a WRU fan. With the players, the likes of Jamie Roberts and Mike Philips to step up and give their 50ps worth is absolutely shocking,these boys are an absolute arrogance to the Welsh game,who do they think we are,?world beaters. We were never that when they played!We are far from it. It as been a building process for the Welsh game and a shocking one to say the least but as far as it goes Wales are not going to be improving any time soon. It is not anything to do with Garland,if anything he as helped us ,as fans to believe and watch. Us as Wales needs Warren Garland to stay and build us into a rugby team again. There is no one else out there to do the job, Garland can do. Wales to win the next six nations under Garland!
1. Gatland's record post 2019 is not good. It reflects his coaching methods and his unwillingness to adapt to how modern rugby is played which means to win 90% of games, you have to score at least 4 tries.
2. The WRU trio of Tierney, Walker and Collier-Keywood are not the right people for the job because they should have acted after the Six Nations and they have dithered about the future plan of Welsh rugby, something they said they would do in October this year.
3. The Regions have now started to get their infrastructure in order and eventually this will get to the National team. Players need to be fitter and stronger and I think this will be in place from now on.
4. A new coaching set up is needed to freshen things up and evolve Welsh rugby into an attacking, skillful one rather than the smash it up twice and kick game plan. For me, I'd do all I could to get Jake White as Director of Rugby, Shaun Edwards as Head Coach, Adam Jones as Forwards Coach, Brad Moar as Backs Coach and Steve Tandy as Defence Coach.
Leave Jake White out of it. The Bulls won't let him go and his contract runs until the end of 2027. However, I can see why you go with Jake. The amount of young talent he recruit and prepare for international rugby is just amazing.
Also a WC winning coach and the Bulls, who was like the Boks, forward dominant, is now one of the most dangerous attacking teams. Wales could definitely use someone like him. If anyone can reshape the Welsh team, he can. DOR is a far cry from what the WRU would allow though. They are just out for themselves.