What really happened inside Warren Gatland’s final 48 hours as Wales coach
12 February 2025 6:30am GMT
Just after 2pm on Monday afternoon, Warren Gatland reached for his phone. The doubts that had been festering since the autumn campaign had multiplied to the extent that they formed into a dark cloud in his mind. More than anything, he felt alone. It was time to take action.
In the best of days, Gatland leaned into pressure; revelled in it. But now it felt overwhelming, weighed down by a widespread negativity, piled on by some of his former players, which he found hard to comprehend.
For a moment he thought of the glory days, when during his first tenure coaching Wales, they had won three Grand Slams and twice reached the World Cup semi-final.
Just 16 months ago, following his return to the post in 2022, Wales had come agonisingly close to reaching the World Cup semi-finals again, but a lack of experience cost his side in the closing minutes in the quarter-final against Argentina.
Gatland remembered the critics then had predicted that Wales would not even get out of their World Cup pool, which included Australia and Fiji. But Wales topped it with four victories, including a record-breaking 40-6 mauling of Eddie Jones’s Wallabies. But any credit in the bank since then had long since been expended.
The loss to Argentina proved to be the first of 14 successive defeats that culminated in the humbling defeat in the rain in Rome against Italy on Saturday.
Talent pool not there for reboot
After the World Cup, Gatland had taken the decision to build a new group of players, as he had done so successfully in 2011, but with the Welsh regions struggling, the pool of talent that had been available to him in his first tenure was simply not there. In some regards the success of the national team had masked the issues that allowed the decline in competitiveness of the Welsh regions. Now it seemed like the dam had finally burst.
Gatland had offered his resignation at the end of last year’s Six Nations campaign, but it had been refused by Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Abi Tierney.
Two narrow defeats on the tour of Australia followed before the criticism of his tenure intensified during the autumn campaign, when Wales lost to Fiji, Australia and South Africa.
A WRU review of Gatland’s regime ensued, but having made it clear to his employers that he was determined to keep going, the decision was taken to back their man, although director of rugby Nigel Walker stepped down.
It must have felt like a humiliating process for the man who had also been head coach of the Lions tours in 2013, 2017 and 2021. Having flown back to his native New Zealand for Christmas, he debated with his family whether he should in fact call it a day. The recent death of two close friends had hit him harder than he expected.
He pledged to carry on, but told himself that he would do it on his terms, picking players who oozed positivity and promoting his right-hand man Rob Howley to take charge of the attack.
The 43-0 defeat by France in Paris in the opening round was a hammer blow.
Gatland, 61, had attempted to generate self-belief in his squad by telling them that the pressure was all on France, and while they held the championship favourites to 0-0 after half an hour, he knew the pressure would build from the home crowd. But the side overplayed, did not have the power to challenge the gain line and invited pressure.