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Warren Gatland, who resigned after a second stay as a Wales Country Make on Tuesday, will be memories as a coach without frills who supervised a golden era of Welsh rugby when he took over.
Gatland’s resignation follows the defeat of 22-15 of the Six Nations on Saturday against Italy which condemned Wales to a record defeat of the 14th consecutive test.
New Zealander Gatland, 61, was coach for the first time in Wales from 2008 to 2019, taking control of a demoralized team who crashed from the 2007 Rugby World Cup after a shock defeat against Fiji.
Gatland quickly overturned the team, winning the Six Nations in 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2019.
During three of these years – 2008, 2012 and 2019 – Wales finished the rare “Grand Chelem” by winning each match in the Six Nations.
Under Gatland, who also trained the British and Irish lions on three tours – winning the 2013 series against Australia, attracting New Zealand four years later, but losing against South Africa in 2021 – Welsh success was forged on a robust defense that opponents often struggled to crack.
In addition to the hard nose defense coach, Shaun Edwards, who has since joined France, Gatland, born in Hamilton, gave Wales a difficult advantage with a conservative and one -dimensional style of rugby criticisms nicknamed “Warrenball” .
He has borne fruit, Wales, has repeatedly put the title for the title of the Six Nations and ended a miserable race against teams in the southern hemisphere of Australia and South Africa .
The sequence of 13 consecutive victories of Australia against Wales ended in 2018 when the hosts finished a 9-6 victory against the Wallabies in Cardiff.
Gatland resulted in Wales to five victories on Springboks, although South Africa pushed them to get out of the consecutive World Cups in 2015 and 2019 at the Ko stadium.
Gatland, a former hooker who played 17 games for New Zealand but has never won a cap, trained Wales against his homeland in 12 games but never won.
A 40-17 defeat by the All Blacks in the third place match at the 2019 World Cup was his last match in charge during his first spell.
– Pay the price –
Gatland returned to New Zealand and spent three years, largely unsuccessful, as a chief coach and then director of rugby for the franchise of super rugby chiefs.
But then came the call of the Welsh Rugby Union for a second pass with the Wales.
Gatland replaced his New Zealand compatriot Wayne Pivac, under which Wales raised the six nations of 2021, but won only 13 of the 34 tests, undergoing defeats that are sober against Georgia and Italy.
Under Gatland, Wales dominated its swimming pool during the 2023 rugby world cup, but was eliminated by Argentina in the quarterfinals.
The team’s last victory was a swimming pool victory over Georgia in this tournament.
Then came a disastrous 2024 six nations, the Wales claiming the wooden spoon.
Since this victory over Georgia over 450 days ago, Wales finished 2024 without an international victory, a first year without test victory since 1937 and fell to a hollow of all time in the world.
This series of form coincided with the retirement of a certain number of leading players such as Al Un Wyn Jones, Dan Biggar, Justin Tipuric and Ken Owens.
He also came at a time when rugby finances in the country are in trouble and the four professional teams are in difficulty.
While Gatland soleled more than 20 players in his second fate, their lack of experience shone and the victories turned out to be elusive.
As Gatland himself has said on several occasions, international rugby is a sport based on the results where coaches pay for failure, which is the means of describing its second spell in charge.
LP / IWD
