Warren Gatland ready to enter Lions’ den
WARREN GATLAND will today be confirmed as the Lions coach for the 2013 series in Australia, five months later than planned and at least 10 months since his future appointment became known.
Gatland, the Wales Grand Slam coach, was Ian McGeechan’s senior Lions deputy in South Africa in 2009 so, though a New Zealander, is precisely the sort of insider tour manager Andy Irvine said, as long ago as last autumn, was necessary.
But Gatland’s elevation to these islands’ most illustrious coaching position is fraught with potential peril for his adopted countrymen of Wales, as Graham Henry’s experience with the Lions in Australia in 2001 as the only previous overseas head coach demonstrates.
The parallels are fairly exact. Both joined with Wales approaching rock-bottom.
Pre-Gatland, Wales had failed to make the 2007 World Cup quarter-final after being knocked out by Fiji. Henry – ‘the Great Redeemer’ – took over immediately following a 96-13 defeat in South Africa.
Henry went on to guide the All Blacks to the Webb Ellis Cup last year. His Lions-rooted misadventures – the tour itself but equally the fall-out with his Welsh players which led to his resignation before the next Six Nations ended – helped make him an eventual World Cup winner.
Everyone knows Warren deserves to be there on merit
“It was very difficult in 2001,” said ex-Wales centre Mark Taylor, one of Henry’s captains and a non-Test Lion in 2001. “Graham had come to Wales and taken us a fair way up the ladder. He lifted us out of the doldrums and a lot of players deserved to be on that plane.”
The tour itself was plagued by English indiscretions, mainly involving Matt Dawson and Austin Healey. But of greater significance for Henry was the resentment generated among his own Welsh players who failed to make the series.
Irvine wanted his Lions coach to be free of all parochial commitments for the entire season. Instead, Gatland, 49, will be involved in Wales’ autumn Tests against Australia and New Zealand before opting out of the Six Nations and leaving Wales to his deputy, Robert Howley.
No problem there. Howley was coach when Wales endured three narrow defeats in Australia in June while Gatland was laid up with broken ankles suffered when falling off a ladder.
“There was that resentment bubbling in 2001, but that doesn’t apply on this tour,” said Taylor.
“Everyone knows Warren deserves to be there on merit. Being out of Wales selection for the Six Nations means he is an independent selector and there shouldn’t be any resentment from players from any country.”
