Gatland not offering to resign after Wales loses every rugby test this year

CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Coach Warren Gatland did not and will not offer to resign after Wales lost to South Africa 45-12 on Saturday and confirmed a first winless year in 87 years.

Gatland offered his resignation last March when Wales received its first Six Nations wooden spoon in 21 years, and was turned down.

But Wales has lost every test since then, 11 in total this year, and 12 straight since the 2023 Rugby World Cup quarterfinals in France. It’s the worst losing streak in Wales’ 143-year history.

“The Six Nations is different, that’s a competition,” Gatland told broadcaster TNT Sports. “Traditionally, the autumn is used for development.

“I understand how important the Six Nations is to the Welsh Rugby Union from a results and finance point of view. I was genuine about (resigning). You probably approach the autumn a bit differently.”

This month, Wales has suffered an historic first home loss to Fiji and conceded its most points at home to Australia. There was an air of inevitability around the South Africa game.

Gatland has only one win in 10 home matches in the two years of his second stint with Wales. On Saturday morning, he said his wife Trudi asked him whether he’d considered a director-of-rugby-type role.

He’s been resolute this month about not resigning unless it’s in the best interests of Welsh rugby, about upholding his four-year contract, and needing time and patience to get the team winning again.

“It’s been challenging, the last couple of weeks,” he said. “I am only human and when you get a significant amount of negativity it is tough.”

He was heartened by the team’s performance on Saturday, easily its best of the autumn.

Despite being depleted again by the late withdrawals of tighthead prop Gareth Thomas (ill) and wing Tom Rogers (calf injury), Wales was inspired and implored by captain Dewi Lake, Jac Morgan and James Botham to restrict the Springboks to seven tries.

Wales’ problems run deeper than the national team. All four regions have suffered payroll cutbacks and are struggling to win. The Wales academy was disbanded and the under-20s have struggled. The last 18 months have seen the retirements of many of the stars of Wales’ most recent great era, many of whom gave Gatland his greatest successes.

“We punched massively above our weight for a number of years and we’ve been saying that when the dam bursts it’s going to take a little bit of time to put things right,” Gatland said. “The dam has burst.”

He said he and the regions need to work better together and the players need a little better conditioning for the Six Nations in February.

“There needs to be an agreement between the union and regions to affect positive change,” he said. “It’ll take time. It won’t happen overnight but I came away from today thinking, if these players can learn, there’s some hope.

“What I saw today from this group of young men and players, it gave me a lot of hope that there’s an opportunity to improve and get better for the Six Nations.”

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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby