The never-ending charade of Gatland’s media performances

Ever since arriving in Wales it’s been clear that Warren Gatland enjoys the psychological element of being the Head Coach of a national rugby union team.

Whether that’s trying to change the mindset of his players, or getting into the head of the opposition in the week of a test match, he clearly loves the way in which his words can provoke a reaction. It also serves as a good distraction, at times, from the players or any circumstances surrounding Team Wales, by making himself the story.

Since returning to the job early last year though some of these interjections in the media from Gatland have become increasingly bizarre and belie not only a complete lack of understanding of strategic development of rugby in Wales, and how he fits into that as Head Coach of the national team, but also how his words can impact public perception of a player.

We knew already that his views on how the professional game in Wales should be structured, and how the Welsh Rugby Union should be investing in that, are skewed. During his time as Head Coach he has flip-flopped from backing compass point franchises, to botching the current set up by merging the Ospreys and Scarlets, and fiddling with the regional boundaries of Cardiff and Dragons, to most recently backing the current four teams to play in an Anglo-Welsh League.

Rarely has he ever spoken out about how his employers at the WRU have systematically failed to invest in, and properly manage, the development pathway and the professional game, likely because it gives him the opportunity to massage his own ego by claiming he papers over cracks and any successes are purely down to him, while failures can be attributed to the pro clubs.

No greater example of that is this week as Gatland told the media he’s “not 100% convinced we’ll have a proper reset within our regions”, how “it’s probably felt sometimes like you’re in a sinking ship and trying to plug the holes a little bit”, and questioned “is more money going to go on buying players or is the extra money going to be on fixing up the infrastructure, the facilities and quality people in your backroom team?”.

With no hint of irony he went on to speak about how the national team camp tries “to create a ‘no excuses’ environment”, despite the entire monologue being one big excuse ahead of an anticipated heavy defeat at the hands of Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.

If the New Zealander was being 100% honest and truly wishing to create a “no excuses environment” then he’d be speaking about how his employer has lumbered the pro clubs with millions of pounds worth of loans from the covid period, is continuing to reduce salary caps and minimise payments to the professional game every year, causing the gap between the club and international camps.

Given how that might ultimately reveal that his input into decision making at the WRU has partially resulted in the mess Welsh rugby currently finds itself in though, I’d suggest that is unlikely to happen.

Beyond all that though, Gatland has recently developed a concerning habit of throwing people around him under the bus in his interactions with the media, singling out individuals for criticism or putting them in the line of fire for comments they may, or may not, have made in private.

There was the story of how skills coach Neil Jenkins had exclaimed that Immanuel Feyi-Waboso could “bugger off”, or words to that effect, when the Exeter player accepted a call-up to England’s team, painting Jinks out as chippy, to say the least. That was unnecessary, as was mentioning Alex Mann during his professional environments rant this week.

The Cardiff flanker apparently told a sponsors event that he “now knows what a professional environment is like and what it should be like”. I’ve no problem with the comment in itself, I don’t for a minute expect Mann meant it as a negative towards the Blue & Blacks, and I’d have thought going from training at the Arms Park with a part-time defence coach, to training at The Vale Resort with a huge support staff, would represent a significant step up.

Going from your club set up to a national team camp should be a level up, if we’re being honest, but Gatland specifically name checking Mann, a 22-year-old in his first full season of senior professional rugby with two caps to his name, is just bizarre. The only reason to do so is to massage that ego again, “yeah, well, Alex Mann said my environment was really professional actually”.

I’ll also go back to round one of the Guinness Six Nations where, despite a feeling of positivity around the country after an impassioned second half fight back from a young Wales team against Scotland, Gatland felt the need to talk about conceding silly penalties, specifically stating “the Josh Adams one was dumb and when you think about it, that’s the difference between winning and losing the game”.

Among the more seasonal Welsh rugby fans, we’ll call them, there is a weird devotion to the Head Coach as an almost God-like figure. As such, within an hour of those comments there were people appearing on Twitter and Facebook to impart their own wisdom on how dumb Adams supposedly is.

Leaving aside the fact that Gatland’s comment is nonsensical, if there is no penalty awarded there then the rest of the game is totally different, it just underlines how he either has no understanding of the impact of his comments on the abuse some players get online, or he simply doesn’t care. Adams is not a dumb player, he got caught out by the referee in that instance, but generally he is an incredibly intelligent winger.

It’s frustrating because this should be an incredibly exciting time in Welsh rugby actually. Yes, the results may not be going our way currently, but the young talent that is emerging and the style of play that is evolving from that is one to be enthused about.

Unfortunately, Warren Gatland is sapping that energy with his comments in the media. I noted before the tournament that his insistence that Wales could win the Six Nations was unhelpful and that he needed to take a look at the Matt Sherratt and Toby Booth manual of clear and honest communication to ensure that players, coaches and supporters went on this squad building journey together.

Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to have happened, whether that’s due to naivety or narcissism. Either way it’s time for his media performances to stop.