Warren Gatland has been told by the British & Irish Lions hierarchy that the job of head coach for the 2025 tour of Australia is his if he wants it, despite the series defeat by South Africa. Gatland refused to rule out a fourth tour as head coach in the aftermath of the defeat by the Springboks and he has subsequently received the firm backing of the Lions chairman, Jason Leonard, and the managing director, Ben Calveley.
Gatland has been a part of the four previous tours – in South Africa 12 years ago he was forwards coach – and though only one of those has resulted in a series victory, he remains a firm favourite at boardroom level. On Sunday morning he flew back to New Zealand, where he intends to spend 14 days in quarantine mulling over his future and though the appointment of the next head coach is unlikely to be made until 2023, the job appears to be Gatland’s for the taking.
“I don’t think he will have a problem with us,” said Leonard. “The highest accolade that I can give someone like Gats is that he is up there with Sir Ian McGeechan. If you cut him in half, he bleeds Lions. He just gets what the Lions is. Warren Gatland has got to be in consideration. It’s great to hear he is up for it.”
Calveley added: “Having worked with him for this two-year period and incredibly closely for the last seven to eight months, he has just proved once again what an outstanding coach he is but also what an outstanding individual he is. He has brought together this team of rivals, bonded them in the most challenging situation we have faced in any Lions tour and he deserves massive credit because in our view is right up there with one of the very best in the world.”
Though the Lions have won just one of their past six series, Leonard said the concept is “alive and kicking”, with Calveley saying the organisations’ finances are in “good shape” despite a tour played out behind closed doors with huge demand for tickets to Australia expected from supporters unable to travel to South Africa.
Gatland and his assistants have bemoaned repeatedly how weakened the opposition was in the warmup games, with no Springboks in action for their franchises, hindered their chances of success. Australia’s provincial sides would be equally underpowered without any Wallabies in their ranks but matches against Fiji and other Pacific Island nations could be arranged.
“The one thing that I would say is that you would be surprised at how healthy the Lions are – alive and kicking,” said Leonard. “People have not been able to come on this tour and the interest in 2025 is through the roof. Everyone is talking about that already so the Lions are going to be around for a while and it’s fantastic to be part of that. We are so looking forward to that going ahead and [up to] 50,000 fans coming over as well.”
Not for the first time, Gatland also urged the players’ clubs to take a more cooperative approach to give the Lions more preparation time for future tours. The Premiership clubs have traditionally been problematic and after finally granting their players release for the preparation camp in Jersey they insisted they would not do so again before their domestic final has been played.
The Breakdown: sign up and get our weekly rugby union email
“As soon as we get back, we’ve got a bit of work to get through regarding this tour, but it’ll be sooner rather than later to sit down with everyone involved and actually understand their angst in that aspect and get ours across as well,” said Leonard. “We left it a little bit too late [for this tour]. It’s a case of just making sure that we’re fair to everyone in having that conversation.”