Gregor Paul: The real source of Warren Gatland's frustrations

Here we are four months after the British & Irish Lions tour of New Zealand and not a soul is touting Warren Gatland as the next All Blacks coach.

The composite side managed to do the unthinkable and draw what everyone saw as the impossible to win series and still, despite the quality of the football they played and achieving beyond all expectation, Gatland's star is not blinding anyone.

He has not advanced up the pecking order to replace incumbent All Blacks coach Steve Hansen who has all but confirmed he will stand down after the next World Cup. The race, if it can be called that, would appear to have two horses in it - current assistant All Blacks coach Ian Foster and Joe Schmidt who is at the moment in charge of Ireland.

Gatland is not even a dark horse, as Vern Cotter, strangely let go by Scotland and now the highest paid coach in the world at Montpellier, has been assigned that role.

Gatland came to New Zealand with the Lions, he saw, he almost conquered and yet his presence barely registered in the halls of power or indeed in the often more influential court of public opinion.

Is that the real reason why he has, seemingly out of the blue, revealed that he hated coaching the Lions in New Zealand and never wants to do it again?

He says that what he hated was the negativity of the media and this relentless sense of New Zealand being against him and the team.

But pressure and negativity come with the job. Gatland said many times before the tour that he knew he would be facing a hostile media and public and that's partly what made New Zealand the ultimate touring venue.

He said he knew there would be nowhere to hide, that it would be the ultimate test of resolve to navigate a way through such treacherous environments.

So for a coach of Gatland's experience and renowned preparation to claim he was worn down by constantly being judged, doesn't seem credible.

He also, understandably, was hurt by Sean O'Brien saying that he felt the Lions would have won 3-0 but for Gatland's coaching.

The Irish flanker had a great tour but his post-series assessment was patently silly and unfair and most serious followers of the game would know that.

Gatland would also have known that since time began, some Lions players get home and royally whine about what they encountered while on tour. Again, it is part of the gig; the Lions bring four countries together that are usually trying to take each other's heads off.

Politics is a huge part of it all as Gatland well knows. And he also knows that he's not popular in Ireland - largely because he dropped the legendary Brian O'Driscoll from the final test of the 2013 tour and also because he's said, in his role as Wales coach, a few inflammatory things over the years.

A disgruntled player having a pop - especially one from Ireland - should have been water off a duck's back to Gatland.

However harsh it may be to think this, Gatland gave the impression while he was in New Zealand that there was too much of him worried about himself. That the not so hidden agenda was his desire to establish as a serious contender to succeed Hansen.

In the first week he audibly swore while leaving a press conference at which he was repeatedly asked about his perceived fixation with a style of rugby dubbed 'Warrenball'.

He said he didn't see why he had to keep defending himself. There was something thin-skinned and fragile about his response. As there was throughout the tour when he continually said there was a concerted campaign by the media to personally damage him.

There was no such thing. He saw genuine analysis of the Lions as personal criticism - perhaps because he feared what it was all doing to his All Blacks coaching chances.

All of which alludes to the probability that the real source of Gatland's frustration - what bruised his ego and punctured his confidence was not the media or O'Brien, but the lack of recognition in New Zealand of his coaching talents.