Rugby: Losses shake hold on job

Wales coach Warren Gatland Warren Gatland is feeling the heat. Photo / Getty Images

Ashen-faced and lacking his usual spark, Warren Gatland looked a near-broken man in late November. His life has hardly improved and the days must be counting down before he goes 'snap'.

Gatland is discovering that coaching Wales can be like rock climbing; a couple of mistakes and all you have is a finger hold on a cliff face.

He's clinging on, even receiving the dreaded vote of confidence last week after Wales lost to England in the opening Six Nations game.

It was the seventh loss in Wales' last eight tests, the streak broken only by a draw with Fiji, but Welsh Rugby Union boss Roger Lewis tried to quell the growing calls for Gatland to be removed.

"This is a time for cool heads and certainly not to chop heads," he told The Daily Telegraph.

"At the top of the WRU, we believe we have the right people in place with the right skills and experiences. No one is making excuses. It is up to all of us in the WRU to front up to this together and move forward."

Wales played Scotland this morning in Edinburgh. The Scots were good value in their opener, despite losing to France, and have lost to Wales at Murrayfield only three times in the past two decades.

If Wales crash again, the pressure on Gatland will be intolerable. A Grand Slam in his first season earned him instant respect and breathing space but Gatland's overall record is 16 wins in 35 tests. Only six wins have come in the last 20 tests and, while Lewis says the union is sure it has the right coach, the statistics don't always support that view.

Having declared its support publicly, the national body will presumably be reluctant to about-face and sack Gatland should Scotland win.

But how much longer can Gatland cling on? He's contracted until 2015 - his extension having been signed in early November last year - and it feels like the only thing protecting him is the size of the payout he'd require to be ousted.

That's untenable in the long term and surely Gatland would be best advised to get out now before the damage to his reputation is irreparable.

Wales have all the players they need to break into the top five of the world rankings yet they are languishing ninth. The post-match lament has been the same for the past two seasons - Wales fail to execute under pressure, they make costly mistakes and suffer from lapses in concentration.

There's little debate that Wales under Gatland have been tactically astute, while their conditioning has improved. But they haven't advanced technically or mentally and there are legitimate grounds to question whether they will while Gatland is coach.

Feeling the pressure and clearly anxious to impose himself by making a definitive statement, Gatland dropped Ryan Jones as his captain after the draw with Fiji. The decision was arguably fair but the process was handled badly, leaving ill-feeling in the dressing room. That was the week before Wales' clash with the All Blacks - a week where Gatland looked lost, unsure, almost shell-shocked.

A country famed for its singing and hospitality, Wales has a strangely destructive ability to welcome Kiwi rugby coaches, then dismantle them, piece by piece. Expectation soared in Wales during the 1970s when one of the best sides ever assembled delivered constant silverware. It was a freak period - a once-in-a-lifetime surge of great players arriving together - yet no one accepts that.

Mindsets have not been adjusted and the people of Wales still believe they have an inherent right to rugby success. It's a classic recipe for disaster - expectation and reality are never aligned and the national coach has little chance of survival.

After Graham Henry quit in 2002, Wales went through four coaches before Gatland arrived in 2008.

Mike Ruddock won a Grand Slam in 2005 and was allegedly forced out by the players less than 12 months later. Gareth Jenkins was sacked after failing to get Wales out of their group at the 2007 World Cup.

Steve Hansen, who succeeded Henry, had to contend with some of his management staff constantly undermining him. It can be a nasty, lonely place - to such an extent that when Henry reminisced about his career last year ahead of securing his 100th test win as a coach, he was asked whether some of the victories he achieved in Wales were extra special because of the lower expectations compared with the All Blacks.

He scoffed: "There is a huge burden of expectation in Wales, I can assure you. That's why I had to leave in the finish because I would have died there otherwise. There are about three-and-a-half million Welshmen all in your back pocket.

"It was a special time but huge pressure."