Rugby Correspondent Andy Howell believes the WRU should be in no rush to hand coach Warren Gatland a new contract beyond the 2011 World Cup IF the WRU feel the need to examine Warren Gatland’s contract position they should cast their gaze across the Severn Bridge towards English football.For it might just stop them making an expensive mistake.Gatland is playing a clever game by revealing he’s considering several offers to leave his post as Wales coach following the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.The Kiwi’s current deal expires at the end of that tournament and the WRU could let it run its course and not offer Gatland an extension, as the Union did with Steve Hansen in 2004.But there seems to be a desire among members of the inner circle at the Welsh Rugby Union to keep the highly-paid Gatland on after the World Cup.There’s a danger the public utterances of the canny Gatland will result in them panicking and rushing to offer the 46-year-old a new deal.Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.Yet look at the football World Cup and how teams can implode overnight; the last thing you want to do is offer a new deal now. England were destroyed 4-1 by Germany on Sunday – the culmination of a dismal World Cup campaign – and that showed the mockery of the Football Association racing to tie up coach Fabio Capello before a ball had been kicked in South Africa.The FA negotiated the removal of an escape clause in his £6m per year deal amid supposed overtures from Champion League kings Inter Milan.Inter supposedly wanted him to replace Real Madrid-bound Jose Mourinho and terror set in at the FA’s Wembley headquarters.
But the only winner was Capello with a possible £12m pay-off now in the pipeline.
Just weeks after that escape clause was removed Capello is teetering on the brink with Club England chairman Sir Dave Richards saying he needs two weeks to address the Italian’s future.Hardly a ringing vote of confidence when you’ve got two years to run on your contract.The worry is the WRU could also end up with egg on its face if it offers – and Gatland accepts – a deal to extend his stay in Wales.
Unless results improve, and Wales make a real fist of the Six Nations and World Cup next year, why would some of the powers-that-be want to keep him on?
Only one thing matters in international rugby. It’s called winning, something which Wales have lost the art of since beating England at the Millennium Stadium in February 2009.Since then, Gatland’s men have lost 10 of their 15 internationals when he has been in charge (he missed the North America tour last summer because of his Lions duties in South Africa) with just wins over Italy (twice), Samoa, Argentina and Scotland.Hardly anything to write home about – and it could get worse with New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina joining Fiji in coming to Cardiff this autumn.Let me stress, I believe Gatland should see out his current deal.Judging by some of the rugby Wales play, allied to their spirit, resilience and fitness levels, the players clearly still have faith in him as the right man to take them to the World Cup.Buy online Six Nations Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in Six Nations 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.Wales won 10 of their opening 15 fixtures – including that magnificent 2008 Grand Slam and a home victory over Australia – under Gatland after he took over the reins following that miserable Gareth Jenkins-led World Cup flop in 2007.It could be argued Wales over-achieved during that period.But having played some magnificent rugby and erected a stone-wall defence in the 2008 Six Nations there’s no reason why they can’t repeat it, especially with the talent at Gatland’s disposal.But his overall record with Wales reads played 28, won 14, lost 14 – a modest 50% success rate.Buy online England v France Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in England v France 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.That Gatland is a wanted man isn’t a surprise given an impressive CV compiled at Ireland, London Wasps, Waikato and, initially, Wales.But if he wants to fulfil his dream of coaching the All Blacks he has to qualify first by guiding a Super 15 team back home.What the WRU need is a calm hand on the tiller and patience in dealing with Gatland’s post-World Cup future.It’s far too early to consider it now... let’s see what shape we are in at the end of the Six Nations.Otherwise, Capello might not be the only international coach getting a handsome pay-off.Buy online England v France Hospitality Packages with the best prices available! We are covering in England v France 2011 Hospitality and Tickets.
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