Lions Will Find That Gatland Is A Hard Man To Replace

IT sounds as if Warren Gatland retired himself as Lions head coach this week, and I guess coaching the Lions is a bit like Doctor Who.

IT sounds as if Warren Gatland retired himself as Lions head coach this week, and I guess coaching the Lions is a bit like Doctor Who. Some last longer than others, and you are never quite sure who is coming next. All we know is that the Lions will have a new coach when they go to South Africa in 2021.

I’m not surprised that Gatland has said he no longer wants the job, but I am surprised that he bothered to respond to Sean O’Brien’s criticisms when he didn’t really need to. By the same token, I’m not sure why the Irish flanker felt he needed to say anything and it’s hard to understand why he did after the event rather than at the time if his concerns were so great.

Gatland’s response may have been because he made a decision to defend the rest of his coaching team after O’Brien went public, but it would have been better if these differences of opinion had been aired in private.

What I know from experience is that Lions tours are very intense and require a huge amount of preparation and flexibility. For instance, the head coach doesn’t know until the last minute what changes he is going to have to make to his selection because of injuries to key players.

There are so many contingencies that a Lions coach like Gatland has to take into consideration it must blow your mind. He’s done all three of the tours now with South Africa in 2009 as an assistant coach, and Australia and New Zealand as head coach, and Gatland’s record of Won 1, Drawn 1, Lost 1 is a pretty decent one.