Warren Gatland has left the door open for a fourth British & Irish Lions tour as head coach, in Australia in 2025, following the heartbreaking series defeat in South Africa by South Africa.
Gatland was left with a gut-wrenching sense of deja vu after Morne Steyn kicked the world champions to series victory, just as he did 12 years ago when the New Zealander was on his first tour, as forwards coach.
Victory would have cemented Gatland’s place in Lions history as the first coach to achieve unbeaten series against all three southern hemisphere opponents and while South Africa was expected to be the 57-year-old’s swansong, he will spend the next fortnight in quarantine in his native New Zealand mulling over his future.
Gatland is due back at the Chiefs, having been on sabbatical from the New Zealand franchise, but after failing to clinch a second series win as Lions head coach – having also drawn against the All Blacks four years ago – Gatland has not ruled out another tour in four years’ time.
Following the series in New Zealand, Gatland said he “hated” the intense scrutiny in his home country and would not take the head coach’s job again. “Unfinished business” prompted a change of heart, however, and the agonising nature of the defeat by the Springboks could persuade him to stay on.
“It’s something I’ll reflect on,” he said. “I’m incredibly proud of my involvement and I’ve been very, very fortunate. I’m very passionate about the Lions. I fly back to New Zealand [on Sunday] and start thinking about my role with the Chiefs. A long flight and then 14 days’ isolation in a hotel – that’s the least of what I’m looking forward to doing.
“It’s going to be tough having been in isolation already for the last eight weeks. So there’s another challenging couple of weeks ahead. And I think that time on my own will be a good chance to think what the next chapter of my life is going to be. I haven’t got any long term plans, so it’s just a bit of wait and see. The thing about Lions tours is that they’re so intensive, not just for the players but for the staff as well.”
Whether he or someone else takes the reins in Australia, Gatland is desperate for the Lions to be granted more preparation time for the 2025 tour. This year players involved in the Premiership final did not join up with the squad until the day they departed for South Africa, while players taking part in the Premiership semi-finals were unable to attend all of the two-week preparation camp in Jersey.
Gatland has pleaded for more preparation time in the past, but the clubs have been reluctant to listen and had threatened to block all players from attending the Jersey camp, even if their domestic commitments had finished.
“It’s just about the Lions talking to the clubs and unions about having that adequate preparation time to go on a tour,” said Gatland. “You are playing away from home, normally with a lot of travel and with a lot of expectation. You are putting a team together in such a short period of time and there’s a lot of expectation to win a series. As the Lions, when you’re putting together the best players from the northern hemisphere, we get less preparation time than the national teams do when they go on their own tours.
“It’s a common theme. I’ve been continually saying it. Hopefully in the next six months they can iron that out and we can get the schedule for four years’ time tidied up in terms of when finals are on, so that you can get the whole squad together for a couple of weeks before you go on tour. That would make a lot of difference in terms of helping preparation.”
While the Lions were ultimately sunk 19-16 by Steyn’s 79th-minute penalty, Gatland’s side were far more adventurous with Finn Russell, coming off the bench in the 11th minute for the injured Dan Biggar, pulling the strings. Russell also coughed up a costly knock-on in the buildup to Steyn’s winning penalty.
“We talked about moving the ball more and the ball went through [Finn’s] hands a lot, which was good,” said Gatland. “He’ll be disappointed that he’s dropped a ball in the air that he would normally take, but he showed how quick he can get the ball through his hands and created some stuff... for someone who hasn’t played a lot of rugby, I thought he was excellent. I thought we were bold. We went out there to be positive, to play some rugby, missed one or two chances, they kind of got a lucky bounce and scored a try against the run of play, and a couple of 50/50 calls probably didn’t go our way.”