Warren David Gatland (born 17 September 1963) is a former New Zealand rugby footballer and the current head coach of the Wales national team.^[1]

Gatland was born in Hamilton, New Zealand and educated at Hamilton Boys' High School and Waikato University. His first game as an All Black was in 1988, when he is said to have introduced a part-Australian Rules, part-Gaelic football game to the training sessions, which was well received by the other players.

Gatland became the record-holder of the most games for Waikato near the end of the 1994 season. He finished the season with 140 games under his belt and announced his retirement before the start of the 1995 season.

[edit] Coaching in Ireland 1998-2001

During the off-season Gatland spent time coaching in Scotland and later coached in Ireland before taking up a position as coach/manager at Leinster. Eventually Gatland went on to serve as director of rugby at Connacht where he achieved enormous success with limited resources. His achievement in guiding them to the quarter-finals of the European Challenge Cup, which included two victories over Northampton Saints, was quite remarkable.^[2]

In light of his success at Connacht he was appointed coach of Ireland on 24 February 1998, following the resignation of former England coach Brian Ashton.^[3] Gatland's tenure as coach of Ireland was a difficult one, he had taken charge of a team that for several years previously had failed regularly to win more than one Six Nations fixture (N.B. up to 2000 and the inclusion of Italy it was called the Five Nations Championship) in each championship. Despite this he had a measure of success, marked by Ireland winning on 19 March 2000 in Paris against France for the first time since 1972, when a Brian O'Driscoll hat-trick of tries inspired Ireland to a 25-27 win, but a poor 1999 World Cup campaign in which they failed to make it to the finals after losing narrowly to Argentina in a play-off game by 24-28.

He continued until being sacked and replaced by his assistant coach Eddie O'Sullivan in 2001. Gatland's Irish team almost achieved a historic upset victory against the touring 2001 All Blacks.

[edit] London Wasps 2002-2005

He joined London Wasps in 2002 in a coaching position before taking over as Director of Rugby when Nigel Melville left to join Gloucester. He took the team from the bottom of the English championship to safety in his first few months. After this success he went on to lead Wasps to three consecutive Zurich Premiership titles (2003, 2004 and 2005) and the Heineken Cup in 2004. He also won the Parker Pen European Cup in 2003 along with the Anglo-Welsh Cup. He is regarded as the most effective coach Wasps have had at the helm.

[edit] Return to New Zealand

He returned to New Zealand in 2005 to coach Waikato in the National Provincial Championship (NPC). After the NPC was superseded by the Air New Zealand Cup in 2006, Gatland took Waikato to the first title of the new competition, beating Wellington in the final. He joined the Chiefs Super 14 team in 2006 as technical advisor.

[edit] Coaching Wales, 2007-

On 9 November 2007 Gatland was named head coach of the Welsh national rugby team and took up his position on 1 December 2007.^[4]

Gatland's first game as coach of Wales in the opening week of the 2008 Six Nations Championship resulted in a historic victory, as Wales caused a major upset by defeating England 26-19 after trailing 19-6 with nearly sixty minutes played. It was Wales' first win at Twickenham since 1988.^[5][6] After victories over Scotland and Italy, Wales went on to defeat the Triple Crown holders Ireland in Croke Park 16-12, thus winning the Triple Crown themselves. In the final round of fixtures, Wales beat France at the Millennium Stadium 29-12, to clinch their 10th Grand Slam title, exactly 100 years after they won their first. Shane Williams scored his 41st try in this game and became the all-time leading try scorer for Wales.

[edit] The British and Irish Lions

In October 2008, it was announced that Warren Gatland would become the forward coach for the British and Irish Lions on their 2009 tour of South Africa.^[7]

[edit] References

1. ^ "Gatland unveiled as Wales coach". BBC Sport. 8 November 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/welsh/7025721.stm. Retrieved 8 November 2007. 
2. ^ "IRFU turns to the West as Gatland takes over hot-seat". Irish Independent. 25 February 1998. http://www.independent.ie/sport/irfu-turns-to-the-west-as-gatland-takes-over-hotseat-455904.html. Retrieved 7 March 2008. 
3. ^ "Gatland takes over as Ireland coach". BBC Sport. 24 February 1998. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sport/rugby_union/59832.stm. Retrieved 5 May 2008. 
4. ^ BBC SPORT | Rugby Union | Welsh | Gatland unveiled as Wales coach
5. ^ Official RBS 6 Nations Rugby : Wales shock England
6. ^ BBC SPORT | Rugby Union | England 19-26 Wales
7. ^ BBC SPORT | Rugby Union | Welsh | Gatland accepts Lions appointment

[edit] External links

• Wales profile
• Warren Gatland at AllBlacks.com