Warren Gatland insisted he still had the fight to continue as Wales coach, but would back any change after his team crashed to a record 11th consecutive defeat in a rout by Australia in Cardiff.
“Absolutely,” Gatland said when asked whether he still wanted to be involved, having seen Wales lose 17 of the 23 Tests he’s been in charge of in his second stint as head coach.
“I do it because I love being involved in the game. I have so many good memories with Wales and am incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved.
“This is challenging at the moment. I’m only human so I ask myself if it’s the right thing to do. But I’m happy doing it.”
Turning to his future, with a six-day turnaround before Wales face a daunting fixture against back-to-back world champions South Africa, Gatland said: “I don’t know.
“There’s so much negativity around the game in terms of what’s been happening on the field and regionally wise and financial and stuff.
“Whatever the best decision for us to make a change, to get some positivity in the game, you know, I’d support that 100% so if that means me, then I’m comfortable.
“But I definitely still want to be a part of it,” said Gatland, 61, explaining he needed to “show some mental resilience and toughness” to get through personal criticism.
The result against the Wallabies, the New Zealander added, was “disappointing”.
“That performance hurts. We weren’t good enough,” he said, highlighting the conceding of three converted tries when Australia were down to 14 men after Samu Kerevi was red carded for a high tackle.
“We started off not great. We conceded some points. We got back into it. To concede 21 points when they were down a man wasn’t good enough.”
Wales captain Dewi Lake said the team were “disappointed with the run that we’re on, with the result today”.
“We want to win games; we train hard, we work hard to win games, but we’re not there yet.
“We show we’re a team with weapons when we have the ball, but we need to stop other teams with the ball. Fifty points (conceded) tonight, we need to improve.”
Lake, speaking to Welsh broadcaster S4C, added: “I don’t think anything needs to change, we just need to click. In key moments in that game, half-time we were six points down, we went into the half with the momentum and came out thinking we’re in this game.
“One try and we would’ve been ahead, but the game got away.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here, we just need to take our points.”
Former Wales players Dan Biggar and Sam Warburton both questioned whether change at the top was needed, or would actually serve any purpose.
“You do wonder when is enough enough? But would changing the head coach going to make this team better and suddenly go and win games?” Biggar asked on TNT Sports.
“We are down to 11th in the world rankings and have South Africa and France (in the Six Nations) to face next, so the question on everyone’s lips is when does the run stop?
“A change in head coach wouldn’t harm things because they can’t be worse.”
Warburton said the thrashing was “really raw”, while saying it was “great to see Australia play like Australia”.
“For Welsh fans, I think we’ve got to realise this is where we are at, we’re in a bit of a dark place and it might take a while to come out of it,” he added.
© Agence France-Presse
Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images
