Peter Jackson – If Warren Gatland intends to stay why not say so?

The Welsh Rugby Union deny that their long-term contract with Warren Gatland contains a clause allowing another country to buy him out for £1.5 million.  They have made their position perfectly clear – “as far as they are concerned” their head coach will be going nowhere, least of all to England.  Given the RFU’s apparent refusal to take the hint, the time has come for Gatland to be as unequivocal as his employers.
Walesonline quoted him as saying yesterday afternoon:  “I’m not interested in the England job.”
And that was it – nothing more, nothing less.   Assuming that the RFU see him as their No. 1 target, as has been suggested, it will take more than seven words on a website to deter them from trying to make him interested in their offer.
The longer Gatland goes without a categoric declaration that he is staying put, come hell or high water, the more the RFU will be encouraged to believe that every man has his price.  In Gatland’s case, that is not inconsiderable.
Wales made him the world’s highest paid international coach when they signed him in December 2007 and he almost certainly remains so with his new deal believed to be worth north of £400,000-a-year.
Eight years in Wales preceeded by six in England will have made him acutely aware of the historic hostility between the countries.  Gatland would not be insensitive to the public outcry were he to jump ship and resurface on the golden pavement around Twickenham.
Another New Zealander, Steve Hansen, would only have to let it be whispered that he might be interested for the RFU emissaries to take off like a shot armed with the fattest contract the game has seen.   Hansen has made it clear, in his inimitable way, that they would be wasting their time.
“Now that I’ve coached the All Blacks, I couldn’t coach against them,” he said.   “I’m a New Zealander.”
Gatland, no less a New Zealander for having spent almost his entire coaching career in Britain and Ireland, may feel exactly the same way about preparing England to beat Wales in the New Year.
Gatland can sabotage the RFU sideshow at a stroke by making it clear he wouldn’t touch the English chariot with a barge pole, or words to that effect.
England’s reaffirmation of their global supremacy in the public washing of dirty linen will keep Welsh supporters amused until the New Year and the start of the Six Nations.  The more discerning will not let the collapse of the House of Lancaster distract them from their own team’s deficiencies.
Despite their elimination at the quarter-final stage, Wales came home to fanfares of public approval. Those who expressed dismay that they had fallen short when it mattered most could barely make themselves heard above the acclamation, voices in a wilderness.
Any Welsh fan satisfied with his country’s World Cup is selling himself and his team short.  As this column pointed out, Wales have long passed the stage of being gallant losers.
Gatland and his management team ought to be asking themselves four questions:
1) Why do Wales consistently fail to score tries in any quantity against the top teams?
2) How come Wales still fail to score a single try when the opposition are down to 13 men and they are camped on their line for eleven minutes?
3) What is to be done about the recurring inability to off-load out of the tackle?    Why can’t Welsh centres do as Sonny Bill Williams did for the All Blacks?
4) When will Wales cure the chronic habit of losing to the Springboks and the Wallabies by a single score or less?
A final point about the Welsh injuries.   Far from undermining the Welsh cause the enforced late changes against England resulted in Lloyd Williams springing his team out of jail.
His left-footed chip which put the skids under England amounted to more than anything Alex Cuthbert and George North created between them.   So if Gatland had not been forced into those late changes, Wales might well have lost.   England would have gone through and Lancaster might still be their head coach.
Funny old game.