Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Gatland makes major call on Wales coaching team

By PA
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Jonathan Humphreys and Neil Jenkins will remain part of Warren Gatland’s coaching team as the new Wales boss selects his backroom staff ahead of the 2023 Guinness Six Nations.

ADVERTISEMENT

Humphreys, a former Wales international hooker and captain, joined the coaching team under Wayne Pivac in 2019 and will continue to coach the forwards under Gatland.

Jenkins, who remains Wales’ record points scorer, was first appointed as a skills and kicking coach under Steve Hansen in 2004 and worked with Gatland throughout his first tenure from 2007 to 2019.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

“We are delighted that both Jonathan and Neil will stay on and be a part of Warren’s new team,” WRU CEO Steve Phillips said.

“The very nature of a changeover at the helm of a national team brings with it the possibility for change and evolution elsewhere in the backroom staff.”

Gatland will also be bringing in new blood after releasing Stephen Jones and Gethin Jenkins from their positions as attack and defence coaches respectively.

Phillips added: “I know both Stephen and Gethin understand this part of the process and they should be commended for the good grace with which they have accepted the decision.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We thank both sincerely for their dedicated services to Welsh rugby as senior men’s team coaches.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

T
Tom 36 minutes ago
Borthwick, it's time to own up – Andy Goode

The problem for me isn't the pragmatic playstyle, it's that there is no attacking gameplan whatsoever.


I've got no issue with a methodical, kick heavy, defense centric gameplan. That playstyle won England our only world cup and it's won SA 4 of them. However! You can play in a pragmatic manner but you have to still play heads-up rugby and have the ability to turn it on when you manufacture prime attacking situations. England work very hard to get in the right areas of the pitch and have no idea how to convert when they get there, hence we tried and missed 3 drop goals as we were completely impotent in the 22. I've not seen any improvement in our attack in the last 4-5 years. The only time we got close to the tryline was from an interception, it's embarrassing. I don't know what Richard Wigglesworth is getting paid for.


I agree that England should have found a way to close out that game. Being able to grind out tough games is critical but I'd argue that being unable to string more than a couple of passes together without dropping it and finding a way to get over the gainline is even more important... But frustratingly, they don't seem interested. All you hear is about how close we are to bring a great team, we just need to execute a bit better. I don't see it. I see a team who are very physical, very pragmatic who do some stuff really well and are useless with the ball in hand which adds up to a very average side. They need to stop focusing on getting 5% better at the stuff we're already at an 8/10 level and focus on getting a lot better at the stuff we're doing at a 2/10 level. We have the worst attack of pretty much any side in the world... Argentina, Scotland, Fiji are way more threatening.

23 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Signs of promise that Wales' barren run is over and brighter times lie ahead Signs of promise that Wales' barren run is over and brighter times lie ahead
Search