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'You're on 600k': Former favourite turns on Gatland in extreme tirade

Warren Gatland the Wales Head Coach during the players warm up ahead of the Six Nations Rugby match between Wales and Ireland at Principality Stadium on February 04, 2023 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Former Wales scrum-half Mike Phillips has said that Warren Gatland “deserves to be kicked out” in an impassioned post online, adding it was “nuts” that the Welsh Rugby Union ever re-hired him.

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Wales slumped to their 10th Test loss in a row on Sunday as Fiji beat them 19-24 at the Principality Stadium for their first-ever win in Cardiff.

Speaking after the match, Gatland said to TNT Sports that “there were a lot of positives,” adding that “I thought we started really well, we attacked, we did a lot of positive things.”

Video Spacer

The 20-min red card explained by referee Karl Dickson

Referee Karl Dickson explains the 20-min red card system that is in place during the Autumn Nations Series.

Video Spacer

The 20-min red card explained by referee Karl Dickson

Referee Karl Dickson explains the 20-min red card system that is in place during the Autumn Nations Series.

This appraisal from the Wales boss has not gone down well with some sections of Welsh rugby, particularly with 94-cap Welsh great Phillips, who said that the Kiwi is on “600k a year and doesn’t even have to win.”

Phillips was a stalwart for Gatland for both Wales and the British and Irish Lions, but is one of a number of former players whose patience has grown thin with their former boss, who is still searching for a Test win after over 400 days.

Match Summary

0
Penalty Goals
4
3
Tries
2
1
Conversions
1
0
Drop Goals
0
130
Carries
127
3
Line Breaks
7
13
Turnovers Lost
5
2
Turnovers Won
5

After leaving his role as head coach of Wales after the 2019 World Cup, Gatland was reappointed in 2022 after the sacking of Wayne Pivac, a decision Phillips has described as “nuts”.

The former Scarlets, Cardiff and Ospreys No 9 went on to say that the Kiwi is “only out for himself” and that it “kills” him to see the praise that the three-time Grand Slam winner has received.

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“Loads of positives yeah, you’re on 600k a year and don’t even have to win!” the 42-year-old wrote on X. “How the WRU bring this guy back is just nuts! Laughing all the way to the bank.”

“When I see this guy talking about family makes me cringe. Did he speak to me at the end of my career, did he f! I won for this guy.

“This bloke is only out for himself, and it kills me to see all this bulls**t praise he’s getting. He deserves to be kicked out, like he did to so many quality Welsh players.”

With fixtures against a resurgent Australia and double World Cup winners South Africa to come in November, things are not going to get any easier for Wales. Gatland could well be fighting for his job over the next two weeks, which is inevitable given their poor run.

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While not explicitly calling for Gatland to be sacked, former Wales fly-half Sam Davies, capped eight times by Gatland in his first spell, has said on X that it is “time for change” in the Welsh set-up.

Another Gatland favourite, Andy Powell, hopes that his former boss keeps his job, but queried online whether it’s a “P45 for Gatland” following the Fiji defeat.

Louis Rees-Zammit joins Jim Hamilton for the latest episode of Walk the Talk to discuss his move to the NFL. Watch now on RugbyPass TV

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Comments

12 Comments
M
MakeOllieMathisAnAB 8 days ago

Time to chill on the couch and write guest columns for Rugbypass, Warren.

Quit milking it.

J
JW 8 days ago

Wow so many of these former players have such high opinions of themselves and their teams. Does this guy realise Fiji beat England and nearly again in a RWC semi?


What were these positives people were saying about him anyway? You'd think they could have got a better coach for 600k (what?), no?

L
LRB 9 days ago

Agree with Phillip's here, Wales should have never taken him back. With that said, I do feel a bit sorry for him & obviously their team & fans. Wales have always been a proud rugby nation & it's sad to see them in such disarray.

J
JW 8 days ago

That's not what his rant was saying at all, in fact he didnt seem to care about the effect on the team he played for or their fans at all. It was just a personal attack, which is ironic giving what he was being critical of.

H
Hellhound 9 days ago

Gatland have no support from the WRU. Ever since he rejoined Wales, his hands was tied. The WRU is out for themselves. They don't bother to even try and keep their best players. There is no incentive for those players to stay in Wales, because they get peanuts. They have families to support. So they leave for greener pastures. Gatland made a mistake returning. He became another Eddie Jones.


Despite not getting support, he should have been able to get more out of the teams he chose. He didn't. Any coach losing 10 games would have been sacked a long time ago.


Wales need to roll the dice and get another coach. Someone like Franco Smith of Glasgow Warriors or Johan Ackermann. That is 2 excellent SA coaches really making name wherever they go. Or even Jacques Nienaber. A WC winning coach used as a defensive coach for Leinster.


There is many other coaches ready for the international stage. I don't know the coaches of Wales, but they aren't adapting. They are still playing the same type of game like they did a decade ago. The same strategies that made them so good. Times have changed. Those styles don't work anymore.

J
JW 8 days ago

They seemed to do pretty good in the 6N, but yep, smacks of the union trying to play above their means (ability wise).


You're making the same mistake, just go with someone the same level as the players. Eddie Jones would have been great for them. Ben Herring would be a great coaching fit for Wales now.

O
OJohn 9 days ago

When are Wales going to grow some balls and kick the kiwi coaches out. You're pathetic Wales. Weak, weak, weak. Where's your national pride you soft c......


You're being conned you twerps :)

J
JW 8 days ago

Imagine living right next door to the con b@rstards and making the same mistakes!

T
Tom 9 days ago

Gatland's been hanging onto Shaun Edwards' coat-tails for decades... Reappointing him was a terrible idea. He was awful at Waikato, awful for the Lions and when Wales were good it was the defence that they excelled at.

J
JW 8 days ago

The Chiefs, yeah. Didn't see him do anything in his year there.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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