Popular Kiwi coach Warren Gatland has reaffirmed his commitment to coaching Wales until the end of his contract in 2015, despite speculation that he would return to New Zealand.
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The former All Black has just led Wales to the final four at the World Cup in his home country, and the performance of his young team has impressed many who would like to see his expertise employed in New Zealand.
“I’ll be honest, at some stage in your rugby career, as I’m a Kiwi, I’d like to come home and do a bit of coaching in New Zealand. But not at the moment and I have made that commitment to Wales,” he said.
If, as is widely expected, Rugby World Cup 2011 is the last for the All Blacks coaching trio of Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith, there will be gaps to fill and some say Gatland is an obvious choice after he guided the Welsh team to the semifinals for the first time since the inaugural tournament in 1987.
“We feel like we’ve shown a lot of character, we feel like we’ve played some great rugby since we’ve been here,” he told a press conference on Tuesday.
“We’ll leave here with our heads held high having earned a lot of respect,” Gatland added.
Gatland also announced his strongest team available to play Australia in the battle for bronze at Eden Park on Friday, making three changes to the side that lost to France in last weekend’s semifinal.
It might not be the final they were hoping for but Wales will give the play-off their all.
“The highest we can get now is third so we’ll go out all guns blazing,” said flank Danny Lydiate.
“We want to go out with a win, so it would make the flight a lot better on the way home.”
26 @ Blue Bird:
I don’t like kittens…. maybe I would have had a few puppies… but not pesky little stoepkakkertjies (little verandah shitters)
@ Blue Bird:
Yeah, he had awfully little to work with here in Italy and almost no depth in any position.
@ grootblousmile:
Nahhh….you would have appealed to your female and foreign bloggers if you embraced my incredible success!!
Oh well I got it wrong on the last pick…..my dreams were in tatters! 🙁
33 @ Blue Bird:
Actually I would not have minded in the least… and would have been proud of my protege!
How’s the Afrikaans going these days?
Want some more phrases to use in polite society?
Hehehe
@ grootblousmile:
My Afrikaans taal is terrible still vandag. I moet probeer harder, but my pronounciation was so terrible none of you could understand my attempts!! lol
I still shudder at the ‘spyker’ incident!
Oh yes btw, you did give me some good tips…..!! 🙂
35 @ Blue Bird:
The “spyker” incident was verrrrryyyyy funny…. bwahahaha
Anyway, I’ve got to go… have a massive day planned tomorrow.
A client was here at my house at 06:45 this morning already, wanting desperate attention, their whole office was a shambles in the night due to a bit of affirmative shopping by some local idiots.
Tomorrow I build and load new PC’s like crazy…
@ grootblousmile:
See you, nice to catch up….
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