Warren Gatland: What next for Wales and their head coach after 11 loses in a row ahead of South Africa match?

Wales head coach Warren Gatland’s future is under intense scrutiny amid Wales’ record 11-match losing streak in international matches ahead of their final tie in the Autumn Nations Series against world champions South Africa on Saturday.

Gatland’s side have now gone 13 months without tasting victory after suffering a quarter-final defeat to Argentina in the 2023 Rugby World Cup and in total have lost 17 of 23 games in the New Zealander’s second stint in charge.

So do Gatland and the Welsh Rugby Union now have some big decisions to make? Sky Sports News reporter James Cole assesses three of the big questions around the situation…

Could Gatland leave after Saturday’s South Africa match?

“It could well be his last game.

“This is statistically now the worst Welsh side in history.

“If they lose to South Africa, they will have lost every game in the calendar year for the first time since the 1930s.

“Now the decision the WRU, or indeed maybe Gatland, has to make is what would life look like without him in the role?”

Who are the alternative options?

“The first issue is, if you get rid of Gatland, who comes in? There aren’t a huge amount of world-class coaches out there.

“Michael Cheika’s name has been mentioned a lot. He’s on a one-year deal at Leicester Tigers in the Premiership, but would he really want the job? It’s a job that a lot of people think is a bit of a poisoned chalice.

“The second question you’ve got to ask is, whoever comes in, can they do a better job than Warren Gatland?

“Some may say, well, it’s hard to do a worse job, but they’re going to have the same players, a young squad, inexperienced players.

“Against Australia, Wales fielded a starting 15 that averaged 19 caps per man. In the back line, if you take Gareth Anscombe, their fly-half, out of the equation then that number drops to four.

“It’s an incredibly inexperienced group. Wales’ player pool at the moment is not big. They’ve lost a lot of players in a short space of time. Lions, the likes of Dan Biggar, Alan Wynne-Jones, and that is really telling.”

The financial question: Can the WRU afford to change head coach?

“Gatland is reported to be on between £500,000-£600,000 a year.

“So, to pay him out of his contract is going to cost the WRU around about £1m, unless, there’s a performance-related clause in there or Gatland decides, as he hinted post-match on Sunday, that he may resign.

“The WRU then needs to weigh up what it was the financial implications of having to pay that sum versus the bums-on-seats effect in Wales. At the game on the weekend, there were 56,000 fans in a 74,500 stadium. For Wales v Australia, that is incredible.

“They need to weigh all of this up and decide if life is better without Gatland and have deep conversations.

“No quick decision should be made. It should be a thorough review. They also need to know what’s going on in camp and whether players are still behind the coaching staff.”