{"id":17779,"date":"2024-11-19T07:44:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T07:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=17779"},"modified":"2024-11-19T07:44:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T07:44:27","slug":"should-wales-coach-gatland-stay-or-go-pundits-have-their-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=17779","title":{"rendered":"Should Wales coach Gatland stay or go? Pundits have their say"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ex-Wales &amp; British &amp; Irish Lions centre <b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Tom Shanklin<\/b> praised Gatland for &#8220;transforming&#8221; the national side during his first spell in charge, but said Wales now lack an identity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve never seen him like the way he was after the Australia game. I feel sorry for him after all he did for Welsh rugby,&#8221; said Shanklin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;But there has to be accountability for this run and not just from the head coach, but the WRU as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Warning signs have been ignored about too much focus on the national side and not enough on the regions and academies to develop players.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Gatland offered a short-term fix when he returned, but now it&#8217;s time for a new coach with a fresh voice bringing fresh ideas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We can&#8217;t play physical rugby any more because we lack size or power, but we&#8217;re not seeing a plan B and there hasn&#8217;t been any progress.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Shanklin&#8217;s fellow Grand Slam winner <b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">James Hook<\/b> agreed it was time for a change after just six wins in 23 Tests since Gatland&#8217;s return. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;What is going to change if Warren is still in charge for the Six Nations?&#8221; he asked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;You don\u2019t want to see anyone lose their job, but it feels that something has to change to freshen everyone up, players and fans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;But we also need to invest in other areas such as the academies. They&#8217;re not good enough and we\u2019re setting up a lot of young boys to fail.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 2px solid #ccc; margin-top: 20px;\">\n<p><em>Source: <\/em> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/cvgxevdlmgmo\">www.bbc.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ex-Wales &amp; British &amp; Irish Lions centre Tom Shanklin praised Gatland for &#8220;transforming&#8221; the national side during his first spell in charge, but said Wales now lack an identity. &#8220;I&#8217;ve never seen him like the way he was after the Australia game. I feel sorry for him after all he did for Welsh rugby,&#8221; said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}