‘A very bad look’ – Warren Gatland walks off in awkward post-match interview exchange
Warren Gatland during Wales' Six Nations clash with France in 2024.
Wales head coach Warren Gatland has been criticised for walking out of his post-match interview following their defeat to France.
The 60-year-old is contractually obliged to speak to the media post-match, but was not happy with how long it was taking for his BBC interview to be set up.
Gatland had just seen his Wales side go down to their fourth successive defeat of the 2024 Six Nations as they succumbed 45-24 to Les Bleus.
Not hanging around
He was evidently disappointed by the result and was not willing to hang around while broadcasters were getting ready to go live.
The interviewer tried to stop him from going, saying: “we’re coming now, we’re just coming now”, but the Wales boss continued to walk off.
And that’s a wrap. #6Nations pic.twitter.com/glXkbRFcPw
— Harry Jones (@haribaldijones) March 10, 2024
Gatland did eventually go back to do the interview with the BBC as reporter Sonja McLaughlan stated that he needed to also speak to another broadcaster post-match.
“Just to make clear. No issue with Warren Gatland post match. We asked for a short delay so we could do the interview live,” McLaughlan wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “But Warren had to do S4C before coming back to air his thoughts on the BBC. Always enjoy talking to him and today no different.”
However, it still drew criticism from onlookers, with Squidge Rugby writing that it was “a very bad look.”
Others had plenty of sympathy for Gatland, though, with one person putting, “Guys just lost a game he’s worked all week for. That and we don’t know how long he’s waited before that. Emotions are high and folk are human. Chill.”
When Gatland did return, he blamed their game-management for the defeat as they let slip a promising position in the final quarter.
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View of the game
“In that last 15 minutes, it was 24-23 and we just didn’t manage the game. There were turnovers and it was disappointing there,” he told BBC Sport.
“There were some soft points given. We probably overplayed, even to the point where we’re down by six points. It’s 70 minutes on the clock and you’re thinking, ‘just play territory, don’t give them anything easy, you’re going to get another chance to attack’.
“We’ve probably hurt ourselves by not managing the game well enough in that last period.
“They put our scrum under pressure, which is something we’ve been working hard on but we’re probably not there at the moment.
“I thought our lineout was excellent. Defensively, line speed could have been a little bit better. The plan for us was, if we played multi-phase, we could cause them lots of problems.”
