Wales’s Grand Slam-winning coach Warren Gatland has revealed he almost left his post to return to New Zealand after last year’s World Cup.
In the wake of losses to France in the semi-final and then Australia in the third-place play-off, Gatland was considering an offer from former paymasters the Chiefs – whom he last coached in 2007.
Yet he was unable to agree terms with the Super 15 franchise and the 48-year-old turned their offer down.
He then resolutely bounced back from last winter’s disappointments by leading the Red Dragons to a third RBS 6 Nations Grand Slam in eight years, but he admits it so nearly didn’t happen.
“I nearly made the decision after the World Cup (to return to New Zealand) and it was a toss of the coin,” Gatland toldstuff.co.nz.
“I was going to come back and I had been offered the Chiefs job and New Zealand made me an offer of a contract.
“I went back to New Zealand and I said to them, ‘Look, it’s not about the money but I am finding it a little bit difficult to accept the contract, is there a chance of any movement on it?’
“(I told them), ‘well, you have offered me less money than I was on in 2007 when I was coaching Waikato and was involved with the Chiefs, to coach the Chiefs in 2012’.”
“They just said, ‘things are tight at the moment, the economy is not great,’ and they said, ‘that’s the best we can do, take it or leave it’.
“If they had have moved I would have said ‘okay, that’s great , you’ve moved a little bit,’ and I would have taken the Chiefs job and [instead] they just said, ‘take it or leave it’ and I said, ‘thanks very much, I’ll leave it’. So that’s what happened.”
