Warren Gatland: Head coach aims to lead Wales through to 2027 World Cup

Head coach Warren Gatland says he wants to take Wales through to the 2027 World Cup in Australia.

Gatland led Wales to a fourth quarter-final at this year's World Cup, where they lost to Argentina in Marseille.

Gatland indicated he was keen to carry on immediately after the Argentina defeat, but he was more definitive at a press conference in Wales on Wednesday.

"I'm excited about what we can start doing as a group going into 2027," said Gatland.

When asked whether he wanted to go through until 2027, the New Zealander added: "That's the plan.

"When you look at it, we've got such a small playing base we've got to look at how we bring these youngsters on and develop the likes of Sam Costelow, Taine Plumtree and Jac Morgan, we've got some exciting second-rows and backs coming through.

"We've got an opportunity to bring some youngsters in and build on the cycle to 2027 with players having 50, 60, 70 caps behind them."

"When you look at the potential we've got as a nucleus, and some in their 20s as well, we can be excited [about] what we can achieve over the next three or four years."

Gatland had said in Marseille there was a clause in his contract, adding that if the "union want to get rid of me, they're entitled to do that, that's up to them".

"I was asked about it and said I didn't know what was in my contract," said Gatland.

"I had a joke with Nigel (Walker, WRU interim chief executive) before and said 'You can't get rid of me'.

"I think my contract said if we didn't get out of the pool they had a clause that said they could get rid of me. I said 'if you do want to pay me off, that's up to you'."

Gatland's first 12-year spell in charge of Wales ended in 2019 and included three Grand Slams and two World Cup semi-finals.

Having returned in December 2022 to replace Wayne Pivac, he oversaw one win in the 2023 Six Nations.

Gatland galvanised the squad for the World Cup, where Wales beat Fiji, Portugal, Australia and Georgia to top their pool before losing the last-eight encounter against the Pumas.

In August 2023, Walker appeared to back Gatland to lead Wales all the way to the next World Cup in 2027.

Walker, who is set to become WRU executive director of rugby, said then: "I cannot see any circumstances where we would invoke that clause."

He doubled down on that sentiment on Wednesday.

"To be successful in international sport you have to have good coaches and good players," said Walker.

"To be a good coach you need experience, miles on the clock, understand your craft, get your message across to players and players have to trust you.

"Nothing has changed from what I said in August, you wouldn't expect it to. You've seen the growth in the squad in a relatively small period of time.

"Like Warren, I'm excited what the next four years can bring. Not just about the 30-odd players in France or the 50-odd training in Switzerland and Turkey, but what we can do across the whole of Welsh rugby.

"We're going to work officially and unofficially to grow the game in Wales. There's going to be challenging times, but it's about making the most of the resource you've got.

"We've got something to build on and we know we can grow the standard of the squad to an even greater level than we saw over the last four or five weeks."

Gatland says Welsh rugby needs a more aligned approach to succeed.

"There's an opportunity for us to build some closer relationships with the regions and some of the changes with coaches and personnel there," said Gatland.

"I'm excited by that because that hasn't always been the case in the past.

"Often those relationships have been quite fractured, not only from a coaching perspective but the things that were going on between the regions and the unions, and we got dragged into those sort of things. That's encouraging to [be] getting on the same page and working with the same players.

"We want to work with them and keep building confidence.

"It's going to be incredibly important to us to keep players in Wales, to be part of something with their regions and also play international rugby.

"We've had a few conversations with players whose contracts are up. I'm saying to them the best thing for them is to stay in Wales and they can be looked after to get the best possible out of them in terms of playing international rugby. In order to do that we're progressing and performing at regional level too."

Had Wales defeated Argentina, Gatland revealed Liam Williams, Louis Rees-Zammit, Josh Adams, Dan Biggar and Gareth Davies would have been unavailable through injury for a World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in Paris on Friday night.

Wales will face the Barbarians on 4 November at Cardiff's Principality Stadium in an uncapped fixture, the same day as a derby between Scarlets and Cardiff, while Gatland's English and French club-based players are unavailable for selection.

Gatland will name his squad on Thursday to play a Baa-baas side who will include former Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones and be coached by Scott Robertson and Eddie Jones.

Cardiff tight-head Keiron Assiratti and Dragons prop Leon Brown will be included due to Tomas Francis, Henry Thomas and Dillon Lewis plying their trades for clubs outside of Wales.