British and Irish Lions 2017: Warren Gatland lashes out over 'Warrenball' criticism

Warren Gatland fiercely defended himself against criticism of his playing style after being confronted with a question about “Warrenball”, with the British and Irish Lions head coach asking himself "I don't know why I have to keep defending myself against this" and inviting anyone to pinpoint when his apparent desire to play rugby in such a way first started.

Gatland faced the media alongside Ken Owens, the Wales hooker that will captain the Lions in their second tour match against the Blues on Wednesday, and took exception to a question about criticism over his style, which has drawn comments from the likes of England coach Eddie Jones in particular.

Having faced similar questions since becoming head coach of Wales about the physical nature of rugby that he has employed, Gatland appeared to lose patience with having his techniques criticised, with the implication that he is only capable of sending out his teams to play in one particular way.

As he left the briefing, Gatland was heard to mutter "I don't know why I have to keep defending myself against this".

“What do you mean by one way? When did that way start? You don’t know the answer to that do you?” Gatland initially snapped.

“I kind of look and go: ‘Was is it when we were successful at Wasps or when I was coaching Waikako to the Air New Zealand Cup?’ I don’t know, when did a certain style change? If you can tell me the answer to that I will answer the question when the time frame is appropriate – then I can potentially give you an answer.

“Look, a few years ago [former England attack coach] Brian Smith coined a phrase ‘Warrenball’ and I don’t know whether that was because he was jealous of how much success we had. We had a group of players who came through Wales at the time who ended up being pretty big physical players. The modern game of rugby is about getting across the gainline, trying to get front-foot ball and playing to space if that is possible. If you can get me when things started to change, I don’t know.”

The prominence of ‘Warrenball’ stems for a column that Australian Smith wrote in The Independent four years ago during the last Lions tour, when Gatland plenty of criticism for basing his game for both Wales and the Lions around the crash-ball abilities of Jamie Roberts.

“It’s a form of rugby I call ‘Warrenball’,” Smith wrote, “and if the evidence of the opening two matches on this Lions tour is anything to go by, we’ll be seeing plenty of it over the next month. I’m certainly not expecting to be catapulted from my seat in shock at the tricks the tourists pull against the Wallabies.

“We saw this straightforward but highly effective strategy when Warren was winning trophies at Wasps and we’ve seen it in his time with Wales. It involves very big, extremely powerful players taking the ball round the edges and equally big, powerful wings making dents infield at a high tempo set from half-back. There may be one or two unexpected tactical flourishes from the Lions when they enter the opposition red zone but basically, this is about belligerence.”

Gatland was quick to dismiss this as an unwarranted attack through jealousy of his success with Wasps, Waikato and Wales, and believes that the third Test thumping of Australia four years ago went a long way to shutting people up about his style.

“Look I don’t know, I think in a way it is an opportunity for people to want to be critical,” he added. “We experienced that four years ago when people decided to be critical and a lot of people and a lot of people got caught with their pants down afterwards, didn’t they.”

Gatland knows that there is much improvement needed following the narrow 13-7 win over the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians, and insists that the performances need to get better as the tour wears on to ensure his side are at a competitive level to take on the All Blacks in three weeks’ time.

“There’s some aspects from Saturday’s game that we need to work on and improve,” the New Zealander said. “Also some positives we took from the game. We know we’re going to have to create momentum game on game and improve leading into the Test match.

“It’s 15 new guys starting with the opportunity to put their hands up. We’re going to need to raise the standards game on game to beat the All Blacks in three weeks’ time.”

The Blues meanwhile will make a late decision on selecting Sonny Bill Williams after the All Blacks centre was named in the side to face the Lions at Eden Park, despite missing last week’s win over the Reds with a knee injury. Williams has been pencilled in at inside centre as one of eight capped All Blacks in Tana Umaga’s squad, though will see how his leg reacts to Monday’s training session before making a decision on whether he can play or not.