Wales: Coach Warren Gatland aims for final Rugby World Cup flourish

It has been a long and largely successful journey for Wales head coach Warren Gatland.

Now we have finally arrived at the eve of the final leg of his 12-year reign as he bids for World Cup glory before he leaves the Wales job.

It is a position that has resulted in three Grand Slams and a record 14-match unbeaten run in 2018-19 that helped Wales briefly reach number one in World's Rugby rankings for the first time.

That was temporary. Now Gatland hopes Wales will prove they are permanent world leaders in the next seven weeks in Japan.

This is Gatland's third World Cup campaign with Wales and his last chance of success after an agonising semi-final defeat in 2011 to France and a quarter-final loss to South Africa four years later at Twickenham.

"This is my last one. I am looking forward to it there has been a little bit of edge and niggle at training; to me that's always a good sign, the players know the game is coming close," said Gatland.

"I have said to the players, 'we've had our warm-up games, we're in competition phase now, and that's when we thrive'.

"We are Grand Slam champions, had 14 wins in a row unbeaten and that was because of the way we prepared, mentally how tough we were, our game management."

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One of Gatland's strengths of his Wales reign has been his ability to mould new sides and this class of 2019 has been a couple of years in the making.

A prime example is that with an average age of 28 years and 331 days, Gatland's selection for the opening game against Georgia on Monday is the oldest Wales starting 15 at a Rugby World Cup.

"When you get to that sort of stage it's not a mistake," said Gatland.

"When you're thinking about cycles, and for us it was a couple, in terms of getting players through to a World Cup where you think you can compete and have the right age profile and experience with some quality young players coming through.

"We think we're in a pretty good place. We've got some X-Factor and some firepower to come off the bench.

"We know that when we prepare and train well and everything is right, we're a tough team to beat and we can beat anyone.

"We're a relatively small nation and have punched above our weight.

"We've worked incredibly hard to get to what we've achieved in the last few years and we need to make sure we go out and give our best at this World Cup.

"We want to make sure the people at home in Wales are proud of watching us perform and see we are giving our best."

But Gatland will be without one his oldest and trusted lieutenants in Japan after backs coach Rob Howley was sent home earlier this week because of an alleged betting breach, with Stephen Jones replacing him.

Gatland has praised his senior players in their reaction to the off-the-field adversity, including his well respected captain.

"Alun Wyn Jones made a good comment to everyone that these things happen, you lose people, the wheel keeps turning and you have to move on," said Gatland.

"It's been tough but you have to draw a line in the sand, concentrate on what your job and your role is.

"A number of players and staff have reached out to Rob, the biggest thing we can do is offer him as much support as we can.

"We can't change what has happened but it is important we do provide support.

"We also can't keep referring back to that, that's done.

"We can't change what has happened, we have to focus on the next couple of days and hopefully things go well against Georgia, and then we build up to Australia."

Gatland has the right man in Jones in helping deal with off-the field issues after the captain helped navigate the squad through tough times during the 2019 Six Nations when rumours emerged the Scarlets and Ospreys regions would merge.

"In a way you look back and that Scotland week was almost like a trial run, wasn't it?' said Jones.

"Dan Biggar and Jon Davies have stood up in particular leading the backline in that purgatory time if you want before Stephen come out.

"To a man, the squad have taken on the responsibility, picked up their own individual details for the training performance to set us up for Monday."