Six Nations 2024: Warren Gatland's resignation offer turned down by WRU chief

Head coach Warren Gatland says he offered his resignation to Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Abi Tierney after leading Wales to their first Wooden Spoon in 21 years.

The 24-21 home defeat by Italy completed a Six Nations clean sweep of defeats for the first time since 2003.

Gatland returned to Wales in 2022.

Asked whether he wanted to guide Wales through to the 2027 World Cup, Gatland replied: "Yes, absolutely. I've made that commitment."

Gatland added: "I just said to Abi [Tierney] in the changing room if you want me to resign, I'm quite happy to do that.

"She said, 'Like hell, that's the last thing I want, that's what I'm really afraid of'.

"But I can promise you we'll go away and review this really carefully. We've already done some review stuff and [we'll] work on areas that need to improve."

WRU executive director of rugby Nigel Walker has previously called Gatland the best coach in the world.

When asked whether he was confident he could turn things around, Gatland replied: "Absolutely. I've never shied away from that.

"We've had glimpses where we've been really good in this tournament. We need to do that for longer periods."

This was a 12th Wales defeat in the past 13 games in the tournament, including seven successive Six Nations home losses.

Since he returned, Gatland has only won one game in 10 Six Nations matches - a solitary away victory against Italy in Rome last year.

His overall record during his second spell in charge is six wins in 18 games, with four of those victories coming in the World Cup in France last year where Wales reached the quarter-finals before losing to Argentina.

Gatland has lost a lot of experience in the past year with the retirements of Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric, Rhys Webb, Dan Biggar, Josh Navidi, Leigh Halfpenny and now George North.

Liam Williams, Gareth Anscombe, Tomas Francis, Taulupe Faletau, Jac Morgan, Taine Plumtree, Christ Tshiunza and Dewi Lake have been unavailable for this campaign because of injury or club commitments.

Gatland says his coaching staff were "gutted" at this campaign.

"We're hurting as coaches and players," said Gatland. "I know the fans are hurting. It doesn't help, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel because we've got a fantastic group of guys who I know have worked hard.

"There is a huge amount of inexperience, haven't played a lot of regional rugby and we're exposing them at the Test level.

"It's a real challenge. I said to the players in the changing room that when they turn up to the summer tour, make sure they're doing their extras and work-ons conditioning-wise, the gym work and that they're ready to go.

"This rebuild isn't harder than we thought. We knew the inexperience we had in the squad and the players we asked to step up to leadership roles.

"It's about taking the good out of the games and showing what we need to do."

Following the World Cup in 2019 where Gatland quit after guiding Wales to a fourth-place finish, he signed off by saying it would break his heart if Welsh rugby returned to the doldrums.

When asked whether Wales had gone back to that situation, Gatland said: "No. We're probably a little bit at rock bottom at the moment but I honestly do see some light at the end of the tunnel.

"Some exciting players who with some time are going to be excellent internationals."

Gatland says there will be a review of the 2024 Six Nations tournament with Tierney promising an overall Welsh rugby strategy by June.

Wales face world champions South Africa in June at Twickenham before travelling to Australia for a two-Test series in July.

"There's planning to be done over the next few weeks, in terms of the summer tour and making sure as a coaching group we're visible in the regions as well," said Gatland.

"We will work with Richard Whiffin (head coach) and that under-20s program. It's tough because we probably haven't had a lot of success at under-20s level over the years.

"Then those players come through to us and it's probably quite difficult for them. How do we change their whole mindset and expectations?

"That's what we're focusing on doing. We're not shying away from those expectations and that international rugby is about winning.

"That's incredibly important. Collectively we've all got a lot of work to do to make sure we can continue to improve the state of Welsh rugby."

Gatland added: "We just need to win, don't we? We need to get some confidence and self-belief, whether that's first of all at the national level, but also at regional level.

"When you starting winning and get confidence, it makes a huge amount of difference.

"I know the regions and [WRU] are talking collectively and trying to put strategies in place for the future. That will make a huge difference to everyone."