Wales have written to the BBC complaining about interviews conducted before and after the Test against New Zealand at the Millennium Stadium which culminated with Warren Gatland being asked whether he felt under pressure after 22 straight defeats against the major Southern Hemisphere nations.
Gatland responded to the question posed by the reporter Sonja McLaughlan by saying: “And you are putting me under pressure as well; thanks.”
It was the end of the interview and he walked away with a wry smile. One of the points made by Wales in their complaint is that an interview with the centre Jamie Roberts, the man of the match, minutes earlier was conducted in a laudatory tone and they have asked why Gatland was treated so differently.
Wales are also unhappy the first question in the coach's pre-match interview was whether he thought the haka gave New Zealand an unfair advantage. They have not asked that McLaughlan be replaced for Saturday's match against South Africa in Cardiff and there is no suggestion Gatland will refuse to be interviewed by her, although another defeat would not be likely to get him rushing to the microphone.
The Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards, who has been part of the management team since the New Zealander took charge at the end of 2007 having worked with him previously at Wasps, reacted indignantly after being asked on Tuesday whether he felt Gatland was under pressure.
“What do you mean ‘under pressure’”? he asked. “Being a Test match coach; every game has pressure. If you coach Wigan Under-11s you face pressure. Of course he is under pressure, everyone is under pressure. Every single game is a pressure game. I do not understand what you mean. Do you mean he is going to get sacked?”
Justified
When it was put to Edwards that 22 successive defeats against New Zealand, South Africa and
Australia
and an overall record of one victory in 27 Tests against them in the Gatland era justified the question, he responded: “What about if you win three Six Nations?”
When told that was a good riposte, he replied: “Yes, it is a good answer. Next question.”
McLaughlan, who was never afraid to ask pointed questions to Martin Johnson when he was in charge of England, is unrepentant, using her Twitter account to ask why a question to a coach with such a poor record against the leading Southern Hemisphere nations had attracted so much "bile" on social media. "It is my job to ask questions and I will not be deterred from doing it," she wrote.
While the Wales management took a dislike to questions off the field, their players must find answers posed to them by such as South Africa on it, particularly in the final quarter of matches, if they are to go into next year's World Cup match against Australia at Twickenham on a winning run against the Sanzar nations.
They were leading New Zealand with 11 minutes to go only for three late tries to give the All Blacks a 34-16 victory.
“We have to be able to sustain intensity over 80 minutes, concentration, physicality and skill levels,” Edwards said. “I asked the players after the game whether they could raise themselves to that sort of intensity, passion, physicality, and aggression that we had for 69 minutes seven days later. To a man, they said yes.
“We’ve had two games [Australia and New Zealand], and we have acquitted ourselves relatively well in both. Now we have to do it for 80 minutes to beat a Southern Hemisphere team and South Africa probably have the best defence in the world.
“The players are not at the levels they will need after such a physical match against New Zealand, substantially off them, but we do not play for four days. We have had some epic battles against South Africa over the years and hope we get on the right side of the scoreboard this time.”
Wales have delayed their team announcement until Thursday because of injury concerns, the day after South Africa, who have to replace their two wings, Bryan Habana and J P Pietersen, who have returned to their clubs.
"We are desperate to beat Wales as we want to get to No1 in the world rankings," said their defence coach, John McFarland. "If we beat them, we will only have lost one game in Europe in the three years of this management and we do not want to have a defeat to stew on for the next six months."
