Former Wales and British & Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland has confirmed that he has had the opportunity to be involved with England, admitting that his heart and his head have not always agreed on decisions like that.
The 63-year-old was speaking on For The Love Of Rugby, the podcast hosted by former England pair Ben Youngs and Dan Cole, in an episode published on 11 November.
As recently as October 2022, Gatland told The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast: “They wouldn’t let me back into Wales if I went and took on the enemy.” He won three Grand Slams in his first spell with Wales, from 2008 to 2019.
‘It was in the past’
Asked whether there had ever been opportunities to be involved with England or to coach them, Gatland agreed that there had.
“It was in the past,” he added.
The Kiwi was asked when and gave no date. The hosts then asked whether his success with Wales plays into his emotions with decisions like that.
“Yeah, it does,” he said. “You kind of get emotionally involved in things, isn’t it? You kind of, when you put a lot into things and friends you make and all that sort of stuff, it’s hard.
“Your head’s saying one thing and your heart says another thing sometimes.
“I’ve been a great believer in what will be will be, and if you’re successful and you do well, then opportunities come along the way.”
Gatland said he had never mapped out a career.
“I’ve never gone in thinking and planning and saying, ‘Okay, what’s my path and how do I get there?'” he explained. “And say, ‘Oh, how do I become the All Black coach and what do I need to do to do that?’
“I’ve just kind of gone, ‘This is what I’m doing at the moment. I want to do the best job I possibly can and hopefully be as successful as I can in that role.'”
‘Not interested’
The former Wales boss had publicly distanced himself from the England job before. “I am not interested in the England job,” he told WalesOnline in 2015.
In April 2019, with the Rugby Football Union weighing up who would follow Eddie Jones, he said: “I haven’t spoken to England at all.”
Two months after his “enemy” remark in 2022 he was back in Cardiff. The Welsh Rugby Union confirmed his return on 5 December 2022, and England dismissed Jones the next day before turning to Steve Borthwick.
Fiji and Borthwick
Gatland left Wales for a second time in February 2025. Fiji named Jake White as head coach on 13 October, after reports that Gatland was close to the job.
“To be honest, I spoke to them, but I made the decision that it wasn’t for me,” Gatland said. “It wasn’t the right timing, so I didn’t pursue that in the end.”
Asked later in the episode about other head coaches, he turned to Borthwick.
“I feel sorry for Steve sometimes,” he said. “There’s a huge amount of pressure on him being the England coach because there’s just so much expectation around performance, and you guys know you’ve been a part of it, and it’s a results business.
“I suppose that the most external pressure probably in teams is probably England and the [All] Blacks, particularly from a coaching perspective.”
England face Japan at Allianz Stadium at 16:40 GMT on Saturday 14 November, a week before New Zealand visit.
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