Warren Gatland says some of the players Wales are picking are “good, reasonable regional players” who are not quite international level. He was talking about Wales now, not the squad he left in February 2025, and he did not name a single player. Wales have won five of 18 Tests since he went, and they face New Zealand in Cardiff on Saturday.
The former Wales head coach was speaking on For The Love Of Rugby, the podcast hosted by Ben Youngs and Dan Cole, in an episode published on 11 November 2026. Is he right, or is this hard to take from a coach who left on a 14-Test losing run?
What did Gatland say, and which Wales did he mean?
Asked on the show whether Wales can get back to world No 1, Gatland said he would like to think so. From about 25:22, he said a small playing nation will always have peaks and troughs, that Wales are in a trough at the moment and that it will take time. Then came the line (25:30–25:56):
“If I am really brutally honest there’s probably some players that I would class as being good, reasonable regional players.”
Some of them, he added, are not quite at international level.
He spoke in the present tense, and he did not limit the remark to his own second spell or to the 23 that Steve Tandy has named this week. The regions are the professional club sides one level below the national team.
Do the results back him up?
They do. Gatland left on 11 February 2025, by mutual agreement with the Welsh Rugby Union, three days after Italy beat Wales 22–15 in Rome. It was a 14th Test defeat in a row. He won six of 26 Tests in his second spell.
The losing run reached 18 before Matt Sherratt’s interim side beat Japan 31–22 in Kobe on 12 July 2025. Tandy took over on 1 September 2025 and has won four of 13 Tests, according to the Press Association’s report of last Saturday’s 28–21 win over Japan.
Add those together and Wales have won five of 18 Tests since Gatland went. Three of the five were against Japan and one was against Fiji. The other was 31–17 against Italy in March, and Wales still finished bottom of the 2026 Six Nations.
Where does his evidence fall down?
Earlier in the interview (21:58–22:38), Gatland gave two reasons for the decline: the loss of the national academy, and the Under-20s. One is wrong.
He said Wales Under-20s have not finished above fourth in the Six Nations since 2017. In 2025 they won three games, the last of them 23–13 against an England side chasing a Grand Slam, as Reuters and the Six Nations match page record. The Welsh Rugby Union said it was the first time Wales had won three at that level since 2017, and the final table for that year has them third. One good season does not undo his wider point about the pathway, but the claim as he made it is out by a year.
Did Ollie Hassell-Collins make the wrong choice?
The one player Gatland named is not a Wales player. From 26:12, he said he thinks Ollie Hassell-Collins chose wrongly, that the wing was eligible for Wales, and that with a bit more time he would probably have been involved at next year’s World Cup.
Hassell-Collins has two England caps, against Scotland and Italy in the 2023 Six Nations, and qualifies for Wales through a Welsh grandmother. World Rugby lets a capped player switch once, on a family link like that, after 36 months out of international rugby. RugbyPass and WalesOnline reported that he would have been free to switch in February 2026, provided he did not play for England or England A first.
He started for England A against Ireland A on 23 February 2025, RTÉ reported. On the reported reading of the rule, that pushes any switch back to February 2028 at the earliest, after the 2027 World Cup. Neither union has confirmed a date.
So Gatland is on firm ground when he says Wales was an option. Whether England was the wrong one is his opinion, and the player has given his own. “It’s still a part of me – and I’d never turn it down – but for now, it’s England for me,” Hassell-Collins told the Telegraph in 2024, in comments carried by RugbyPass.
Wales have since found a wing by a similar route. Gabriel Hamer-Webb was born in Bath, played for England Under-20s and qualifies through his Cardiff-born mother. The Leicester wing starts on the left on Saturday, with Louis Rees-Zammit on the right.
Our view: right about the trough, light on the cause
Gatland is right about where Wales are. Saturday’s XV has 59 fewer caps than the one that beat Japan, by our count from the union’s team sheets, and five wins in 18 is the record of a side short of Test quality in several positions.
But he picked from the same pool and won six of 26. Saying the players are not quite good enough describes the results without explaining how Wales got here. His stronger point came next (26:43–27:52). He said Welsh age-group sides can match English ones up to about 15, that English schools then pull ahead on coaching and conditioning, and that English private schools offer scholarships to the best Welsh boys. That is his account and we have not tested it, but it is a problem a union can act on.
The fair counterpoint belongs to the man who has the job now. “We have to go up another level this weekend and be more ruthless,” Tandy said in the union’s team announcement on 12 November.
What happens next
Wales v New Zealand kicks off at 14:10 GMT on Saturday 14 November at the Principality Stadium. Wales have not beaten New Zealand since 1953. Australia come to Cardiff a week later, on 21 November.
Gatland and Wales: quick answers
What did Warren Gatland say about Wales players?
On For The Love Of Rugby, published on 11 November 2026, Gatland said there are “probably some players that I would class as being good, reasonable regional players”, and that some are not quite international level. He did not name any of them.
Was Gatland talking about today’s Wales team?
Yes. He spoke in the present tense and said Wales are in a trough at the moment.
What was Gatland’s record in his second spell with Wales?
He won six of 26 Tests and left on 11 February 2025 after a 14th defeat in a row.
Can Ollie Hassell-Collins still play for Wales?
Not before the 2027 World Cup, on the reported reading of World Rugby’s 36-month rule. He played for England A in February 2025, which points to February 2028 at the earliest.
Credit: For The Love Of Rugby, hosted by Ben Youngs and Dan Cole, with guest Warren Gatland. Episode “Warren Gatland: Rejecting England, Surviving Rugby Media & Wales Regret”, published 11 November 2026. Watch the passages: the Under-20s, 21:58 · Wales’s players, 25:22 · Hassell-Collins, 26:12 · the schools, 26:43.
The direct quote is as heard on the show and as printed by Brit Brief on 12 November 2026; his other remarks are paraphrased from the video’s captions, with timestamps.
Sources: WRU departure as reported by RTÉ, 11 Feb 2025 · PA on Gatland’s record, via Yahoo · Wales 31–22 Japan, SuperSport · WRU on Tandy’s appointment · PA on Wales 28–21 Japan, via the Irish News · Reuters on Wales Under-20s 23–13 England, 14 Mar 2025 · Six Nations match page · WRU on the Under-20s’ three wins · World Rugby on the transfer rule · RugbyPass on Hassell-Collins · WalesOnline on England A, via Yahoo · RTÉ on England A, Feb 2025 · ITV on Hamer-Webb.
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