Wales reject Gatland resignation offer after Six Nations loss،
Wales have rejected coach Warren Gatland's resignation offer after finishing last in the Six Nations table for the first time in 21 years following a 24-21 defeat to Italy in Cardiff on Saturday.
Gatland said he remained committed to taking Wales to the 2027 World Cup in Australia, despite offering to withdraw.
“Yes, absolutely. I've made that commitment,” Gatland said.
“I just told Abi [Tierney, Welsh Rugby chief executive] in the locker room, if you want me to resign, I will happily do so. She said “that’s the last thing I want, that’s what I’m really afraid of.”
“But I can promise you that we're going to go out and look at this very carefully. We've already done some revisions and [we’ll] work on areas that need improvement.
Gatland remains confident his young side are heading in the right direction despite their disappointing campaign where they failed to win a game and took home the wooden spoon.
Wales were 18-0 down going into the final quarter of the match against Italy and only brought respectability to the scoreline with three late tries, but for much of the contest they looked devoid of ideas and quality.
“The fans will find it painful, so will we. We didn't help ourselves in that first half and we didn't have enough lead or momentum,” Gatland said.
“When we did it, [scrum-half] Tomos Williams started to open up a little bit and we looked dangerous, so that's probably a message to make sure we get some momentum moving forward. We were a little sideways and let Italy defend us quite easily.”
Center George North, the third most capped Welsh international of all time, limped out of the match after announcing his international retirement this week, helping Gatland's rebuild ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
Despite losing five times this season and in 12 of their last 13 Six Nations matches, the manager insists his side have a bright future.
“This rebuild is not more difficult than we thought, we knew the lack of experience of the team and the players we asked to step into leadership roles. For us it is about get the most out of the matches and show what we need to do,” he said.
“I can't question the boys' effort and, in fairness to Italy, we didn't put a huge amount of pressure on them and they handled the game well.
“I'm really excited about this group with some young guys who will learn from this experience and how to simplify the game to try to take the lead, which will help us.”
Wales play a one-off match against world champions South Africa outside the international window on June 22, before two Tests in Australia in July.
