Warren Gatland believes he can round off his time with Wales by watching his squad lift the Rugby World Cup for the first time at Japan 2019.
Gatland is in the final two years of his spell having arrived at the end of 2007 and is confident that the squad he will put together for the 2019 World Cup will peak at the right time.
“Six months ago, there was speculation I would not be here after the Lions tour, but I am 100% committed to this job and I am really excited about the next two years,” he said. “My focus is on winning the World Cup and I need to stress that we can win it.
“We know we cannot pick up too many injuries. If we don’t, we should go in with experience and exciting youngsters, a great balance. Traditionally World Cups are won with age profile of late 20s, early 30s, which is what the squad will likely have.”
In the buildup to their opening autumn international, the Wales forwards will meet England in Bristol on Monday in a session Gatland hopes could herald an era of greater cooperation between the two rivals.
The two packs will take part in a series of lineouts and scrums with the referee Nigel Owens ensuring order is kept as England and Wales prepare for Tests the following weekend against Argentina and Australia respectively.
The surprising move came about when the England forwards coach, Steve Borthwick, approached Gatland, Wales’s head coach three weeks ago. The pair had been part of the Lions’ management team in New Zealand in the summer.
“Steve rang me and asked if I would be interested,” said Gatland. “It seemed a great idea and he cleared it with Eddie Jones. We are training in Bristol on Monday morning and we are looking forward to it. It will be well managed because we don’t want collapsed scrums and it will give us a good feel of where we are at ahead of Australia.
“I don’t know why we did not think of this earlier. If we both get something out of it, we could look at it in the future, before summer tours as well. If we can both benefit and it helps both our preparations in the World Cup and potentially success, it is something we should look to do given our proximity.”
Gatland said he has long told his players not to be afraid to take risks and will be reinforcing the message in the coming weeks given the way attacking sides are being favoured at the breakdown.
“It is hard to get the ball off teams and you are regularly seeing passages of play lasting three or four minutes,” he said. “The southern hemisphere sides are used to that and we have to be comfortable doing it. Despite what people may report sometimes, we do not put players in straitjackets but tell them to play what is in front of them and express themselves.
“I told the players yesterday that if you are on your goal-line and have a four-on-three and three-on-two we expect you to move the ball. If the execution is wrong, though a bad pass or dropped ball, we might be critical of that but not the decision-making.”
