Warren Gatland has told his long-time lieutenant Shaun Edwards to make up his mind about whom he will be working for after the World Cup before the issue becomes a distraction as Wales prepare for the tournament in Japan later this year.
Edwards, who has been part of Wales’s management team since Gatland became head coach at the end of 2007, was expected to return to Wigan where he made his name as a rugby league player.
But Edwards and Wigan mutually agreed last month that the offer would be withdrawn. Wales had just won the grand slam and their defence under Edwards was the meanest in the tournament. Gatland’s successor after the World Cup, Wayne Pivac, made contact and a four-year deal was tabled.
It contained a two-year break clause, something all the other coaches, including Pivac, had agreed to but Edwards is understood to want a straight four-year contract through to the 2023 World Cup in France. As talks reached an impasse, France moved in after appointing Raphaël Ibañez, who played for Wasps under Edwards, as manager from the end of the year. A four-year deal has reportedly been offered.
“I have had one conversation with Shaun about what he was doing and it was pretty brief,” said Gatland after announcing a 42-strong squad that will next month start preparing for the World Cup. “He said he was not quite sure. Ideally you would like the decision to be made pretty quickly, whether that means he stays in Wales, goes to France or moves to England, wherever.
“It’s more of an issue for the Welsh Rugby Union, Wayne and Shaun to deal with but, if it goes on much longer, I think it would become a distraction. I am sick of reading about it in the newspapers every day.
“If it does go on, I will be having words with people to get it sorted out because there has been enough speculation. Someone needs to make a decision.
“It is not up to the WRU, who have made an offer in good faith, but Shaun. If the union gives him a time limit which elapses without Shaun agreeing, it would look bad for it because he could say the contract was pulled from under him. It’s a waiting game, not something I would put up with.”
Gatland named two uncapped players, the wing Owen Lane and the prop Rhys Carre, in his squad, which will have training camps in Switzerland, for the altitude, and Turkey, for the heat, in July and August.
The 21-year old Carre, who weighs more than 20st and is 6ft 3ins, is joining Saracens from Cardiff Blues in the summer on a two-year contract. As long he is on the Premiership champions’ payroll before Wales play the first of their World Cup warm-ups in August, he will not be snared by the rule that makes players who have won fewer than 60 caps and are based outside Wales ineligible for selection.
“We see him as a player of the future,” said Gatland. “There is surprise he has left Wales to go to Saracens because I cannot see him overtaking Mako Vunipola there but he sees it as the chance to gain experience at one of the best clubs in Europe.”
Gatland is confident about Wales’s prospects in the World Cup after a Six Nations campaign in which they showed an ability to come from behind as well as defend a lead.
Like Edwards he is considering a number of job offers “from different places. It is a matter of making the right decision at the right time but my whole focus in the next six months is Wales and the World Cup. I have not spoken to England and I am not going to speak about the Lions.”Meanwhile, Manu Tuilagi will miss the rest of the season with a hamstring injury but Leicester expect him to be fit long before England’s first World Cup warm-up Test against Wales at Twickenham in August.
