'Incensed' Gatland reportedly initially refuses post match interview

Wales head coach Warren Gatland reportedly initially refused to conduct a post-match press conference following his side’s 45 – 24 loss to France.

Set to talk to BBC reporter Sonja McLaughlan, Gatland is reported to have been disgruntled by some part of the interview process as he walked away.

This left presenter Gabby Logan in an awkward position as she went to McLaughlan expecting Gatland to be there.

Interjecting a point that World Cup-winning England captain Martin Johnson was in the process of making, Logan said, Martin, we’re just going to have to dive out because Warren Gatland is with Sonja McLaughlan….” before quickly having to improvise by saying, “Oh, we’ve just lost Warren. Sorry about that, I think he might be coming back, hopefully.”

Difussing the situation Gatland’s former captain Sam Warburton said, “That’s our fault, we talked for too long and Gats had enough! Sorry Gats.”

Eventually, Gatland would appear in the interview but had been waiting for quite some time to get on the air based on reporting in Wales Online.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland says his side won’t go into their shell next week despite having to beat Italy in Cardiff to avoid a clean sweep o defeats in this year’s Six Nations 🏉#BBCRugby pic.twitter.com/M78t4VbGa9

— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) March 10, 2024

🗣️ “We’ve got a young group of players, some of them are not quite ready at this level and they’ve got to learn really quickly about what test match rugby is all about.”

Warren Gatland sums up Wales’ defeat in Cardiff. #GuinnessSixNations | #WALvFRA pic.twitter.com/FuXq4l7p8v

— ITV Rugby (@ITVRugby) March 10, 2024

McLaughlan has subsequently taken to X (formerly Twitter) to say that there had been no issue with Gatland post match.

Just to make clear. No issue with Warren Gatland post match. We asked for a short delay so we could do the interview live. But Warren had to do S4C before coming back to air his thoughts on the BBC. Always enjoy talking to him and today no different.

— Sonja McLaughlan (@Sonjamclaughlan) March 10, 2024