Warren Gatland : UK Coach of The Year (all sports)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/25211617
 
Warren Gatland has been rewarded as the UK coach of the year. His achievements with the Lions seen as the greatest sporting achievement in the United Kingdom this year.

In rugby circles, his achievement is seen to eclipse those of Stuart Lancaster (such as beating a SH opponent without the "strength of four").

That will be some respite for the New Zealander as he is under pressure given Wales' poor string of results and some raised eyebrows about his regular deflection of failure by attacking referees in the media.
 
He will also see it as vindication of the some of the tough and unpopular, but ultimately correct decisions he made such as the non-selection of England captain Chris Robshaw for the Lions tour, and the dropping of Irish legend Brian O'Driscoll which he felt necessary to assure that the team played to his plan and not someone else's.
 
Congratulations to him. Another trophy for a Kiwi!  

GE, read it again. He was named Couch of the Year. You can always pin him down for a good  moment and you don't have to dig too deep with him to find something of value you can use for entertainment. There is always buried treasure of motivational gold near the surface.

Oh and he looks like a couch.

UK Coach of the year 2013? are they kidding? is a squeaky-bum lions win against a weakened Aus, and a 6N victory (for Rob Howley not Gatland incidentally) the best that the UK has to propose in coaching terms? we must be in dire sporting straits. Nations all around the world must be creasing themselves.

off the top of my head, better candidates:
Laudrup - Swansea FC manager
Brailsford - team SKY cycling
Andy Flower - Eng cricket

quinsforever wrote:UK Coach of the year 2013? are they kidding? is a squeaky-bum lions win against a weakened Aus, and a 6N victory (for Rob Howley not Gatland incidentally) the best that the UK has to propose in coaching terms? we must be in dire sporting straits. Nations all around the world must be creasing themselves.

off the top of my head, better candidates:
Laudrup - Swansea FC manager
Brailsford - team SKY cycling
Andy Flower - Eng cricket

I would say, he's not even British, then I looked down the list.

He did however make derogatory comments about both England and Ireland

http://www.therugbysite.com/blog_posts/319-a-simple-message-for-gatland-by-mark-reason

Interesting choice.

Christ there are some bitter people on here.

Stuart Lancaster wins a moral victory, there you go, pat pat well done

Well deserved as well, has been deserving of some sort of accolade over the pat few season.
Well deserved, but he is the Welsh coach and will get slammed for it anyway because of some fools on this site
  

Jhamer25 wrote:Well deserved as well, has been deserving of some sort of accolade over the pat few season.
Well deserved, but he is the Welsh coach and will get slammed for it anyway because of some fools on this site
  

To be fair his only achievement this season has been the lions and the autumn flop. I appreciate the lions series win was a the first in a while, but I am not too sure that there are not other coaches who deserve more recognition.

is there any other uk coach this year achieved anything worth mentioning .nope can't think of anyone

Jhamer25 wrote:he is the Welsh coach and will get slammed for it anyway because of some fools on this site
  

Nothing to do with him being the Welsh coach mate, I just don't respect the guy.  

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

Jhamer25 wrote:Well deserved as well, has been deserving of some sort of accolade over the pat few season.
Well deserved, but he is the Welsh coach and will get slammed for it anyway because of some fools on this site
  

To be fair his only achievement this season has been the lions and the autumn flop.  I appreciate the lions series win was a the first in a while, but I am not too sure that there are not other coaches who deserve more recognition.

He has been worthy over the last 2 season I think, yes probably are other coaches who deserve recognition but i'm glad it was gats.

jimmyinthewell68 wrote:is there any other uk  coach this year achieved anything  worth mentioning .nope can't think of anyone

 
 
This ones worth a mention.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ppdNxlth9aE/UFxVzpGdLvI/AAAAAAAASHo/JZSmDJKXxZU/s1600/The+New+Mercedes-Benz+Citaro+-+Bus+of+the+Year+2013+(1).jpg

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

Jhamer25 wrote:Well deserved as well, has been deserving of some sort of accolade over the pat few season.
Well deserved, but he is the Welsh coach and will get slammed for it anyway because of some fools on this site
  

To be fair his only achievement this season has been the lions and the autumn flop.  I appreciate the lions series win was a the first in a while, but I am not too sure that there are not other coaches who deserve more recognition.

Isn't the award for 2013? So he won the 6N and coached the Lions to a rare victory. Not many other UK coaches with a double win on their record this year.

Scrumpy wrote:

jimmyinthewell68 wrote:is there any other uk  coach this year achieved anything  worth mentioning .nope can't think of anyone

 
 
This ones worth a mention.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ppdNxlth9aE/UFxVzpGdLvI/AAAAAAAASHo/JZSmDJKXxZU/s1600/The+New+Mercedes-Benz+Citaro+-+Bus+of+the+Year+2013+(1).jpg

 

Griff wrote:

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

Jhamer25 wrote:Well deserved as well, has been deserving of some sort of accolade over the pat few season.
Well deserved, but he is the Welsh coach and will get slammed for it anyway because of some fools on this site
  

To be fair his only achievement this season has been the lions and the autumn flop.  I appreciate the lions series win was a the first in a while, but I am not too sure that there are not other coaches who deserve more recognition.

Isn't the award for 2013?  So he won the 6N and coached the Lions to a rare victory.  Not many other UK coaches with a double win on their record this year.

from the bbc article:

"Gatland stepped aside from coaching Wales last year to concentrate on his Lions commitments. In his absence, interim coach Rob Howley led Wales to the Six Nations title."

Jhamer25 wrote:Well deserved as well, has been deserving of some sort of accolade over the pat few season.
Well deserved, but he is the Welsh coach and will get slammed for it anyway because of some fools on this site
  

nothing to do with him being welsh coach (which he was only for the AIs in 2013 by the way, having handed off 6N to Howley). Honestly, did Gatland somehow achieve something on the lions tour that no other coach would have been capable of, with Australia missing so many key players? Lions tours, more than any other, are where the coach has the least ability to effect the outcome, as they have the least time together with the players prior to the tour.

fine if scarletspiderman says it but not me obviously  

quinsforever wrote:

Jhamer25 wrote:Well deserved as well, has been deserving of some sort of accolade over the pat few season.
Well deserved, but he is the Welsh coach and will get slammed for it anyway because of some fools on this site
  

nothing to do with him being welsh coach (which he was only for the AIs in 2013 by the way, having handed off 6N to Howley). Honestly, did Gatland somehow achieve something on the lions tour that no other coach would have been capable of, with Australia missing so many key players? Lions tours, more than any other, are where the coach has the least ability to effect the outcome, as they have the least time together with the players prior to the tour.

fine if scarletspiderman says it but not me obviously  

Least time together, gelling 4 nations together - no mean feat. Extra points for being Lions coach for those very reasons.

Griff wrote:

quinsforever wrote:

Jhamer25 wrote:Well deserved as well, has been deserving of some sort of accolade over the pat few season.
Well deserved, but he is the Welsh coach and will get slammed for it anyway because of some fools on this site
  

nothing to do with him being welsh coach (which he was only for the AIs in 2013 by the way, having handed off 6N to Howley). Honestly, did Gatland somehow achieve something on the lions tour that no other coach would have been capable of, with Australia missing so many key players? Lions tours, more than any other, are where the coach has the least ability to effect the outcome, as they have the least time together with the players prior to the tour.

fine if scarletspiderman says it but not me obviously  

Least time together, gelling 4 nations together - no mean feat. Extra points for being Lions coach for those very reasons.

 
Did he really gel 4 nations or did he just pick the players already use to Warren Ball?
 
Lets not forget Aus were awful and no offence to Scotland but they would have won a three match series last summer.

I could have beaten Australia with the lions.What the feick has gatland won this for. I would rather give it to the interim Wales manager for winning the 6 nations  tbh

mystiroakey wrote:I could have beaten Australia with the lions.What the feick has gatland won this for. I would rather give it to the interim Wales manager for winning the 6 nations  tbh

Howley did a great job winning them the 6 nations.

would you all like some cheese with that ?
as you all seem rather  

Hope that lightened the mood a little bit, but in all seriousness Gatland has done something other great coaches such world cup winning coaches SCW and GH were unable to do, win a lions series. So yes aus were poor but as players how many times have you been told by coaches, you have to play whats in front of you. It was also the greatest score a Lions side has ever beaten aus by.
No he is not a popular coach in everyones eyes but as a whole the lions players all seemed to have enjoyed the tour and there was no obvious segregation like the 2005 tour.

Also while Gats may not have been in charge of Wales when they won the 2013 6N, it was his gameplan and that gameplan has led to wales wining 9/10 of their last NH meetings.

You can all bicker as much as you like but those reasons are standout, so lets all act like adults and respect this guys achievement.

Isnt it so sad that a lions win gives him the win though..

Its so patronizing.

just because others should have done better in previous years doesn't mean he was outstanding

If he had beaten SA and Aus in the AI's i would have been fine with the accolade.

For me - it would be howley or whoever coached the tour de france

Let's be honest not many people get to be in charge of a lions tour due to it on happening every 4 years, you simple can not compare this tour to SA 2009 or NZ 2005 both those teams were ten times better than this poor Aussie team, 2013 series win was nice but let's not get carried away it wasn't a classic.

Well done Gatland

Achieved a first since 97.

Despite calling for his legs if he stuffs the 6 Nations and feeling that the man has serious shortcomings in relation to kicking on down under, he should be congratulated by you ungrateful miscreants for winning the first Lions tour since 97.

Your SCW couldn't do it yet he did. And anyone who says that 2009 and 2005 were 'harder' is talking utter love sacks, 2009 was there to be won and they failed, 05 i blame on Alastair Campbell who is now quinsforever's press secretary and responsible for all his carp.

It is absolute bull cakes listening to the bitterness of some who can't just do the decent thing and say well done before moving on to slag him off again.

Not sure how many stand-out candidates there were this year.

I don't begrudge Gatland the award (obviously, why should I?) but some of the arguments levelled by the apologists are quite ridiculous. To say he "gelled together" four nations is a massive overstatement given that only one Scot actually got to play in the tests and an overwhelming majority of test starters were selected from one nation.

Gatland certainly did not win this year's 6N as he was not involved. At most you could argue he picked the coaching staff that won it, other than that no real credit can be attributed to Gats for this particular tournament.

On the opposite side of the spectrum I've seen the age-old excuse of the Lions being a task that most decent coaches would have succeeded at equally well, if not better. I'm sorry but we have never had the advantage of switching to a separate reality and assessing how it would all have played out under different circumstances. What if someone other than Graham Henry had led NZ to the WC, what would that say about Henry? What would it say about Woodward if, in dimension x, it wasn't him who coached England in 2003? Sorry, I've never seen it as being an argument of any great weight or validity. We deal with reality, not hypothesis.

Congrats Mr Gatland on the award anyway  

Good to see Warren Gatland received some recognition from his peers.

Two Grandslams, three six nations, a successful lions tour. He has spotted the talents of a great number of players that have since become household stars, Brian O'Driscoll, George North and Lee Halfpenny all capped early in their careers.

Knowsit17 wrote:Not sure how many stand-out candidates there were this year.

I don't begrudge Gatland the award (obviously, why should I?) but some of the arguments levelled by the apologists are quite ridiculous. To say he "gelled together" four nations is a massive overstatement given that only one Scot actually got to play in the tests and an overwhelming majority of test starters were selected from one nation.

Gatland certainly did not win this year's 6N as he was not involved. At most you could argue he picked the coaching staff that won it, other than that no real credit can be attributed to Gats for this particular tournament.

On the opposite side of the spectrum I've seen the age-old excuse of the Lions being a task that most decent coaches would have succeeded at equally well, if not better. I'm sorry but we have never had the advantage of switching to a separate reality and assessing how it would all have played out under different circumstances. What if someone other than Graham Henry had led NZ to the WC, what would that say about Henry? What would it say about Woodward if, in dimension x, it wasn't him who coached England in 2003? Sorry, I've never seen it as being an argument of any great weight or validity. We deal with reality, not hypothesis.

Congrats Mr Gatland on the award anyway  

Knowsit, I was the one that said 'gelled', and I'm certainly not an apologist. I was responding to a poster that said that the Lions coach, of any sporting coach, has the least effect as he has little time. I was merely giving my opinion that it is actually one of the toughest roles in sport, having to come in and work with players from 4 nations in a short amount if time, find a best team and somehow compete and ideally beat one of the top 3 teams in the world. And that was worthy of accolade in itself. The fact that any successful Lions coach can take 4 countries, train with them, pick teams, manage the whole tour dynamics, etc. and actually win the thing is quite difficult from a coaching point of view (as demonstrated by previous failings). That's why I wouldn't begrudge him it. I don't really like the guy to be honest - comes across like a bit of a knob a lot of the time. But there you go.

I appreciate he didn't go for an even 4 way split of players in the team from all 4 nations. I suppose he could have argued for a team of 16 so they could do it all nice and even and not leave anyone out. But I digress. There are always players annoyed at not being picked. With a squad of, what, 45 players? And 15 in the team? There were always going to be rumblings. Happens every single tour. The only difference is the nation that the whingers come from. Wales were the whingers on previous tours. Not so this one. But we will be whingers again in the near future (players and fans). Of that I am sure.

Yes. Well done to Gatland. He had a plan and it worked. What more could you really ask for. I think he got the lions selections pretty much spot on.

I refer you to my last answer

You have no truth for me and just embellish my point about your pathetic posts with more bile

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Come on you lot lets ditch this whole school playground stuff, either post something relevant (and without insults) or don't bother posting at all, this stuff is really getting old and quick!  I have just wasted a good ten mins sifting through all that rubbish that has been on here, and really cvdon't want to have to do it again.

The problem is that you mods continually let certain individuals get away with it until it becomes the cultural norm on here.

Anyway, well done Gats. Must be a lot of unhappy faces in Ireland right now!

Saint the problem is that us mods can't live on all the time, and we have a life to live.

I appreciate that and I believe you all do a good job. Having said that, it can't be difficult to sift through report and remove stuff even if it is at a later date. I've reported a certain poster's posts a number of times for contravening the house rules and nothing has been done about it, I'm pretty sure the post are still there (as they were when I last checked). I've no idea why he is allowed to get away with displaying behaviour that devalues this forum.

And may I ask, what ever happened to KRD?

Couple of points although I don't disagree with him getting the award. Lions victories are rare even though it now seems apparent a blind dog from Mars would have done better with AUS then Deans did by the end.

However, anyone who says he was vindicated by BOD's dropping knows nothing about rugby. Davies wasn't instrumental in the 3rd test, he was average and quite frankly rather forgetful. Would BOD have let in loads of tries??? come on.

The 3rd test was won by the forwards and front foot ball brought by Roberts which they had previously lacked. Had BOD played it wouldn't have altered the result or the way of the result.

I still don't think it was correct to drop Robshaw. Take his and Wood's performance against NZ and AUS backrow this AI's. They really had the upper hand. Now compare this to Lydiate, Warburton & Faletau's performances against AUS & SA....

I don't hold a grudge and think in the end he made the calls, put himself on the line and he should be congratulated for it.... but it doesn't mean he was right in everything he did.

i actually think the problem is the opposite. the moderators shouldnt be pestered into getting involved unless things get really out of hand. and when thread such as this one, or plenty of others recently which are clearly and specifically only designed as WUMs, inevitably deteriorate, who cares?

keeping the nonsense posts off proper threads seems like a much more worthwhile endeavour than wasting time trying to monitor posts on threads which by their definitional OP are WUMs and hence attract the flies.

posters should stop crying to teacher.