The stats that prove Warren Gatland's success as Wales head coach

Warren Gatland’s Wales reign finished with back-to-back World Cup defeats but he still leaves his role as coach with a superb record.

The third-place play-off with New Zealand was Wales’ 151st game since Gatland took the reins in 2008 – though the New Zealander has not been in charge for all of them, leaving Rob Howley or Robin McBryde in caretaker charge for several spells mostly due to British and Irish Lions duty.

Here, the PA news agency takes a statistical look back over the Gatland era.

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Win-loss record

Gatland is by far Wales’ longest-serving coach – his 12 years in charge is twice as long as nearest challenger Clive Rowlands, while no previous coach oversaw more than Alan Davies’ 35 games.

That makes his sustained success all the more remarkable – Wales have won 85 of the 151 games since he took charge, a win rate of over 56 per cent.

That climbs to more than 60 per cent in the World Cup, with 12 wins from 17 games, and almost 71 per cent in the Six Nations with 42 wins from 60 games.

Wales have a 62 per cent win rate at home in that time, 48 wins from 78 games, and have almost broken even away from home – 27 wins, 28 losses and one draw, against Ireland in the 2016 Six Nations. That is one of two draws under Gatland, following Fiji’s tour match in Cardiff six years previously.

Honours

Gatland first took charge of Wales for the 2008 Six Nations, with the Dragons winning that title and three more since.

A 29-12 win over France capped a Grand Slam and a resoundingly successful start for Gatland – the first of his three slams as they repeated the feat in 2012 and 2019.

They also won the 2013 title, though that was with Howley in caretaker charge while Gatland focused on the Lions.

That move paid off as the home nations combined team won their series in Australia and Gatland was named coach of the year at the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year awards.