{"id":134383,"date":"2025-05-26T22:49:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T22:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/134383\/"},"modified":"2025-05-26T22:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T22:49:13","slug":"warren-gatland-to-take-on-shock-coaching-role-as-reports-emerge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/134383\/","title":{"rendered":"Warren Gatland to take on shock coaching role as reports emerge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Zealander has reportedly agreed to take on a surprising new role three months after leaving Wales\"GatlandGatland has reportedly taken on a shock new role(Image: Chris Fairweather\/Huw Evans Agency)<\/p>\n

Former Wales boss Warren Gatland has taken up a new short-term role with Uruguayan club side Penarol Rugby, according to shock reports from South America.<\/p>\n

The 61-year-old stepped down from his position as Wales head coach during this year’s Six Nations<\/a>, following a run of 14 straight Test match defeats during his second stint in charge. Following his exit, he admitted he was “not done with coaching” and expressed interest in taking up a consultancy role with a national team ahead of the next World Cup.<\/p>\n

However, reports from Uruguay on Monday<\/a> say that his first move after leaving Wales will see him advise Penarol’s coaching staff over the next three weeks as the side competes in the Super Rugby Americas (SRA) play-off finals.<\/p>\n

Penarol – which became Uruguay’s first professional rugby club when founded in 2019 – are currently top of the SRA table, with their final match of the regular season this weekend set to determine their play-off journey.<\/p>\n

According to El Observador, Gatland was called in by the Uruguayan Rugby Union to advise head coach Ivo Dugonjic’s staff and “contribute his knowledge” to the squad as they look to claim the SRA title.<\/p>\n

However, the surprise report also suggests that the New Zealander will play a part in Uruguay’s bid to qualify for the next World Cup. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.<\/a><\/p>\n

It adds that Gatland is taking the role “not only with a view to the final of the SRA, but also to Uruguay’s other major objective for this year: the August and September qualifiers for the 2027 Rugby World Cup<\/a> in Australia.”<\/p>\n

Uruguay face Paraguay in August, with the winner of that clash taking on either Chile or Brazil in a qualifying final, with a World Cup spot up for grabs.<\/p>\n

The shock news comes after Gatland – who guided Wales to three Grand Slams and two World Cup semi-finals during his first spell in charge – admitted he would be interested in moving into a consultancy role moving forward.<\/p>\n

The coach, who will be part of Sky Sports’ coverage of the British & Irish Lions tour in July, made his intentions clear during a live Q&A with the Telegraph following his departure from the Wales job.<\/p>\n

“No, I am not done with coaching and not sure what my next step will be,” he said when quizzed on his future.<\/p>\n

“I am going to have a break and have just been enjoying watching the rugby, and looking forward to the Lions series and doing some work with Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t know what will be next but I have never had a plan in looking too far forward. What will be will be and something will come along,” he added.<\/p>\n

“I have already been contacted by a number of people about possible options so I will maybe look at something after the summer.<\/p>\n

“One thing that would potentially interest me is working with a team going into the next World Cup.<\/p>\n

“I have been proud of what we have done in Wales and I think the experience I have had could be valuable to a team even if in a consultancy role.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Zealander has reportedly agreed to take on a surprising new role three months after leaving WalesGatland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15,59059,23591],"class_list":{"0":"post-134383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-uruguay-rugby-team","13":"tag-warren-gatland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}