Welsh Rugby Union<\/a> director of rugby Dave Reddin, who revealed the interview process had initially mapped out around 130 coaches worldwide before being filtered down.<\/p>\n\u201cI think his coaching journey shows someone that has been unafraid to really push himself into some uncomfortable experiences and really challenge the way that he was operating as a coach and develop as a result.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a proud Welshman it\u2019s the job he\u2019s wanted to move for. I know he\u2019ll be very missed by Scotland, he was a valued member of staff there and I\u2019m delighted we\u2019ve managed to secure his services.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre Wales going to be consistently ranked as the number one team in the world for the next 10 years? No, I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut can we be a real, genuine, top five nation who are constantly competing for Six Nations titles, who are capable of mixing it with the best in the world? 100 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise, I wouldn\u2019t be here. I don\u2019t think anybody gets inspired by a team that says, \u2018well, we\u2019re going to rock up and do our best\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially a passionate rugby nation like Wales, I think we\u2019ve got to be more ambitious than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tandy, from Tonmawr between Neath and Port Talbot, becomes the first Welsh head coach of the men\u2019s national team since Gareth Jenkins nearly two decades ago.<\/p>\n
New Zealanders Gatland and Wayne Pivac have held the reins on a permanent basis since 2007 \u2013 and Reddin believes Tandy\u2019s background is a \u201cbonus\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt will make a difference in how he\u2019s perceived \u2013 positive and negative. I\u2019m conscious as a proud Welshman he\u2019s going to feel the responsibility of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat wasn\u2019t part of the decision making process. It\u2019s a bonus that he\u2019s Welsh and I hope everyone will be kind to him because of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the surface it\u2019s great to have someone who has a natural affinity with their country. Ultimately that only goes so far, as it\u2019s about performances and the philosophy matching the expectations of the national public and what they want to see from their rugby team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the things that matter most and the Welsh side of things come after that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if you looked at something that was ideal, to find the best coach and that they are Welsh, that\u2019s a perfect answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tandy begins his tenure on September 1 and is set to lead Wales into the 2027 World Cup in Australia.<\/p>\n
Reddin said Tandy\u2019s backroom team would be finalised over the coming weeks and has not ruled retaining some current staff members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-280262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114891958725872773","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280262","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=280262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}