- published: 26 Sep 2015
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Warren David Gatland (born 17 September 1963) is a former New Zealand rugby footballer and the current head coach of the Wales national team.
Gatland was born in Hamilton, New Zealand and educated at Hamilton Boys' High School and Waikato University. His first game as an All Black was in 1988, when he is said to have introduced a part-Australian Rules, part-Gaelic football game to the training sessions, which was well received by the other players.
Gatland became the record-holder of the most games for Waikato near the end of the 1994 season. He finished the season with 140 games in total and announced his retirement before the start of the 1995 season.
During the off-season Gatland spent time coaching in Scotland and later coached in Ireland before taking up a position as coach/manager at Leinster. Eventually he went on to serve as director of rugby at Connacht where he achieved enormous success with limited resources. His achievement in guiding them to the quarter-finals of the European Challenge Cup, which included two victories over Northampton Saints, was remarkable.