Gatland: It's all about World Cup
Warren Gatland has long been in the media crosshairs for his failure to guide Wales to more than one win over the Southern Hemisphere giants.
After a week when the Kiwi coach insisted he felt under no pressure and that the World Cup remained his outright focus, Gatland nonetheless expressed his satisfaction after the hard-fought 12-6 victory over South Africa on Saturday.
The win – only Wales' second against the Springboks – improved his record against the SANZAR trio (South Africa, Australia and New Zealand) to two victories from 28 games.
It was also a fantastic boost just 10 months away from the World Cup, when Wales are in the same pool as the Wallabies, hosts England and Fiji.
"I don't think it's a relief," Gatland said after ending the six-year hoodoo since that 21-18 win over Australia in 2008.
"It wasn't if, it was when it was going to happen. We deserved that win today [Saturday].
"In terms of relief, and people talk about pressure, you thrive on pressure at this level, that's what it's all about."
Wales opened their November internationals with a 28-33 defeat to Australia, before scraping past Fiji 17-13 and leading against New Zealand for 69 minutes before leaking three late tries to go down 16-34.
"They don't make it easy for the coaches, I can tell you that! I couldn't watch the last couple of minutes," admitted Gatland.
"The – series is all about playing the best teams in world, there's no competition points at stake. For us it's the Six Nations and preparing for that.
"We're looking at these [campaigns] like World Cup camps in terms of preparing long term for the World Cup. That's the focus we had and we're very happy with how the whole autumn campaign transpired.
"We've pushed the big three pretty close in this campaign. We couldn't get across the line for two of those gam
es, but we've done it today [Saturday]."
Gatland added: "The most pleasing thing is that we were able to go through those moments when things don't go well for us and come out the other side.
"When we do the review on Monday, I think there'll be a lot of positives that come out of this campaign."
The Kiwi dismissed the victory as a "breakthrough" win.
"Our whole focus is making sure we qualify from our group, the pool of death, next year," he said of Wales' World Cup pool.
"It's nice to win today, we wounded one of the big beasts.
"It's part of the stepping stone towards what we're trying to achieve. Our long-term is winning the World Cup and we think we're good enough to do that."
Skipper Sam Warburton also played down the importance of the victory.
"It doesn't really feel like a monkey off the back, to be honest," the Cardiff Blues openside flank said.
"It's always felt like we've always been capable of being able to achieve a win against one of these three sides.
"I always thought it was definitely a matter of when, not if. I never doubted the ability of our team.
"It doesn't feel like a surprise, although it is a career highlight.
"But this has to be the standard now for us to kick on. We don't want this to happen once in a blue moon and celebrate like we won the World Cup.
"If we want to be world beaters and to win the World Cup, then this must be the standard that we expect now, year in year out and hopefully kick on from here.
AFP
