Warren Gatland

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Warren Gatland
Full name	Warren David Gatland
Date of birth	17 September, 1963
Place of birth	Hamilton, New Zealand

Warren David Gatland (born 17 September 1963 in Hamilton, New Zealand and educated at Hamilton Boys' High School and Waikato University) is a former All Black and the current Coach of the Waikato Air New Zealand Cup team.

Gatland's first game as an All Black was in 1988, when he is said to have introduced to their training sessions a part Australian Rules, part Gaelic football game which was well received by the other players.

Gatland was the record-holder of the most games for Waikato near the end of his 1994 season. He finished the season with 140 games under his belt.

During the off-season Gatland spent time coaching in Ireland. He later coached in Scotland and Ireland again before being named coach of the Irish national side in 1998, a position in which he continued until being sacked in 2001. Gatland's Irish team almost achieved an historic upset victory against the touring 2001 All Blacks.

Gatland joined London Wasps in 2002 in a coaching position before taking over as Director of Rugby when Nigel Melville left to join Gloucester RFC. He took the team for the bottom of the English championship to safety in his first few months. After this success he went on to lead Wasps to 3 consecutive Guinness Premiership titles (2003, 2004 & 2005) and the Heineken Cup in 2004.

He came back to New Zealand, in 2005,to take over coaching the Waikato National Provincial Championship (NPC) side. The NPC was superseded by the Air New Zealand Cup in 2006, Gatland took Waikato to the first title of the new competition, beating Wellington in the final. He joined the Waikato Chiefs Super 14 team in 2006 as technical advisor.