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Warren Gatland has left his Wales job for the rest of the season to lead the British & Irish Lions
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He will once againe be replaced by assistant Rob Howley
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The former scrum-half steps up to the post as he did during the 2012-13 campaign
Warren Gatland has left his Wales job for the rest of the season to lead the British & Irish Lions Rob Howley stepping up to fill the post.
“I’m delighted, proud and extremely excited to be named Wales head coach for this period,” he said.
“I would like to congratulate Warren on his thoroughly deserved selection and the honour of being named head coach for a second successive Lions tour.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being head coach in 2012 and 2013 and I’m excited to have the challenge once again and I would like to thank the WRU for this opportunity.
“We kick off four back-to-back matches in Cardiff with Australia first up on November 5 and not only is the Under Armour series important for us on the field, the 2019 RWC seedings will be decided upon post 2017 Six Nations, so each match is vitally important to us looking forward and ahead to that competition.”
WRU Group Chief Executive Martyn Phillips said: “We are delighted to appoint Rob as Head Coach of Wales for the period that Warren is away.
“Rob is a very experienced international coach and forms part of one of the most experienced coaching teams in the international game. Added to this, we have a very experienced squad of players, with a strong leadership group and we believe that combination gives us a strong basis on which to perform for the season ahead.
“We considered a range of options domestically and overseas when contingency planning for this eventuality and determined that Rob represents the optimum appointment for Wales.
“Rob’s experience and relationship with the regional coaches affords the opportunity for a joined up approach, which will be of an important benefit for the game in Wales.”
