Warren Gatland has branded the criticism thrown Steve Borthwick's way after England's narrow loss to New Zealand "unfair" and cites and example of his own from Wales' summer tour of Australia to back it up. England were on the cusp of a first win over the All Blacks since 2019 in their autumn series opener at Twickenham last weekend, but missed a crucial penalty and drop goal late on. The subsequent narrative saw Borthwick come under fire, particularly for his call to replace starting half-backs Ben Spencer and Marcus Smith with Harry Randall and George Ford.
The criticism has only been exacerbated by England having missed out in similar agonising fashion against New Zealand in Dunedin and Auckland in the summer. In his newspaper column, Gatland argued there is "no middle ground" when it comes to life as a Test match head coach, you are either a hero or a villain. SIGN UP: Get the new exclusive Inside Welsh rugby newsletter here for full insight into what's really going on behind the scenes.
But, thinking back to when he was questioned by a WRU board member following their 36-28 defeat against the Wallabies in the summer, Gatland cited how these games at the top level are decided by incredibly fine margins. "I feel the reaction has been a little bit unfair on Steve," he wrote in his Telegraph column. "After Wales’ tour of Australia in the summer, I had done a report on our game management.
"I thought we had improved but that we still needed to be able to nail the big moment.