The touring English rugby team is ”an unhappy bunch,” according to Warren Gatland, coach of the champion British club side Wasps.
Gatland spoke recently to the eight Wasps members of the touring side and found them ”frustrated and over-coached,” he said on Thursday in his hometown of Hamilton, New Zealand.
World champions England were beaten 36-3 by the All Blacks in the first test at Dunedin last weekend and have made six changes for the second test at Auckland on Saturday.
”The Wasps boys came out to my in-laws place the other night and they seemed an unhappy bunch,” Gatland said.
”They are frustrated. They have about 19 coaching staff and they were saying they have so many meetings they almost have meetings about meetings.”
Gatland, who coached Wasps to victory in England’s Zurich Premiership and Europe’s Heineken Cup, said the players wanted to get back to ”playing rugby for the sake of playing rugby.”
”They have a lot of back-up staff and probably with that they all think they are important and want a lot of input. So the England team have 2-1-2-hour training sessions and two-hour meetings.”
Gatland said England had made a number of bad selections in its first test side and would be stronger on Saturday.
”I would expect England to be a lot better second time around,” he said. ”It depends on what mental state they are in.” — Sapa