Former Wales and Lions boss Warren Gatland has claimed that there is “a lot at stake” for England head coach Steve Borthwick ahead of the Northern Hemisphere leg of the Nations Championship.

“There’s a lot at stake in terms of results. You lose and people lose their jobs,” the 63-year-old told BOYLE Sports.

“He was on the Lions with me in 2017, so I know him well. Technically, he’s outstanding. I was impressed with his technical abilities. He went to Leicester, was successful, and then England came along. Sometimes it just takes a while to build into international coaching. A lot of people don’t realise the amount of pressure on an international coach – the expectation, dealing with the union, the media, the criticism.”

Gatland is no stranger to criticism himself, having recently undergone a gruelling three-year stint at the helm of Welsh rugby in one of their worst-ever eras. Although not entirely his fault, he’s aware of the pressures that can come when not winning.

“It’s a results-based business, and everyone expects their team to be winning,” he explained. “The English reporters expect it, the Irish, Welsh, New Zealanders. Everyone wants to win, and not everyone can.”

The fifteen to nineteen gap in Wales

Having spent roughly a decade and a half in charge of Wales since first taking over in 2007, the New Zealand-born coach knows the Welsh game better than almost anyone, and believes he has spotted a serious weakness within the Welsh national rugby structure.

“If you look at a club side of twelve-year-olds, they go across the bridge to England, they’re going to be competitive and often they’ll win it,” he said.

“The big difference comes at going off to high school, from about the age of fifteen to nineteen, when the structures that England have in place with those traditional schools, looking at players and having programs and quality coaching. That’s something Wales is missing, that gap between the ages of 15 and 19.

“That’s where they need to really hone in on trying to keep that talent in Wales but also providing opportunities and programs for them to keep getting better. And I think that’s where you see the big gap of those players in England in good school programs, playing against quality teams and improving, and then that transfers into their eighteen-and-under-twenties.”

Wales’ most important match

Wales’ senior side have a depressing history of results this side of the decade, particularly since 2023, but there have been marginal improvements within the past six months, beating Italy, Barbarians and Fiji in consecutive matches between March and July of this year.

Despite signs of improvement, they were quickly brought back to reality, being easily dismissed by Argentina and South Africa in the final two matches of the Southern Hemisphere leg of the Nations Championship.

With Japan, New Zealand and Australia around the corner, Gatland knows just how important a solid early performance can be to their series success, labelling Japan as an “important game”, and stating that the following two matches will prove infinitely harder.