Gatland: I followed head not heart axing BOD

Warren Gatland last night said there is no room for sentiment in professional rugby but he reiterated that the decision to drop Brian O’Driscoll for the final Lions test in Australia was one of the toughest calls he had to make.

Gatland stressed axing O’Driscoll was one of several extremely tough calls he had to make and pointed out he had excluded coach Shaun Edwards, who he had worked with at Wasps and Wales for a decade, from the tour.

Gatland, who appeared on The Late Late Show last night, said yesterday on Galway Bay FM that leaving Edwards behind showed he wasn’t afraid to make the hard calls.

“The mandate I was given with the Lions was to do whatever it takes to win the series, so there was no emotional tie or sentiment about that.

“As coaches, sometimes you have to make hard decisions. You have to put your hand on your heart and make what I believe is the right call.

“It was trying to believe it’s not always about the popular decision, it’s sometimes making what you feel is the right decision and the tough decision,” said Gatland.

Gatland, who this week was critical of comments made by Keith Wood over the axing of O’Driscoll, dismissed the notion of a conspiracy over the decision to leave the former Leinster, Ireland and Lions captain out for the final test.

“There were definitely no conspiracy theories. Brian, the way he conducted himself and handled himself afterwards was brilliant. He was fantastic for the younger players on the tour.

“But when we came to the third test we sat around as a group of coaches and were unanimous that we felt the selection of Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies was the right one in the middle of the field,” he said.

Gatland admitted while they agreed it was the right call, it was not an easy one to tell O’Driscoll.

“I gave him his first cap at 19 and the ironic thing is that 15 years later being the first person to drop him in rugby. It wasn’t an easy conversation to have with someone like Brian,” he added.