hips don't lie: British Lions Australia tour: coach Warren Gatland on being the Lion King Down Under

By

Warren Gatland

PUBLISHED:

05:21 EST, 3 March 2013

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UPDATED:

05:21 EST, 3 March 2013

Noosa, on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland in Australia, is best known as a playground for the rich and famous. Nicole Kidman, Olivia Newton-John, Richard Branson and tennis champion Pat Rafter have all popped up here in recent years. But the atmosphere is going to be a whole lot different this summer when I turn up with the British Lions rugby team and thousands of boisterous fans.

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Game on, down under: Warren visits Sydney ahead of the British Lions tour to Australia this summer

As coach, I’m leading the squad Down Under and will have some difficult decisions to make – such as choosing the squad and the captain. But picking Noosa as our base wasn’t hard at all. We’ll stay at the Sheraton in the resort, which is a 90-minute drive from Brisbane or a short flight from Sydney, making it the perfect base between the games against Australia.

Fans are being encouraged by the local tourist board to stay in Noosa, and I would agree with their recommendation. Noosa is surrounded by ocean, rainforest, river, national parks and bush. It is a Unesco Biosphere Reserve and famous for its year-round wonderful climate with an average temperature of 25C – about 77F.

North-facing Main Beach is reckoned to get the sun all day long, so fans can be sure of a warm welcome in June.

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Australian idyll: The beachfront at Noosa

And there will be plenty to do for both players and fans when we’re not all focusing on the rugby. We’ll be able to enjoy surfing and paddle-boarding lessons, kayak tours of the Noosa Everglades and great hiking and horse-riding tours in the national parks. And for a bit of rest and relaxation, there are loads of cafes, markets and top-class restaurants.

What is attractive about Noosa to a touring team is that, unlike some other places on the Queensland coast, such as Surfer’s Paradise, it’s very quiet. Lions tours attract an awful lot of fans, which is great, but it can also mean things get a bit hectic, so you really need somewhere you can shut yourself away and just have a little down time to escape all the pressure.

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Away from it all: Warren and his daughter Gabby

Not that we mind meeting the supporters. We all understand that Lions fans save up for a long time and spend so much on following us that it’s important we give them time to meet and talk with the players.

I know Queensland quite well. I’ve been there a few times, for holidays and as a player. I’ve had great times at Kirra Beach and Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, south of Noosa.

I’m a New ealander and when I went to the Gold Coast – a number of years ago – it was a popular place for Kiwis to go on holiday. But not so much any more.

It’s a sign of just how much Australia has matured as a holiday destination that older New ealanders have moved on to other destinations in Australia – for example to places in the far north of Queensland such as Port Douglas and to resorts in Western Australia. Surfers Paradise, however, is still a very popular place with younger kids from New ealand.

People often ask about the relationship between Aussies and Kiwis. I suppose we see the Aussies as kind of like our big brother – and we want to beat up our big brother all the time!

However, we’re also close and very supportive, and there’s a lot of respect between the two countries.

My first trip abroad from New ealand was when I went to Australia aged about 18. I was on a pre-season rugby tour, so it was all about hard training, a few games, and having a good time as well. We stayed in Brisbane on that tour and it made a big impression.

Over the years I’ve been back to Australia a few times and to most of the major places – except for Darwin and Ayers Rock.

I was in Sydney last year, making preparations for the tour. It was great being able to do the tourist things. We took a cruise around the harbour, which was fantastic, and we went to a lot of restaurants.

We also had a good tour around the whole Sunshine Coast, looking at resorts and beaches. Checking out Noosa was a tough job, but someone had to do it!

When you’re touring somewhere like Australia as a player, you’re there to do a job. You would like to have a look around the place but you know that if you spend a day on your feet sightseeing, it can have an effect on your form.

The coach needs to find a balance. You want to give people the opportunity to get out and have a look around, but it can’t be a holiday.

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Happy memories: A waterfall near Raglan in New ealand where Warren holidayed as a child

Mind you, things were different on Lions tours in the old days. In 1971, for example, when the Lions went Down Under, the tour started in Queensland with a match on May 12 and ended with the final Test against the All Blacks in Eden Park, Auckland, on August 14 – that was three months everybody was away from home, and that’s a lot of time to fill.

This year’s Lions tour starts with a match in Hong Kong against the Barbarians on June 1 and ends with the third and final Test against Australia in the AN Stadium in Sydney on July 6. When I was a child, family holidays were spent on the west coast of the North Island of New ealand.

We used to stay in a caravan at Raglan, a small beachside town about 30 miles west of Hamilton. Raglan is best known for its surf.

Now I’ve got a beach house on the eastern side of North Island at a place called Waihi Beach, a town at the western end of the Bay of Plenty. It lies about five miles to the east of the town of Waihi, at the foot of the Coromandel Peninsula.

Waihi beach has about five miles of white sand linking it to the small settlement of Bowentown. It’s a popular beach with surf enthusiasts as well as with families. Our house is right on the beachfront, which is nice, and I try to get over there as much as possible.

My children are teenagers now so four years ago we built a couple of bunk rooms at the beach house so they can entertain all their mates there. They have a great time out in the surf and kayaking, or taking the boat out for water-skiing.

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Wet and wild: A surfer rides a wave off Kirra Beach on the Gold Coast

Although my home is in New ealand, my work is in the UK (I’m also coach of the Welsh national team), so inevitably I spend a lot of time flying. I’ve got used to it and now have a tried and tested routine.

Fortunately, I fly business class most of the time, which does make a difference. I get on and have a glass of red wine and something to eat, pop a sleeping pill and try to sleep as much as I can.

I’ve given up trying to watch ten movies during the long flight from one side of the world to the other.

Through rugby, I’ve been fortunate enough to visit a lot of great places. I’ve enjoyed them all, but the one city that stands out for me is Vancouver in Canada.

It has a great bay-side location and, in the winter, is only 20 minutes from the ski slopes. I suppose western Canada reminded me a little of New ealand.

I had a great time in Canada – I went when I was pretty young and the main ‘sights’ for me back then were bars with dancers!

I’ve been to South Africa a few times and that’s an incredible country, very beautiful and so diverse. There’s great wealth but also extraordinary poverty. It’s shocking to see the shanty towns – that’s what struck me most the first time I visited.

The poverty of Buenos Aires also affected me when we visited Argentina – which is another very beautiful country.

Targets on my travel list for the future include Japan and Russia. As a kid, I always wanted to go to Moscow and ride on the Trans Siberian Express – that would be an adventure.

But at the moment all my thoughts are on Australia. The last Lions tour to O was 12 years ago so you can see why players and fans will love it.

It’s one of rugby’s great experiences, and I’m privileged to be at the heart of it.

Travel facts

Lions Rugby Travel (0844 788 4070, lionstour.com/noosa) has an 18-night package taking in all three Test matches and three days in Noosa from £5,599 per person, departing June 17. The price includes tickets to the games, accommodation, flights and an official Lions shirt.