Warren Gatland offered to resign after Wales picked up their first Wooden Spoon since 2003.
Gatland said Wales had reached “rock bottom” after a 24-21 defeat to Italy in Cardiff – their seventh successive Six Nations home loss – and revealed that he had offered his resignation to Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Abi Tierney after the final whistle.
The 60-year-old New Zealander is contracted until the 2027 World Cup, having returned to start a second spell as Wales head coach in December 2022.
Asked if he wanted to remain until 2027, Gatland replied: “Yes, absolutely. I’ve made that commitment.
“I just said to Abi in the changing room, ‘If you want me to resign, I’m quite happy to do that’.
“She said, ‘Like hell, that’s the last thing I want, that’s what I’m really afraid of’.
“But I can promise you we’ll go away and review this really carefully. We’ve already done some review stuff and (we’ll) work on areas that need to improve.”
Wales last suffered a Six Nations whitewash in 2003 and have enjoyed plenty of glory days over the past two decades, many of them under Gatland.
The Kiwi was in charge of Wales from 2007 to 2019 when his side won four Six Nations titles, three Grand Slams and reached two World Cup semi-finals.
Gatland steered Wales into the quarter-finals of the 2023 World Cup last autumn, but a raft of senior players retired either side of that tournament and a new generation has come up well short at Test level.
“We’re gutted and we are hurting as players and coaches – and I know the fans are hurting,” said Gatland.
“We’re probably a little bit rock bottom at the moment, but I do see light at the end of the tunnel. I see some excellent players who with time are going to be fantastic internationals.
“We’ve got a huge amount of inexperienced players who haven’t played a lot of regional rugby. We’re exposing them at Test level, which is a bit of a challenge.”
Italy dominated the first half to lead 11-0 at the break and extended that soon after through a brilliant try from full-back Lorenzo Pani.
Despite a late rally, which brought tries for Elliot Dee and replacements Will Rowlands and Mason Grady, veteran centre George North’s final Wales appearance was to end in disappointment.
Gatland said: “We didn’t give ourselves an opportunity to get enough forward and it didn’t help with the amount of mistakes we made.
“The scrum was under pressure and as a result we didn’t put them under enough pressure.
“We did get some momentum in the second half but we didn’t get wide and behind them enough.”
Italy had propped up the table for eight campaigns in a row, but they avoided that fate this time around.
The Azzurri’s return of two wins and a draw from five games was a clear sign of progress under new head coach Gonzalo Quesada.
“We’ve been working hard for five months and the first thing we needed to do was to redefine our identity to make Italy different from the other teams,” said Quesada.
“The main thing we did was go to the roots and basics of Italian rugby without losing our power and capacity of attack.
“We needed to be stronger and have that belief and pride in the Italian jersey, which has always been there, and that we needed to be organised better.”
'World-class' Scotland will provide Wallabies' sternest test – Skelton
Australia will face their sternest test to date when they continue their autumn tour against a "world-class" Scotland team at Murrayfield on Sunday.
That is the view of forward Will Skelton, who believes the Wallabies' victories in England and Wales have brought a new energy and confidence to their camp.
Having crashed out in the pool stage at last year's World Cup in France before finishing last in the Rugby Championship, Australia have looked a team reborn in recent weeks.
A first victory at Twickenham since 2015 and a 52-20 rout of Wales – their biggest-ever away win in matches between the teams – have made it an excellent tour to date for Joe Schmidt's side.
But La Rochelle lock Skelton feels their toughest assignment is to come this week, saying: "We've won two games, we're very aware of that.
"The Test against Scotland is going to be the hardest one yet. We're excited about this weekend and we're looking forward to ripping into it.
"Physically they're up there with the top five in the world. I think set-piece wise they're really strong.
"You've got a guy like Finn Russell who's a maestro at the back there. I think it's going be a close one and we'll be up for it.
"There's some class players in the Scottish team and, when they're at it they're world-class, so we're going to have to be on top of our game."
Wales must 'show courage and front up' against South Africa, says Gatland
Warren Gatland has urged Wales to "show real courage and front up" in their final Autumn Nations clash against South Africa.
Gatland's side bring the curtain down on a disappointing year when they welcome the reigning world champions to the Principality Stadium on Saturday.
Wales have lost an unprecedented 11 straight Tests, and could go an entire calendar year without tasting success for the first time since 1937.
Gatland has made four changes from last weekend's 52-20 defeat to Australia, with Sam Costelow, Rio Dyer, Christ Tshiunza and Taine Plumtree all coming into the starting XV.
Gareth Anscombe, Aaron Wainwright and Cameron Winnett drop out of the squad, while Adam Beard misses out through injury.
And Gatland wants his players to demonstrate fighting spirit against the Springboks.
"Last week's result hurts, and we are just as disappointed by it as the fans," he told reporters during his pre-match press conference.
"Our focus now is on training and preparing well for our final game of this Autumn Nations Series.
"There were good elements that we can definitely build on going into Saturday, but we have to improve our accuracy.
"We know what a quality side South Africa are and the physicality they bring. This week, we need to show real courage and front up against the world champions."
Wales promotion 'hasn't sunk in' for Bellamy after 4-1 Iceland win
Wales secured promotion to League A after beating Iceland 4-1 at home in their final Nations League group match, having gone a goal down early on.
Their victory, alongside a 3-1 defeat for Turkiye away to Montenegro, means that Craig Bellamy's side topped their group by a point.
"The feeling hasn't quite sunk in yet, but it's been a real positive camp Whatever the result of this game, it's just been a positive camp," said Bellamy after the match.
"The targets we set right from the start, I feel we've been able to achieve."
Wales started the day knowing they needed to win and for results to go their way to top the group, but went a goal down after seven minutes after Andri Gudjohnsen followed up from a Danny Ward save.
It was the first goal Wales had conceded at home in 321 minutes and the first time they had been behind under Bellamy, but they responded well. The hosts managed to control the rest of the half, with Lewis Cullen scoring twice in the final 15 minutes of the first period.
The determination of his team to stick to the plan was something that pleased Bellamy immensely.
"There were one or two tests today that I feel we've been able to progress [through]. If they had happened one or two games ago, we might not have been able to.
"Where we're at, you go 1-0 down in the first few minutes and you get a performance like that.
"Then after that, when the crowd get a little bit edgy and try to force things for us... No, no. We keep the ball because we believe that's going to benefit us, and the players were able to do that."
In the second half, Wales were able to dominate and bagged goals from Brennan Johnson and Harry Wilson to make things more comfortable.
"I thought we took control of the tempo of the game and we're a good team if we're able to do that," said Bellamy.
On promotion itself, the Wales manager could not overstate the importance of being able to mix with the biggest teams in international football in Europe.
"For where we want to be and where we want to go, it's huge. It's so important for us," he said.
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