'What will be, will be' – Gatland will respect any decision on Wales future

Warren Gatland accepts his future is out of his hands after Wales suffered a record-setting defeat to Australia.

Wales were hammered 52-20 by the Wallabies in Cardiff on Sunday, as Australia scored eight tries in their biggest ever away win over the Welsh.

It marked an 11th straight Test defeat for Wales, who face world champions South Africa in their next outing.

Wales are on their worst ever run of defeats, and Gatland knows there is plenty of negativity around his coaching.

"It's the most challenging time I've ever known as a coach and what will be, will be," Gatland told TNT Sports.

"I will chat to a few people as to what happens from here.

"I am passionate about Welsh rugby but there's a lot of negativity around the game right now and we want to make sure what happens is the best for Welsh rugby, not about me. I will respect the decision."

Gatland is in his second stint in charge of Wales, having led them for 12 years between 2007 and 2019, leading them to four Six Nations titles.

Yet Wales have been abysmal as of late, and were dispatched by an Australia team that were reduced to 14 men for 20 minutes of the second half.

"It hurts. We got ourselves back into the game, but to me, we're a man up and conceded three tries - 21 points - that's really disappointing," he added.

"From our point of view, we had a chance to put them under pressure, we probably just forced things - [conceded] some turnovers, some penalties, so that was disappointing.

"I felt we had the chance to get ourselves back into it and kind of just shot ourselves in the foot.

"We spoke about it at half-time, some momentum, go out there and be accurate, we'll get some opportunities and when we play with tempo and keep the ball we look good.

"[Conceding] 21 points with a man advantage, it's not often that happens."

"Yes there is pressure, but what will be, will be!"pic.twitter.com/n1yerWjCc5

— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) November 17, 2024

Wales prop Gareth Thomas told S4C: "We're all very disappointed after that. We came into the game with a lot of energy, everything was in place coming into the game. We had confidence with the coaches.

"Our discipline let us down and we're very disappointed. We've let ourselves down. They were down to 14 men and we couldn't take advantage."

Australia's Tom Wright capped off his hat-trick just before full-time, and he was keen to highlight the Wallabies' dominant display.

"That was an awesome 80-minute performance," he told TNT Sports. "Ebbs and flows, we gave a lot of momentum to Wales at stages, we made it difficult for ourselves, but those are games you like to be a part of.

"There was a lot of ball in play, Wales were really up for the content and really made us earn all those points."