Gatland clowns around in post-match chat
Having being depicted as a clown by some local media, Warren Gatland played up to the joke after an historic tied series with New Zealand.
Warren Gatland took a playful swipe at his critics as he turned up for Saturday's post-match news conference sporting a red clown's nose.
Gatland's British and Irish Lions earned a 15-15 draw with New Zealand at Eden Park, ensuring the series was shared 1-1.
The Kiwi was depicted as a clown in a New Zealand Herald cartoon ahead of the second Test, which the Lions won 24-21 to level the series.
He described himself as "a pretty happy clown" after that success and continued with the theme after the third and final Test, facing the media wearing a red nose.
"It was my idea. I had it last week, but didn't think it was the right time," he said.
Gatland felt the tourists deserved to tie a pulsating series in his homeland and expressed his pride with the way his players stood up to challenge.
"You always want to roll the dice, it's all about winning. It's a great achievement coming here and drawing the series, we knew it was going to be tough from the start." he said.
"We didn't play that brilliantly tonight but the boys showed some real courage. I think it's a fair result in the end, we would have been pretty gutted [to lose], I'm really proud of the boys, no one gave us a hope in hell coming out here.
"The boys represented the four nations brilliantly and should be very proud of what they've achieved. The players will have learnt a huge amount from this experience, and to come here it's helped us by playing quality opposition and learning and stepping up to another level the following week."
Gatland will now resume his duties as Wales head coach, but hinted that he would consider taking charge of the Lions for a third consecutive tour.
"I'm undefeated as head coach I suppose." he added.
"I don't know, there's a lot of water under the bridge, the focus now is on Wales and start preparing for two years’ time when there's a World Cup in Japan.
"I'm a great believer in what will be will be, I'm not looking too far ahead, we'll see what happens."
