"I can promise you there's never been any bias yet" - Gatland hits back at claims of Wales bias in his Lions teams
- 1333
Warren Gatland has hit back at claims of any Welsh bias on previous British and Irish Lions tour selections.
The current Chiefs' boss revealed that he'd love to see a 'large number of Scotsmen' making his squad for the three-Test series with South Africa next year.
Gatland came under scrutiny for his squads for the 2013 and 2017 Lions tour when he took 15 Welshmen to Australia and 12 on their trip to New Zealand four later.
In a revealing in-depth interview with former Lions and England centre Will Greenwood on a Sky Sports podcast, Gatland refuted accusations he favoured Welsh players for his Lions.
Four outside bets who Warren Gatland could take to South Africa
— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) August 4, 2020
"I can promise you there's never been any bias yet," insisted Gatland. "My job is to win a Test series for the Lions and to pick the best players along with the other coaches.
"It's not just me picking the players, it's not a one-man selection team. It's in conjunction with the other four or five coaches and us being unanimous in the final selection.
"You've got to get that right and I'm a great believer in that we need to have people from the four home nations, we need to have representation particularly from Scotland.
"It's critically important, and for the next seven or eight months, the performance of players in the international campaigns and some big club games, becomes important.
"You want to make sure the four home nations are represented and hopefully we can have a large number of Scotsmen representing the Lions because I do recognise that."