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Warren Gatland has admitted he may have been Wales coach for “too long” but revealed staying to the end of the 2019 World Cup will net him a “significant” loyalty bonus from the WRU.

And he branded people “dumb” for believing Warrenball had been ditched and Wales’ style of play had changed just because they had “scored a couple of great tries”.

Gatland said it should be renamed “Winningball” because of the success the style had brought, including a Lions victory over Australia in 2013 and a draw with New Zealand this summer.

(Image: INPHO/James Crombie)

Gatland has produced a tour diary of the Lions' success in New Zealand, called 'In the Line of Fire'. Exclusive extracts are appearing this week on Wales Online and in the Daily Mail.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday , as part of the book promotion, he insisted it was a “realistic ambition” for Wales to lift the World Cup in Japan in two years time.

Gatland, thought to be on a salary of around £450,000 a year with Wales, went on: “I recognise that I have been at Wales a long time and should I have left earlier? There is an argument about that.

"Have I been at Wales for too long? Possibly. But we are in a professional sport and my current contract means that by finishing in 2019, there is a significant fee for having done that period, a loyalty bonus basically, yeah.

"You have to weigh up your age and your future in the profession and walking away from those sorts of things.

"But in saying that, the profile that we tried to create for this team is perfect going into a World Cup in terms of the experience that we will have, players with the number of caps and the age profile and some quality youngsters coming through.

''The downside for Wales is that we can't pick up too many injuries because of the lack of depth. But we will be well prepared. For a lot of these players, it will be their last World Cup.

"My previous experience with them, they never complain about working hard, they will work harder than most other teams and will turn up for the World Cup in great shape physically.

"I think it is a realistic ambition to win the World Cup in 2019."

Turning on critics of Wales’ tactics, he remonstrated: “What is Warrenball?

“We used to joke that Warrenball should be Winningball because look at the trophies over the years. Whatever it is, it’s been successful.

“We had a group of players who came on to the scene in Wales who happened to be quite big, physical men: Jamie Roberts, George North, Jonathan Davies.

“The fact that we used those players to get on the front foot and try and get quick ball and play off that, that connotation of the Warrenball phrase stuck.

“Sometimes you have got to realise we haven’t got the skill level and certain players to be able to do that, so we have to make the most of what we’ve got.

“Playing attractively or winning? I would take winning every day of the week.

“A couple of years ago – you know how dumb people are – we came out and said we had changed the way we were going to play and then we scored a couple of great tries and everyone said it was ‘brilliant that Wales have changed the way they are playing’ but we just played exactly the same way.

“We just said we were playing differently. No one knew."