The final Test at Eden Park saw the two teams unable to be separated, a slightly strange but perhaps fitting conclusion given the heroic nature of the performances from both sides.
It means Gatland remains unbeaten in two series as Lions boss.
Here’s how he reacted to a game in Auckland which will live long in the memory…
Do you see that as a win or just a drawn series?
Given the schedule and how tough the tour was, to come to New Zealand and draw the series, you have to be pretty proud of that. Both teams will be a little frustrated thinking a win would have been nice.
We didn’t feel we played that well tonight. It was a game for defences and lots of turnovers by both teams. The ball was slippery, it was very greasy out there.
But if you’d have said six weeks ago you would come to New Zealand and draw a Test series, you would probably take that.
We feel we have learned a heck of an amount on this tour with the quality of opposition we have played against. That stood us in good stead and we felt we have got better as a squad as the tour has gone on. That is because we have been really tested and pushed.
The All Blacks threw everything at us that first 20 minutes and we hung in there and that’s what good teams do. We knew we hadn’t played that well in the first half, but we knew we were still in the game at 12-6.
What was your initial thought with the offside call against Ken Owens at the end. Did you think, “Oh no, that’s a penalty”?
I thought it was a penalty to us. I thought Kieran Read jumped into Liam Williams. I don’t think he’s got any chance of getting his hand on that. So that was my initial thought, that he’s hit the player in the air.
I can understand them saying he’s competing for that and the ball has come and landed in Ken Owens’ arms. In fairness to the man next to me (Sam Warburton), he was quite astute to be able to talk the referee from a penalty into an accidental offside.
We would have been devastated as a group if we had lost the game from that kick-off.
I was disappointed with the scrum penalty under the posts. It’s swings and roundabouts. You sometimes get calls that go for you and sometimes they go against you. I thought the result was probably a fair reflection of where the tour is, with two quality sides that really went hard at each other.
Would you like to see extra time in that situation in the future?
Those things have got to be put in place beforehand. I was asked after the game if I would have been happy for extra time and I said yeah, absolutely. You have that winning mentality, you want to win a game.
For us to come here to New Zealand, against back-to-back world champions and draw the series is an unbelievable achievement considering we were completely written off. People were talking about this being a 3-0 whitewash.
This group of players have shown unbelievable character in the face of a tough tour in terms of the workload on all the staff preparing two teams a week. The staff have been going from 7am to 7pm every day working their butts off and the players have been brilliant role models.
The hospitality in New Zealand has been exceptional. As a Kiwi I am biased, but this is the most beautiful country in the world. Everywhere we have been, there has been nothing but good will from rugby fans. The occasion and the atmosphere tonight is what makes a Lions tour so unique.
You have done three Lions tours as a coach now. Are you up for it again in South Africa in 2021?
There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge before that. Eddie Jones has put his name forward for it, hasn’t he? My focus now is getting back to Wales and the autumn and looking forward to the 2019 World Cup. I am not too sure what is going to happen after that, whether I’m going to come back home or do something else.
Do you think people will come to understand what an achievement it is to leave New Zealand not having lost the Test series with a team that was formed six weeks ago?
Absolutely. I can understand everyone feels a bit flat because you want a result. But it is pretty special to put a team together to play the best team in the world in their own back yard, particularly here at Eden Park where they have a phenomenal record, and get a draw.
If we had been asked six weeks ago would you take a drawn series, we would have said that would be a pretty successful tour for the Lions.
