Wales "will win the Six Nations". His statement was backed up after Wales convincingly beat Scotland 34–7 in the opening round, earning themselves their first ever try bonus point. The following week, despite keeping England scoreless for 60 minutes, Wales lost 12–6. In round three, Wales came within moments of stealing the game from Ireland, only losing by 3 points in over time. However, an intercept from Jacob Stockdale, saw Wales go down to Ireland 37–27, ending their chance of winning the Six Nations. In rounds 4 and 5, Wales returned to winning ways, defeating Italy 38–14 and France 14–13 to finish the Championship in second behind victors Ireland. In June 2018, Gatland led his side to three from three victories, defeating South Africa in Washington, D.C. in a one-off test match 22–20, before securing a 2–0 series win over Argentina. The first test victory (23–10) was Wales' first win in Argentina since 2004, and with the second test victory, meant Wales won a first series over Argentina since 1999. In the buildup to the 2019 Six Nations Championship, Gatland said that should Wales start off the campaign with a victory over France, "we can win it given we have home games against England and Ireland." Down 0–16 after the first half in Paris, Wales rallied to win 24–19, and subsequent wins over Italy (26–15), England (21–13), Scotland (18–11) and Ireland (25–7) saw them win the Grand Slam, stretching their winning run to 14, breaking their previous record of 11 set in 1910, and making Gatland the first-ever coach to win three Grand Slams in the Five or Six Nations era. British & Irish Lions For the 2009 tour of South Africa, Gatland was named as an assistant coach, specialising as the forwards coach under Ian McGeechan. In March 2012, in the wake of his second Six Nations Grand Slam with Wales, he was interviewed for the position of head coach for the Lions' 2013 tour of Australia, before being appointed in September that year. The Lions won the test series against Australia 2–1. He was given a 10-month contract with the Lions, taking a sabbatical from coaching Wales, although he did coach Wales against Australia and New Zealand in the 2012 Autumn internationals. Gatland promised impartial selection and said he believed that Graham Henry in 2001 picked too many Welsh players who were insufficiently good for the tour. He