British and Irish Lions 2017: Warren Gatland throws his hat into ring to lead 2021 tour after 'frustrating' finish to tour

Eddie Jones has already put his hand up to lead the Lions and Gatland, who will leave Wales in 2019, is open to retaining his role as Lions head coach

Warren Gatland is open to coaching the Lions for a third time in 2021 (Getty)

Warren Gatland has thrown his hat into the ring to lead the British and Irish Lions for a third consecutive time in 2021 after watching his side draw the series with New Zealand in a nail-biting final at Eden Park.

Come the end of the series, there was no splitting the two sides as the third Test finished in a deflating 15-15 draw, though this crop of Lions become just the second to avoid a series defeat in the history of the side.

After a frantic six-week tour of New Zealand, Gatland was able to unwind somewhat as he arrived for his post-match press conference wearing a clown’s nose – in response to the New Zealand Herald’s front page of the Lions head coach dressed as a clown before the second Test – and though he admitted that the next Lions tour is a long way off, he would have no hesitations in trying to secure a series win in South Africa for the first time since 1997, although he did acknowledge that he has rivals such as Eddie Jones for the position.

"There's a lot of water under the bridge before then,” Gatland said. “Eddie [Jones] has put his hand up hasn't he? My focus now is back to Wales and looking forward to 2019. I'm definitely finishing there unless they get rid of men before then.

"I'm not too sure what's going to happen after that, whether I come home or look for something else. I might just got to the beach and put my feet up for a while.

"You never say never. Maybe after 2019 there's a chat, an opportunity to think about 2021 and do three of them as a head coach. To win two and draw one wouldn't be a bad achievement."

Both Gatland and his opposite number, Steve Hansen, were able to share a few words together after the game and will join each other at an after-series ceremony or the two teams on Saturday night. Despite all the hostile snipes that have occurred over the last six weeks, the pair were able to enjoy a joke that came up in the press conference and appeared to tickle the two coaches.

Gatland arrived at his press conference wearing a clown's nose (Getty)

“I spoke to Steve Hansen and he said it feels a bit like kissing your sister,” Gatland noted. “For us to come here and draw a series in New Zealand it feels like some achievement especially considering we were totally written off with the predictions for a three-nil whitewash.

“And this group of players have shown unbelievable character, it’s been a tough tour.”

After a thrilling and confusing finish, in which the All Blacks were awarded a penalty only for referee Romain Poite to change his mind to a scrum for an accidental offside, the thought of extra-time certainly popped into many players minds given they were unsure what the protocols were.

But there would be no extra-time period or sudden death shootout as the Lions series was drawn for only the second time in 129 years, and Gatland was satisfied with how the tour finished.

Steve Hansen and Warren Gatland share a few words after the drawn third Test (Getty)

“We’ll reflect on tonight and just say, given the schedule, to come to New Zealand and draw, you’ve got to be pretty proud,” Gatland said. “Both teams are frustrated thinking a win would have been nice.

“We felt we didn’t play that well tonight. It was a game for defences tonight, a lot of turnovers by both teams.

“If you’d said six weeks ago come to NZ and draw a Test series, we’d probably take that. They threw everything at us, and we hung in there.”

He added on the prospect of extra-time: “No, I think those provisions have to be put in place beforehand.

“I was asked after the game if I’d be happy with extra time and I said yeah, because you have that winning mentality, you want to win the game.”