WALES rugby boss Roger Lewis has warned off possible suitors of coach Warren Gatland following a stunning World Cup run that threatens to make the New Zealander a man in demand.

Gatland is repeatedly linked with the All Blacks top job that will be vacated by Graham Henry after the tournament.

Wales are currently one win away from reaching their first World Cup final, with Gatland already tied in to a new four-year deal that will incorporate the 2015 competition hosted by England. It is a contract that Welsh Rugby Union group chief executive Lewis describes as “watertight.”

“Having worked in the music business for so long, when stars break and you sell millions of records and generate hundreds of millions of pounds, you have got to make sure you have got a contract there that is watertight,” he said. “And we have got a watertight contract.

“Even if anyone wanted to come and have a conversation with us, and I am not suggesting this at all, it would cost them a heck of a lot of money.”

It was four years ago this week that Lewis first met with Gatland at Auckland Airport, their initial talks coming soon after Wales crashed out of the World Cup against Fiji, a defeat that resulted in Gatland’s predecessor Gareth Jenkins losing his job. “It all fell apart in Nantes, and I said immediately then that we had to stop and change,” Lewis added. “I got the backing of the (WRU) board to say we had to change. When I met Warren, and people didn’t believe me at the time, I knew virtually in the first part of our conversation. I realised he would fit with us.”