WARREN Gatland has enough on his plate at the moment but when the Lions boss has finished removing clown paint from his face he will return to an overflowing in tray on his Wales desk.

The New Zealander deserves some time to recharge the batteries with his family in July after being in control of the toughest tour in rugby.

A daunting schedule against quality Super Rugby in addition to the Maori All Blacks and three Tests with the world champions, plus a glut of commercial activities, has made it an unrelenting tour few weeks, but it must be said that Gatland has needlessly added to his stress levels.

It’ll come to no surprise to those who have watched his reign with Wales that he hasn’t been able to help himself at times by picking fights and trying to create diversions.

He knows what he’s doing but it hasn’t worked against Steve Hansen, a man who can make stone-faced former Scotland boss Vern Cotter seem like a luvvie on Bafta night.

Yet it was one of Gatland’s more justifiable gripes, about the safety of the All Blacks’ attempted blocks of Conor Murray box kicks, which led to the New Zealand Herald repeating their cartoon from late last year of him as a clown.

Even without such pathetic stunts it is a draining experience for Gatland, one not helped by the furore surrounding his controversial but understandable call-ups and subsequent mystifying decision to leave Cory Hill, Tomos Francis, Kristian Dacey and Gareth Davies on the bench twice.

But after Test three at Eden Park on Saturday week there won’t be too long until he gets back into the swing of things; he swaps one handsomely-paid year-long job for his handsomely-paid proper one.

The New Zealander has fingers in many pies at the Welsh Rugby Union and I don’t doubt that he will be taking an especially keen interest in how things go in these parts now that the governing body are calling the shots at the Dragons.

But his prime task is preparing Wales for two years’ time when they head to Japan for the World Cup and he has plenty of quandaries to mull over when he settles back into the Vale of Glamorgan headquarters.

The autumn dates against Australia, Georgia, New Zealand and South Africa will rapidly approach and Gatland will have a pretty encouraging report to read from summer boss Robin McBryde ahead of putting together his squad.

Eddie Jones, without 30 players because of injury and Lions calls, stated after England’s excellent series win in Argentina that he now has 61 individuals fighting for a place in his national squad.

Wales don’t quite have that figure but their gutsy wins against Tonga and Samoa in horrendous conditions have added a little more depth… if the coaches want to use it.

It was a summer tour that could have gone horrendously wrong in the absence of Lions and a raft of injury victims but it proved to be a roaring success, certainly in terms of proving the young guns have the right attitude and application.

Certain areas of the team now look healthy and the early months of the season will be interesting as Lions are eased back into action while the new generation try to provide some selection headaches.

One of the issues is of Gatland’s own making: Liam Williams has suddenly become a big option at 15 just months after caretaker boss Rob Howley was telling us he is a wing, not a full-back.

Where Saracens play the former Scarlets speedster will be interesting – he has been signed to replace wing Chris Ashton – but can he now be ahead of Leigh Halfpenny in the red of Wales?

Out wide there is another problem that Gatland is currently experiencing in New Zealand with George North continuing to blow hot and cold.

He’ll be under pressure in the autumn from Steff Evans, brilliant for the Scarlets and strong on tour, fit-again Dragons wing Hallam Amos and Alex Cuthbert, who is much better than the boo boys would have you believe.

If Howley was spoilt for choice in the back row last season when he made the understandable, if in my opinion wrong, decision to stick with the trio of Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric and Ross Moriarty and leave Taulupe Faletau on the bench then Gatland will have things even harder.

Ellis Jenkins deserves to be in the mix while Aaron Shingler should be ahead of James King after injury opened the door this summer.

Those six will have plenty of players keeping them honest.

Dragons tyro Ollie Griffiths was treated rather shabbily with just two minutes against Tonga but that was down to a strong performance by Josh Navidi, one that he backed up against Samoa, plus there is Wasps openside Thomas Young.

Then there is the forgotten man – Dan Lydiate, who has been sidelined since suffering a serious knee injury in the win against South African last November. The Ospreys blindside is sometimes maligned for ‘just’ being brilliant in defence but Dragons fans know all about his quality.

A handful of other players have put themselves in the frame – Scarlets hooker Ryan Elias, Cardiff Blues tighthead Dillon Lewis and lock Seb Davies to name just three – while classy full-back/fly-half Gareth Anscombe is back battling with Sam Davies to be Dan Biggar’s cover.

Dragons lock Hill may have had an odd few weeks in New Zealand but has put himself in a good position to be back-up for Alun Wyn Jones and Jake Ball, with 34-year-old Luke Charteris and Bradley Davies needing a big seasons with Bath and the Ospreys respectively after being plagued by injury last term.

Midfield is a slight concern but on the whole there are options for a Wales management team who have previously been reluctant to ring the changes, with the damning statistic of just three new caps being awarded between the World Cup and the summer tour.

Last autumn was vital in the tussle for World Rugby ranking points ahead of the draw for Japan 2019 but this time there is the opportunity to give genuine Test chances, and not just against Georgia.

In 2016 the November squad was 36-strong and a similar size one in four months’ time would give Gatland the ability to be brave in selection with the World Cup in mind.

Two years is plenty of time but one gets the impression that the hopefuls have to make their big move in both domestic and Test rugby over the next 12 months.