Dewi Lake admits Wales ‘let ourselves down’

Skipper Dewi Lake admits Wales will struggle to compete with Australia and New Zealand if they replicate parts of their performance against Japan.

Wales managed a bonus-point 28-21 win against Eddie Jones’ Brave Blossoms on Saturday as their Nations Championship campaign resumed in Cardiff.

But the Wales pack were often on the back foot and Steve Tandy’s side clung on to victory in the final moments as Japan finished strongly.

Gloucester hooker Lake said: “There were massive parts of that game where we let ourselves down.

“Getting into camp, we said we were going to do things that we probably didn’t do today. That’s disappointing for us.

“If you look at the two Test matches we’ve got coming next, we did things today that weren’t good enough to compete in those games.

“But this is a group that wants to grow and will challenge each other. We’ll do that.”

The Wales lineout, in particular, was a mess as the hosts coughed up possession six times on their own throw.

Those issues overshadowed some excellent attacking play, in which Josh Adams scored twice and fellow wing Louis Rees-Zammit once.

Rees-Zammit stood out with five line breaks and the Bristol flier was named player of the match after beating 13 defenders and gaining 121 metres.

“We’ve got to be better in that area,” Lake said of the lineout.

“When we did get it right I thought we got a lot of joy from there, but we’d have loved to have gone to that driving maul a lot more often.

“You have to credit Japan in that area for the defensive work that they do.

“They are number one in the world for a reason around that area, but we’ve got to look at ourselves first – whether it’s throw-in, movement in the lineout or our speed.

“We have to be more ruthless at how much we want to win the ball around lineout time. We’ve got dangerous backs and if we secure the ball there they’re going to do damage.”

Lake’s front-row colleague Archie Griffin had special reason to celebrate with his first Test try.

The Bath tighthead prop went over in the fourth minute after Rees-Zammit had torn through the Japan defence.

Griffin said: “It was good to get the crowd going. A little space opened up for me – a one-yard dink.

“You’ve always got to be happy to get a bonus-point win, but there’s lots to push on for the next three weeks.

“I think there’s still a lot to come. We talk about being connected as a squad in training, and we need to make sure we gel that way.”