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The 'few areas' where Gatland felt Wales improved in latest loss

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Warren Gatland has refused to blame the off-the-field contractual shenanigans in Wales for Saturday’s latest championship defeat. Not since 2007 have the Welsh lost their opening three matches in the Six Nations but they will now head to Italy on March 11 for what is effectively a wooden spoon decider between the only two teams yet to win a match in 2023.

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Avoiding that dubious title is now foremost on Welsh minds even though their round three 10-20 loss to England was classified as not all bad in the eyes of the coach who re-took the head position after Wayne Pivac was sacked in December.

When Gatland previously took over, his arrival was instantly transformative as Wales finished up as 2008 Grand Slam champions. However, that giddy achievement has not been repeated and his deliberations were generally sombre following his third February loss.

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Wales were undoubtedly competitive and much improved from their capitulation last time out in Scotland. Here, they kept England waiting until the 75th minute before the result was conclusive, but the sobering outcome was that another L was posted against their name in a campaign where they have yet to really fire.

“We are critical of ourselves in terms of we created a lot of problems for ourselves by not being accurate in key moments and that is what Test match rugby is about,” began Gatland, trying to make sense of it all with Wales now zero from three.

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“If you are in that arm wrestle you have got to stay in that fight and it’s about being accurate. We have spoken about us being hard on ourselves in areas we need to improve on. There were improvements in that performance but there is still a lot of work to do. I thought Joe Hawkins did well and Mason (Grady) in his first cap. We defended well at times. We probably need to create a little bit more width on attack. That is something we will continue to work on, and transition in going from defence or from a kick into attack needs a little bit of work.

“Those are areas we can concentrate on improving going forward. Like I said, there were a number of things we were happy with and had improved, and coming to half time we were thinking we were in this game, let’s stay in the arm wrestle. We’re not quite there yet but we are going in the right direction.”

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Regarding the threatened Wales player strike that only abated on Wednesday evening following crisis talks with the WRU, Gatland added: “We weren’t making any excuses for what happened during the week. Getting up for an England-Wales game is not difficult. The week was challenging. We realise and understand that but we weren’t making any excuses.”

As for the prospect of round four’s last-place clash away to the Italians, the coach ruminated: “The last thing you want to do is get a wooden spoon. That has got to be our focus. Part of this Six Nations is about us thinking about the next six or seven months as well.

“We have got some older, more experienced players who are still holding their hand up and we have some talented youngsters who need some time. We just probably haven’t got that group in the middle, players who have 30, 40 caps. We will try and marry the two.

“You can’t coach experience and that was part of the conversation I had with Joe Hawkins during the week. He wasn’t happy with his game against Scotland, made a couple of errors. But I thought he had a good game and improved today from us giving him the confidence to go out and play. He is a player who will continue to get better and better, he just needs more time in the middle.”

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Skipper Ken Owens’ view on the upcoming Roman trip was: “Every game in a Welsh shirt is a must-win. I’m not hiding away from that fact. We haven’t won a game yet so we will be putting pressure on ourselves to win.”

Yet it wasn’t all doom and gloom for him after losing to England. “I’m proud of the boys, we fronted up,” he insisted. “There was a lot of good stuff out there, the energy, the work rate, I can’t question that. A little bit of accuracy in certain areas but we have trained well in the last two weeks.

“With everything that has gone on off the field, we worked hard and put a shift in. We drew a line in the sand on Wednesday and we are not having that as an excuse. We are disappointed we lost a Test match because we had opportunities to put some more points on the board and we didn’t do that, but I thought it was a definite step up in what we are trying to achieve as a group.”

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Adrian 1 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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Trevor 4 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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B
Bull Shark 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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