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Wales hope to bounce back from ‘disappointment’ by snapping losing run
By Finn Morton
Captain Dewi Lake insists Wales are “feeling confident” as the visitors look to snap a long-lasting losing streak and end their international season on a high with a win over Australia at Melbourne’s AAMI Park.
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Warren Gatland’s men haven’t won an international Test match since the pool stages of last year’s Rugby World Cup where they beat Georgia 43-19. Wales later lost to Argentina in the quarter-finals in what was the first of many losses.
That streak has extended beyond 275 days but it could come to a triumphant end this weekend if they’re successful in raining on the Wallabies’ parade in Australia. The men in gold took plenty of confidence out of their win in Sydney but they’ll be desperate for a win themselves.
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Wales have been dealt a tough blow in the lead-up to the clash with world-class backrower Aaron Wainwright ruled out of the remaining matches of this tour with an injury. Wainwright limped off the field last weekend with only seconds left in the 25-16 loss.
But all those potential factors and pre-match talking points will mean nothing to Wales. On the back of a good week in Victoria’s state capital of Melbourne, the playing group are itching to go as they look to bounce back from last week’s “disappointment.”
“Feeling good, feeling confident. Obviously, on the back of a loss last week,” Dewi Lake told reporters. “We’ve had a good training week and yeah, ready to go again.
“A lot of disappointment because I think we created a lot of opportunities for ourselves which we spoke about after,” he added when asked about the first Test in Sydney.
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“Knowing that we created those opportunities and that we can put a lot of things right is really positive for us as well. So yeah, we’re feeling good.”
Wales may have made the knockout stages of the World Cup in France but they haven’t looked like the same team in the nine months since. There have been some big personnel changes, with wins proving hard to come by with a relatively inexperienced group.
Wales started their Six Nations campaign with a one-point loss to Scotland and another narrow defeat away to England. If those results had gone the other way then who knows what that may have done as the players continue to fight for the red jersey.
Ireland, France, Italy, South Africa and now Australia have also got the better of Cymru who will be looking to avoid a ninth consecutive loss to finish their campaign. It’s a losing run that captain Lake admitted the players have briefly discussed.
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“It’s been mentioned just so boys know where we’re at, what we’re striving for but probably not in a negative way as people maybe think.
“Winning is a habit, losing is also a habit and we’ve struggled with that at the minute but as soon as we get that one under our belt… who knows what can happen.
“I don’t think morale is something that we’ve been struggling with. Obviously, there’s huge disappointment after losses but as we all know, no tea, goes out on the field to lose, that’s not your goal.
“We’re in a great country, we’ve got a great group of boys, that’s not been a tough thing to get going. It’s more just putting the finishing touches on things, getting our preparation right and tearing into the weekend.”
Wales will take some confidence out of their agonising defeat at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium with the visitors well and truly in the fight for about 70 minutes. It wasn’t until Tom Wright scored a stunning solo try in the 69th minute that the match appeared lost.
But one focus or “massively important” factor for the Welsh will be starting well as they look to potentially take the Melbourne crowd out of it.
“It’s massively important.”
“I thought we started last weekend well, three points in the first [20] minutes.
“But you know, Aus are a good team – they’re always going to come back at you but we were still in the game with 10 minutes to go and I think that’s key for us to stay in these games and to start fast in both halves.
“Often we might start fast in the first and then by the second we don’t start as quick. It’s key that we start quickly.”
If Gatland has a pay for performance remuneration structure, at which point does he start paying the Welsh Rugby Union?