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Warren Gatland: 'We definitely don’t want to finish at the bottom'
Warren Gatland insists Wales will embrace the challenge of a wooden spoon decider against Italy after France inflicted a fourth successive defeat on them in the 2024 Guinness Six Nations.
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France powered their way to a five-try 45-24 victory in Cardiff on Sunday as Wales were unable to stem a Les Bleus tide in a one-sided second half.
Wales have not finished bottom of the championship since losing all five games in 2003, but that is the prospect facing Gatland’s young side ahead of Saturday’s showdown against the Azzurri at Principality Stadium.
“It’s massive for us,” said head coach Gatland. “You’ve got to embrace it and not run away from the challenge. I’ve never done that.
“You can’t go into your shell and hide away. There’s going to be a lot of external pressure and expectation, and international rugby is always about that.
“We’ve got to front up, work hard next week and go and give a performance at home.”
Fifth-placed Italy have seven points to Wales’ three in the championship standings after beating Scotland 31-29 in Rome on Saturday.
It was Italy’s first Six Nations victory since winning in Cardiff two years ago, while Wales have lost 11 of their last 12 matches in the competition.
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“Physically, they’re in pretty good shape in terms of competing at this level,” said Gatland after Wales had suffered a sixth straight defeat to France.
“It’s going to be a challenge for us and massive for them because they’ll be thinking that they can finish in their best possible position in the Six Nations with a good performance.
“For us, we definitely don’t want to finish at the bottom.”
Rio Dyer, Tomos Williams and Joe Roberts scored tries to give Wales a 24-20 lead at the start of the second half.
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But Wales eventually wilted and shipping a record points total to France in Cardiff, with Gatland saying: “There were lots of parts of that game that were reasonably good.
“We were pretty happy with the first half. We targeted to play through phases and when we got over five or six phases, we were creating space and holes, and causing them problems.
“But we didn’t help ourselves with some easy turnovers and errors that we made that allowed them to wrestle back some momentum in the game.
“We were in front, we did look dangerous and created some opportunities and space.
“We’ve got to keep doing that and make sure we manage the game a little bit better in terms of those big moments.
“Unfortunately, we probably capitulated a little bit in the last 15 minutes.”
France conclude their Six Nations campaign against England in Lyon on Saturday and skipper Gregory Alldritt believes Les Bleus are in fine fettle heading into that contest.
Alldritt said: “For us it’s always a big game against England. We know that our big always expect a big crunch.
“We are going to a big recovery at the start of the week because it is a short week and then we are going to attack this game.
“England are showing some really good rugby at the moment, really tough defence as well, so it’s going to be a big challenge for the forwards.
“We hope to finish with a big performance and a win.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Yes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
2 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
2 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
5 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
34 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
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