'Excited' Gatland still upbeat about Wales
SPOTLIGHT: Wales head coach Warren Gatland remains upbeat about coaching Wales despite a torrid run after series loss to Australia.
The loss to Australia in the two-match series marked a ninth straight loss for Wales since their 2023 World Cup quarterfinal exit to Argentina – with many big name players retiring and a couple more being sidelined due to injury.
Gatland remains optimistic about Wales and feel that they will soon turn the corner despite going down two weeks in a row to Australia by 16-25 and 28-36 respectively.
“I’m confident this is going to be a good team,” he said.
“I can see signs out there that we’re in games, we’re pressurising teams and quality opposition players. I hope you can see that as well.
“We’re just hurting ourselves at the moment. Sometimes not by the pressure the opposition are putting us under, but some of our turnovers and mistakes are allowing easy ins to the opposition team.
“You fix those things up and you keep working hard to be accurate.”
The positives and negatives
Gatland took positives out of their performance such as their rolling maul – where hooker and captain Dewi Lake dotted down for a brace.
He feels though that his side were a “bit naive” and not accurate enough in other areas of the match.
Wales find themselves outside of the top 10 of the World rankings under Gatland – dropping down to 11th place below Fiji and Italy, but insisted his motivation remained high with one more tour match coming up against the Super Rugby Pacific side – the Reds in Brisbane on Friday.
“Yeah, absolutely. I’m really excited by this group,” he said when asked if he still had the hunger.
“We did say all along and have been clear that we probably need to go through a little bit of pain. We’re in that process of players getting some more experience.
“Our whole planning was to pick a group of youngsters after the experience we lost from the World Cup to develop through to the World Cup in 2027 in Australia.”
Australia – much like Wales are also in a rebuilding phase under new head coach Joe Schmidt – after the side’s failure at the 2023 World Cup under former coach Eddie Jones where they crashed out of the tournament’s pool stage for the first time in their history.
Despite a great start – winning two matches on the bounce, Schmidt said his side still have loads of work to do after letting a 17-0 lead slip in Melbourne and a 13-0 lead slip in Sydney the week before.
They will face Georgia in Sydney next weekend – who upset Jones’ Japan by 25-23 in Sendai on Saturday.
Schmidt hinted at several changes he will make as he continues to balance consistency whilst blooding the next generation of Wallabies and giving those who missed out another run in the gold jersey.
“We made five changes this week (to the 23) and there could be that many again,” he said.
“You’re trying to build cohesion and it’s a little bit of a more difficult equilibrium that you’re trying to find between the continuation of confidence and then offering opportunity.
“We’re trying to build a real squad mentality and have confidence in the players across the board.”
Newly-appointed skipper Liam Wright could make a return from injury after missing the Test in Melbourne with players such as Len Iketau, Tom Lynach and Harry Wilson also in a race against time to be fit.
