Warren Gatland Q&A: My message to the Welsh public and the kid who'll be real quality

Everything the Wales coach had to say after the narrow defeat to England

Wales narrowly fell to a 16-14 defeat at Twickenham, as England kept them scoreless in the second-half to make it two defeats from two for Warren Gatland's young side.

A penalty try and a well-worked score from Alex Mann had seen Wales lead at the break, but ultimately the pressure told in the second-half as Gatland's men couldn't quite hold on.

Here's everything the Wales coach had to say afterwards. You can read the report here.

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What's your assessment of that?

"Pretty disappointing. I’m proud of the performance and the effort of the players. I’m disappointed we didn’t come away with a win. For us, it’s part of the journey we’re on in terms of developing as a team.

"I said to the players in the changing room that we have to be disappointed with that. We put ourselves in a position where we should have won that game. In fairness to England, they went to an kicking strategy that got them some reward from that. We made a few errors ourselves in the second-half that allowed them some possession and territory.

"I just said to them that I think they’re going to be a bloody good team going forward. Today’s part of that process, in terms of learning from that and some game management. I’m really proud of the effort."

Is it the case though that the young players will learn from that?

"Absolutely. Sometimes that takes time. Probably when England are down to 13 men, you don’t play in your own 22. You probably think it’s an opportunity to play some territory, get the ball down there and squeeze them.

"That’s part of the learning process, when we review and individuals have a look at the game and some things people could have done better. I’m not going to be critical of any individuals. I’ve been through this before with other teams. It takes a bit of time.

"They’ve made a massive amount of progress in a few weeks. We put ourselves in a position to win today and it’s disappointing we ended up losing."

Were you thinking you could hold on after managing to start well?

"We created stuff. Cam and Josh Adams made a nice break down the sideline and we got nothing out of that. We defended pretty well. It was tough at the end down to 14 men, trying to get back into that.

"We felt really good at half-time. We tried to get some fresh legs on. After not giving away any penalties in the first-half, we probably felt on a few occasions we didn’t get the rub of the green."

How are you feeling ahead of travelling to Dublin to face Ireland next?

"We’ve got training next week with the group. The boys have a couple of days off to freshen up a little bit. We’ll start looking at that game tomorrow and preparing for what is a quality side at the moment in Ireland.

"Our focus is getting better from game to game. I think we’ve done that. With the second-half last week, we came out and started well today. Just make sure we take the learnings from these."

A word on Tommy Reffell after another superb performance?

"I think one of the things we have tried to focus on with him, we know how good he is defensively, but we want him to be comfortable getting the ball in his hands a little bit more. He came in as a bit more of an option as a running threat.

"We saw that last week and again today. I’m absolutely delighted for him because he’s starting to get a nice balance in his game. That can take him to the next level. I thought he was outstanding today. He just keeps going for 80 minutes."

Was it a case of getting fresh legs on when it came to bringing Ryan Elias and Archie Griffin on, as the scrum struggled after that?

"We wanted to get Archie on. With Keiron, it was looking at 50 minutes. We thought putting Ryan on with Archie would give us some experience along with fresh legs.

"We probably lost a bit of accuracy. I thought Elliot Dee was outstanding today. He was great when he came on second-half last week."

What can you do differently to get more momentum in attack?

"We spoke about that half-time, playing a little bit more front-line. George North had some good carries to get us on the front-foot, with how quickly they were coming up. We tried some cross-field kicks in the first-half to loosen them off a bit defensively, which did a bit towards the end of the first-half. It created some space and then some opportunities down the short side.

"There were probably times in that first-half where we hadn’t earned the right to go wide and we forced that a little bit. The chat was about being comfortable being on the front-foot.

"We went to a pick-and-go strategy for part of that first-half and, even though we didn’t get much out of it, we felt we took the legs from the English forwards. It’s something we’ve been working on and it’s something we’ll probably look as an option going forward, particularly when you play against teams who defend like England do."

What about Alex Mann's performance in his first start in Test rugby?

"He’s going to be real quality. He’s not the biggest in the world but he reminds me of a New Zealand loose forward. His anticipation, his speed, his footwork. He’s pretty sore and tired at the moment. That was the thing after he came on last week. As coaches, we had that discussion about whether we left him on the bench and brought him on for impact.

"That’s not where we’re at right now. It’s about putting players out there and making them better, experiencing what the physicality of an England v Wales game is all about. He’ll improve from that experience today."

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What were you thoughts on England?

"They’re trying to play a little more and create some space. Again, that’s from opportunities where you get the ball back. They’ve been pretty good in the air and got some reward.

"Definitely in the second-half, they went to the kicking game to see if they could get something back. That was pretty successful."

How difficult is it to transition post-World Cup with this group compared to other cycles?

"We’ve got a spectrum of players. Some players are incredibly young and finding their feet, while some players are in for the experience. I’m excited by this group.

"I just think what we’ve shown in the last couple of weeks, we know it’s things that will make us a lot better and we will improve. I think going forward, we’ve got the potential to be a really good side, which is pretty exciting."

What's the message to the Welsh public ahead of Ireland?

"My message for the Welsh public is to have a bit of patience. Hopefully people on the outside can see what we’re trying to do as a squad. Alex Mann is the perfect example. We did speak to Daf about playing him at six and going with a bigger forward pack.

"But that’s not what we’re trying to do at the moment. We’ve got a group of youngsters and our role as coaches is to make them better and learn from those experiences. We came here without any fear and a lot of confidence we could win the game. Unfortunately, we fell a little short. The fact we’re playing a quality side in Ireland next up, it will be a level up."

What's the atmosphere like in camp?

"I think the boys are desperate to get a win. Probably the challenge for us is just how important winning is. A number of players are coming from regional teams that haven’t had a lot of success. They’ve probably got used to not having that ‘W’ next to their name after performances.

"That’s why, for us, it’s important we start doing that and be positive about doing that. One of the great things about playing for Wales is, having spoke to a number of players, when they come into this environment, they come in with confidence believing they’re good enough to win. We’ve just got to keep building on that and one of these games will bring that."