Warren Gatland: Mistakes and missed opportunities cost Wales against England

In an error strewn contest, neither side were at their best, but England proved to be the stronger of the two sides running in three tries to Wales’ one. The result now leaving the Welsh bottom and winless in the Six Nations table after three rounds of fixtures.

A first half Anthony Watson score had put the visitors into the lead at the break, before Wales hit back with Louis Rees-Zammit’s interception try straight from the restart to give Gatland’s side hope.

A combination of missed opportunities with ball in hand and a series of handling errors cost Wales dear in the second period with Wales unable to galvanise the Cardiff crowd. 

Kyle Sinckler and Ollie Lawrence then ran in second half scores to put the game to bed for England, leaving Gatland ruing his side’s lack of clinical edge.

“I think we can be critical of ourselves in terms of we created a lot of problems for ourselves throughout by not being accurate in key and critical moments. That’s what test match rugby is all about, you have got to stay in the fight and be accurate”, said Gatland.

“We weren’t making any excuses for what happened in the week. Getting up for an England versus Wales game is not difficult. Yes, the week was challenging, we realise that and understand that, but we are not making any excuses.

“There’s definitely some things we need to work hard on. When things are going well and playing with confidence it’s the big moments that you nail like a critical lineout, or you go into the twenty-two and you come away with points and we’re not.

“The ultimate is that you might come away with points, whether that’s three, seven or whatever. Particulary in a game against England where you know it’s going to be a tight game. You need to make sure you make the most of the opportunities.

“It’s not miles away, but if you look back at the game, you’re thinking we’ve got something there, have a lineout, have some big moments in terms of going forward, then we have an overthrow or have a turnover in the twenty-two. 

“It’s frustrating and it’s hurting us. It’s not the opposition hurting us at the moment, it’s ourselves.

“I think we have got to keep working with the intensity that we’re trying to create in training so our decision making continues to improve going forward. 

“Under pressure we saw again tonight it’s an area that we need to get better at because those critical moments have been pretty costly for us.”

Despite the loss, the Welsh coach was happy with the impact of the youthful centre partnership of debutant Mason Grady and Osprey’s Joe Hawkins, winning just his fourth cap for his country.

“I was pleased that there was a number of improvements in that performance, but obviously there is still a lot of work to do. Come half time I thought we’re in this game, we’re not quite there yet, but I thought we are going in the right direction”, continued Gatland.

“I thought Joe Hawkins went well and Mason did for his first cap. We defended well. At times we need to probably create a bit of width in attack. 

“That is something we’ll continue to work on, along with our transition going from defense, or going from a kick, receiving a kick and then into attack. It needs a little bit of work, so those are the areas we can concentrate on in moving forward.”

Wales now move on to face Italy in Rome in two weeks’ time in a position of the game potentially deciding the competition’s wooden spoon, with the Italian’s also suffering their third straight defeat despite a spirited comeback in their – loss against Ireland yesterday.

Gatland is keen for his side to avoid back-to-back defeats against Kieran Crowley’s side, but will again look at mixing youth with experience with the nation’s long-term project the goal.

“The last thing you want to do is get a wooden spoon do you, so that’s got to be our focus. I think though part of the Six Nations is about us thinking about the next six or seven months as well. We’ve got some older experienced players who are still holding their hands up and we have some talented youngsters who just need some time, continued Gatland.

“We haven’t got much of that group in the middle of those players who have had 30 or 40 caps, so we have to try and marry the two together and start thinking about that moving forward giving some of those youngsters some more time together because you can’t coach experience 

“For us it’s about giving them the confidence to play, and continue to get better and better, but it just needs more time in the middle”.

(Lead image: Adam Davy/PA)