Furious Gatland disappointed after Wales slip to late friendly loss against England 

The 59-year-old Kiwi could not hide his rage after his Welsh side’s late errors allowed Steve Borthwick’s side back into the match from 17-9 and a man down after Owen Farrell had been dismissed for a high challenge on flanker Taine Basham.

“I’m furious we didn’t win the game. It has answered questions for us about certain individuals, I think. Their game management and final ball wasn’t good enough,” said Gatland. 

“We should have been comfortable. It was a big moment in the game taking kick-off and not clearing the lines. It gave England a bit of momentum and allowed them to score and get back in the game, it’s disappointing.”

In an ill-disciplined performance from both sides, England had earlier taken a six-point lead into the break through the boot of Farrell. The fly-half then extended the lead as Welsh forward Tommy Reffell was the first of five players sent to the sin bin in the match.

With Wales back to a full quota they rallied and found themselves in the ascendancy following yellow cards to both Roses prop Ellis Genge and full back Freddie Steward within a minute of each other. The latter counting himself lucky further sanctions were not taken aside from the concession of a penalty-try to the men in red.

Things went from bad to worse for the home side with Farrell dismissed for a crude challenge on Taine Basham which was upgraded from yellow to red after TMO intervention. 

With the numerical advantage, Wales took the game to England in search of their first win at Twickenham since 2015, scoring a well-worked counter-attacking try through scrum-half Tomos Williams. A neat offload from debutant centre Joe Roberts splitting the English defense for the Cardiff man to sprint through.

Gatland’s side, however, failed to see the game out with Mario Itoje punishing a Welsh error to go over the try line from a close-range maul, before replacement George Ford sealed the victory kicking a late penalty after frustrations had got the better of Adam Beard, the latest and last member to see his marching orders.

“I’m disappointed at the moment but I will try and find some positives over the next day or two,” continued Gatland. 

“Today we capitulated a bit in terms of our accuracy and some guys knowing their roles which is for me disappointing because we had spent a bit of time making sure there was clarity.

“That was the most experienced England team that they have been able to put out there in terms of the number of caps, so you have to be reasonably pleased with that. 

“They didn’t really pressure us in terms of an attacking perspective. They scored a try from a driven line-out maul which we were disappointed to concede.

“I’m disappointed by the penalty from the kick-off, but at this level, you can’t coach experience for players. It’s about learning from that for those last week and today how they can get better and what they do the next time they are out there. 

“You couldn’t ask for better warm-up fixtures in terms of the physicality that you’re looking for with home and away [against England] and then South Africa. We know and expect it will be the same test up front. For us, we need to take the learning from today and hopefully apply that next week.

“For me, I hate losing and putting yourself in a position where we should have closed out a game. It is about us reviewing that and communicating to the players. Hopefully, they will learn from those experiences.” 

[Lead image: Welsh Rugby Union]