A ninth defeat in a row for Wales 36-28 against Australia this afternoon set a new all time low as Gatland’s side drop out of the top ten placings in the World rankings for the first time.
It would be however, a spirited showing from the Welsh in Melbourne as they would just fall short of ending a run of over 50 years without a win against Australia in the southern hemisphere.
Two tries from Filipo Daugunu, plus further scores from Jake Gordon and Allan Alaalatoa and 13 points from the boot of Noah Lolesio helped Australia achieve a successful start to Joe Schmidt’s era following the 25-16 win in Sydney last weekend.
Wales responded with two tries of their own from their well-worked driving maul. Inspirational captain Dewi Lake leading from the front powering over on both occasions, while wings Liam Williams and Rio Dyer also crossed.
It would be a match though where Wales would just fall short in big the games moments gifting the opposition cheap points at crucial times of the contest.
Gatland feels his side will learn and become stronger as a result and is optimistic looking to the future, although is feeling the pain after the latest defeat to his second stint in charge – a sixth defeat in 21 games.
“We worked so hard for our points today and we’re showing a little bit of inexperience in terms of how we’ve gifted them points,” said Gatland.
“It’s frustrating but I can’t question how hard the boys work. We need to be honest with ourselves in terms of how we allowed them some soft tries.
“When you look at the tries they’ve [Australia] scored, it’s a bounce of a ball or something’s happened, so that’s disappointing.
“First half I felt the guys kept trying, we scored a couple of nice tries and gave ourselves a chance to win the game.
“We’ve got a group of young men who have been excellent and they’ve just got to learn from those experiences and be more accurate in big moments.
“I’m telling you, this is going to be a really good team. They’re working incredibly hard and there’s a good buzz within this group. We just probably need to be a little bit more streetwise.
“I think they’ll learn a lot from this tour and they’ve got the autumn to look forward to and then the Six Nations.”
[Lead image: Welsh Rugby Union]
