Saturday, November 28, 2009

Gatland 'disappointed' with Wales

Warren Gatland
Gatland's Wales have lost to both New Zealand and Australia in November

Wales coach Warren Gatland said that mistakes had cost them in their 33-12 defeat to Australia on Saturday.

"That was the most disappointing performance since I've been in charge of Wales," Gatland said

"They thoroughly deserved to win, they were really up for it today the Australians, really hungry and they dominated us in most facets.

"The four tries they scored have all been form our mistakes and our turnovers, that's Test match rugby."

Centre Digby Ioane, lock James Horwill, flanker David Pocock and substitute hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau all touched down for the Wallabies, while fly-half Matt Giteau booted 13 points.

Wales were also not helped by losing their record Test try scorer Shane Williams to injury early on, while his fellow wing Leigh Halfpenny and a third British and Irish Lions cap, hooker Matthew Rees, were also soon forced off.

"We spoke at half-time that we were still in the game [at 23-12 down]... I was questioning, it looked like we had a little bit of a lack of energy and a lack of urgency in that first half," Gatland added.

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"Once they were in control of the game they were quite happy to play territory and they dominated the air [kicking].

"We've got to go back and have a good, close, hard look at ourselves and make sure over the next couple of months we prepare well... coming back into the Six Nations."

Australia captain Rocky Elsom was delighted at how his side had bounced back after their loss to Scotland last week.

"It's hard to say exactly what improves the team but we just really wanted to make amends and we didn't want to waste this opportunity," Elsom said.

"We wanted to make amends for the way we played last week - we had more in us than that but that's all we put on the park.

"It would have been a surprise if we hadn't come out hard today, I would have been very surprised by that.

"We'd like to think there's a lot more in us. We've learnt a few lessons on this tour and the key is to carry them forward so that we develop into a better side than we are now."

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