Gatland: We need to learn from this
MARSEILLE, FRANCE - OCTOBER 14: Warren Gatland, Head Coach of Wales, looks dejected at full-time following his team's loss after the Rugby World Cup France 2023 Quarter Final match between Wales and Argentina at Stade Velodrome on October 14, 2023 in Marseille, France. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
Warren Gatland feels frustrated that Wales did not get the 50-50 calls in crucial moments but was encouraged by his inexperienced side’s performance despite defeat.
Australia’s victory in Sydney made it eight defeats on the spin for Wales, who dropped out of the World Rugby top 10 rankings for the first time in their history yesterday, but they pushed a new-look Wallabies close until Tom Wright’s stunning late try.
Wales appeared to have made it 18-18 with a conversion to come and 20 minutes to play when James Botham went over off a driving maul but the TMO decided Christ Tshiunza had come in at the side.
Gatland said: “We got back into the game and it was close. I need to get some clarity on the disallowed try from the maul. Where we are at the moment, we are not getting any 50-50 calls. We just have to work through that.
“We are developing this team. They are going to have to learn from those experiences but I thought there were some real positives out there in terms of what we are trying to do.
“I hope people can see some development in terms of the players moving towards the next World Cup. I understand that you are going to get pressure from people who talk about losing runs at the moment, but in that run we have been in games and easily could have won a few, tonight was the same.”
Wales showed their fight with dogged defence but captain Dewi Lake understands that’s not enough at Test match level and that his side need to be more clinical in the rematch on Saturday in Melbourne.
He said: “We were resilient but unfortunately resilience doesn’t win games. Credit to the heart the boys showed that is going to get us far but we are a young team and we’ve got to learn how to win games, to put points on the board and see games out.”
Australia head coach Joe Schmidt took charge of his Wallabies for the first time, and said: “I am proud of the boys that they earned it, but I think we are all a bit frustrated that we didn’t play as well as we would have liked and I am sure the Welsh feel the same way.”
