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Steffan Thomas

The Warren Gatland Q&A: We now need to be ruthless, our discipline is not acceptable and things must be fixed quickly

Wales fell to their second Six Nations defeat of the tournament on Saturday evening with Scotland handing them a 35-7 hammering at Murrayfield.

Warren Gatland's men were made to suffer in Edinburgh and you can read about the reasons why they lost here.

Here is what the head coach and skipper Ken Owens had to say after the match and what now needs to happen ahead of a crunch clash with England at the Principality Stadium in two weeks' time.

READ MORE: Wales player ratings v Scotland as new boys emerge with credit but others disappoint

What went wrong, Warren?

WG: “It was probably some of the same stuff so we need to be pretty ruthless in terms of we approach going forward.

“We have given away 19 penalties in the game which is not acceptable at this level.

“Again we have created opportunities and not been clinical enough. We have been in the 22 for about six minutes and not come away with much.

“That’s pretty disappointing from that aspect. We quite easily have gone in at half-time ahead and they have taken their opportunities well. When we were 20-7 down we ended up chasing the game and giving away another yellow card in a crucial part of the game.”

How did you think the youngsters went?

WG: “I thought Dafydd Jenkins was good, Christ Tshiunza had some good carries so for me that was some of the positives the input of those guys.”

Do you need to be more ruthless again in selection?

WG: “People were calling for changes and then you make changes and they talk about the players who have been left out. Sometimes it’s a lose-lose situation.

“We kept giving some clear messages during the week, trying to be clinical when creating those opportunities, the discipline and how important that was for the game. We need to be pretty tough on that given the game at the moment you are trying to limit opposition teams to a number of lineouts.

“They had 19 lineouts in the game and that is not acceptable.”

Will Louis Rees-Zammit be ready for England?

WG: “He will be available for England. We need to get back on the horse and be tough on ourselves ahead of that game.”

What went wrong, Ken?

KO: “I think we delivered first half especially exactly what we spoke about. Starting well being a lot better defensively.

“We were just not clinical enough, back-to-back errors cost us second half and we piggybacked them back up the field.

“Scotland are very good when they are on the front foot. They weren’t in the first half and we were right in the game.

“In the second half Finn (Russell) was controlling the game which he does well and we were chasing the game.

“We have to stay tight as a squad which I am sure we will. We have to be honest with each other because there is going to be some grenades coming from the outside in . We have to front that. That is what we do in Wales and we are pretty comfortable with that.

“It’s about working hard next week with no game next weekend and we will have a tough week, put the graft in and stay tight.”

How concerned are you with this current situation Warren?

WG: “It’s a bit disappointing. We are in a little bit of a hole at the moment and it's how we fight our way out of it in terms of the development of some of the younger players in the squad in terms of giving them some opportunities.

“It’s about being tight as a group and honest and critical of the things we know we can fix up. We just have to do it pretty quickly.”

How will you approach the next three games?

WG: “The review process we need to be as a group to be honest and what changes we need to make, even in personnel and also things we focused on.

“We focused on starting well and it was much better this week. The discipline and penalties was a focus and being more clinical when we created opportunities.

“We improved in one area but there was not much improvement in the other two areas. That is going to be pretty clinical for us moving forward.

“It is something when I have been involved with Wales we have prided ourselves on our discipline, trusting the systems and each other and being clinical when we create opportunities. It is something we need to fix pretty quickly.”

What do you do now with the next three games ahead of the World Cup?

WG: “The World Cup is pretty important for us and we are going to get a lot of time together. We still need to find out about some other players in the squad and potentially make some tough calls if they need to be done."

Are Scotland contenders this year?

WG: “They are definitely a team playing with confidence. Ireland had a good win today. The thing about this competition is about creating momentum.

“I thought Scotland defended exceptionally well, they played with some good width and created some opportunities and were able to finish them.

“That’s a side playing with self-belief and confidence and they are probably the strongest Scotland team I have seen in terms of strength in depth for a long time.

“They have a good balance at the moment and playing with confidence.”

Do you think confidence is an issue with the players?

WG: “Yes, possibly.

“Sometimes, winning becomes a habit but so does losing as well. It’s just about getting through that.

“From our point of view you finish chances and you need to be vocal and communicating from the outside in.

“There were some players who were quiet on a few occasions. That’s probably down to a little bit of lack of confidence at certain stages.”

Did George North pass a HIA?

WG: “Yes, he did.”

Are you happy with the process because it looked as if he got knocked out at one point?

WG: “I didn’t see that he was... so yeah”

Q: At half-time were you positive about the chances your created or frustrated?

WG: “At half-time we talked about putting them under pressure in the 22. We had some strong carries and some turnovers.

“There was potentially some space we were probably guilty of playing too much rugby in the middle third. We put ourselves under pressure when there was space in behind.

“In certain situations we got some rewards out of that. The numbers are similar to last week.

“We’ve only kicked the ball 23 times today, and we kicked it 23 last week. Both Ireland and Scotland have significantly out-kicked us in terms of the kicking pressure they had on us.

“We need to look at that and make sure we get that balance right.”

How do you turn this around and is this what you thought you were going to re-inherit?

WG: "The first couple of performances have been disappointing.

“We spoke in the changing room afterwards and it’s about making sure that we are honest as a group. We’ve got to be tougher in training, working hard on those moments that have been costly to us in games in terms of finishing things off.

“We need to be clinical when we are under pressure and that’s an area we need to get better at.

“We need to build more confidence.”

Q: Is this the toughest moment of your career?

WG: “Any loss is tough. We are disappointed because at the end of the day we got beaten by a side who were better than us on the day and we weren’t good enough.

“That for me is disappointing. The disappointing this is when you’ve focussed on a number of things during the week.. one or two of them we’ve achieved but a team that’s given away the amount of penalties we’ve given away is for me where we’ve got to stay in the arm wrestle in close games.

“We were in that arm wrestle in the first half and it got away from us. We need to make sure that in those big moments we execute things a little bit better, and keep working hard on that stuff because those moments are important.”

Can the problems on the field be fixed by the World Cup or do we have to manage expectations?

WG: “I don’t think so. I think that time together in terms of preparation for the World Cup will take care of a lot of that stuff but we’ve got a more urgent issue at the moment in fixing things that are being costly for us.

“I don’t think they are hard fixes just think it’s making sure we are mentally switched on and we are a bit more clinical from an attack perspective.

“When we come under pressure we need to trust ourselves, trust each other, trust the system, and make sure we aren’t giving away unforced penalties or doubling up on errors or piggy backing up the field.

“We were guilty of that last week and we were guilty of that today.”

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