By Iestyn Thomas
Wales head coach Warren Gatland remains committed in his role despite offering his resignation following his side’s 24-21 defeat to Italy in the Guinness Six Nations.
Tries from Monty Ioane and Lorenzo Pani confirmed Wales have the unwanted prize of the wooden spoon following five consecutive defeats. They have only won one out of their last 10 Six Nations matches.
In his post-match press conference, Gatland insisted he is confident in turning things around.
He said: “I made that commitment, I just said to Abi (Tierney) in the changing rooms, look if you want me to resign I’m quite happy to do that and she said ‘like hell, that’s the last thing I want, that’s what I’m really afraid of.
“I’ve never shied away from that sort of stuff.
“We’ve had glimpses of where we have been really good in this tournament and we need to do that for longer periods.
“We need to start better in some of the games and make sure we’re more accurate.
“First-half was disappointing, we just didn’t get enough opportunities to go forward.
“Our scrum was under pressure and we just didn’t put them under enough pressure in that first half.”
Gatland acknowledged Italy’s improvement this year.
He added: “They’ve been excellent in this tournament in fairness to them.
“I thought they were excellent today, but probably helped by us giving them some soft turnovers.
“I thought at times in the second-half, when we did get some carry and we got some momentum…. that’s when we looked dangerous.
In place for the opening match of the final round in #GuinnessM6N – with Wales will look to avoid the wooden spoon as they host Italy.
Kickoff at 2:30pm #WALvITA @USWSportsJourno pic.twitter.com/0ooyvadbRO
— Iestyn Rhys Thomas (@Iestyn_thomas21) March 16, 2024
“We’ve tried to have the variations in terms of wanting to develop the game and play but at this level, the messaging to the players was that we’ve got to go forward first, we’ve got to get on that front foot and get in behind them and that gives you the ability to play off other phases.
“The amount of turnovers we have conceded in a lot of those games have allowed the opposition teams some easy outs.”
Despite the defeat, the Welsh head coach is optimistic about the future:
“We’re gutted, we’re hurting as coaches and players and I know the fans the hurting and that doesn’t help,” he said.
“But I can see light at the end of the tunnel because we have got a fantastic group of guys who I know have worked hard with a huge amount of inexperience.
“These are players who have not played a lot of regional rugby and we’ve exposed them at Test level, so it’s a real challenge.
“We’ve realised we’ve got a significant amount of work to do with helping that group transition into those roles and it’s something we’ll be working hard on in the next few months.
“But I can promise you we’ll go away and we’ll make sure that we review this really carefully.
“We’ve already done some review stuff and some work on the areas that we really need to get better at and improve.”
Wales travel to Twickenham to face reigning World Champions South Africa in June before heading to Australia for a two Test series and a match against the Queensland Reds.