WALES COACH WARREN GATLAND believes Ireland are in the Six Nations driving seat after they comprehensively beat his team 26-3 at the Aviva Stadium.
The New Zealander, last night, took his hat off to Ireland as the deserving winners of a decidedly one-side Test match. He said, “Whoever won [Saturday's] match was going to go on with the upper-hand. They’ve had two home games, tough ones, but obviously have France and England away.
“This tournament is about confidence and building momentum and Ireland seem to have that at the moment.” Gatland says Wales will take ‘a long hard look at themselves’ and consider either changing personnel or giving his beaten squad a chance to redeem themselves.
Gatland, however, was not ready to concede the title his team won in 2012 and retained in 2013, however. He said, “It’s not all lost. Points difference plays a major factor in this tournament and today’s result is not going to make that easy.”
He added, “When you concede 20 points to a driven lineout, there’s your difference in the game. It’s not about [major changes] it is about us being better in those areas going forward. We’ll be very critical of ourselves — we always are — the coaches will be hard on themselves, the players will be hard on themselves. If we had a poor performance in the past we generally come out better in the next game.”
Wales have been down in the Six Nations before but their opponents would be wise not to rule them out just yet.
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