A PAIR OF TICKETS TO WALES v NEW ZEALAND
WE HAVE teamed up with Dove Men+ Care to offer you the chance to see Wales take on the All Blacks in the third match of their Under Armour Series in Cardiff on Saturday. For your chance to win, answer this question: When did Wales last beat New Zealand? E- mail the answer with your full name, address and daytime phone number to exsportcomp@ express. co. uk with ‘ Dove’ in the subject line by midnight tonight. Visit http:// competitions. express. co. uk for terms and conditions.
me, or anyone was going to split the squad or try to create controversy.
“There was some pretty underhand stuff going on. It was challenging.
“There are one or two people I would like to get into a corner of a room on their own with me, but that might wait for another day.
“I had not expected that personal criticism right from day one. It was a good experience for me. It made me stronger, dig deeper, made me more resilient and want to fi ght harder in New Zealand as the Lions coach.
“That has gone now and it is about Wales and the All Blacks this week and us trying to turn around and get a victory against the All Blacks, which we haven’t had since 1953.”
Gatland claimed in his posttour book that he knew things about the All Blacks that could be “explosive if made public”.
He declined to go into detail yesterday but there is no doubt he was bruised by the summer experience and would like nothing better than putting one over on Steve Hansen and New Zealand. The evidence of Scotland’s near- miss at the weekend suggests a shock is possible at the Principality Stadium, although the history books say loudly otherwise.
“You watch Scotland and you can take some positives out of that performance but don’t expect that New Zealand aren’t going to improve from that and have some severe criticism from their coaches,” warned Gatland.
The dismal contest against Georgia last weekend has been conveniently forgotten, although the stench of the scrum controversy which erupted afterwards following Wales’s 13- 6 win lingers on.