GAT: MY DRAGONS ARE RIGHT BEHIND JOE’S SLAMMERS
WARREN GATLAND insists Wales are hot on the heels of Grand Slam champions Ireland.
Joe Schmidt’s men sealed a Six Nations clean sweep with victory over England.
Wales downed France to ensure they ended in second spot and Gatland (below) believes there is plenty more to come from his squad ahead of next year’s World Cup.
“Ireland are the best team in the northern hemisphere at the moment,” he said.
“It’s a tough competition to win and you need a bit of luck. They’ve had it and will be aware of that.
“But credit to them because they have done exceptionally well and congratulations to Joe and the team for winning the Grand Slam.
“We are pretty satisfied with where we are at the moment. I felt going in we could do reasonably well and I was relieved we ground out a win to finish second.”
The Dragons pocketed a £3.3million bounty for their runners-up spot, but were poor against France.
They failed to score after the 32nd minute following a Liam Williams try and three Leigh Halfpenny penalties, but clung on to win with captain Alun Wyn Jones delivering a man-ofthe-match display.
Gael Fickou scored the visitors’ try, but fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc cost them the game, producing an awful individual display and missing what would have been a match-clinching second-half penalty.
Wales centre Scott Williams said: “It was a scrappy game and a bit frustrating to be part of.
“This tournament has shown how good all the teams are. Hopefully we can show what we’ve got to offer moving forwards.”