Gatland on... bringing back Biggar, the back-three call and why he chose Navidi

WALES coach Warren Gatland has brought back Dan Biggar and a host of experienced faces for the Six Nations finale against France at the Principality Stadium.

While Biggar and Scott Williams come in, the likes of Aaron Shingler and Steff Evans can count themselves unlucky to miss out on the Wales starting XV, while Eddie Jones’ comments about the Welsh were also on the agenda as Gatland faced the media.

ROB LLOYD was on hand as the Kiwi faced up to the press at Wales’ Vale Resort base...

A THREE-WAY TUSSLE AT FLY-HALF, WHAT WAS THE THINKING BEHIND GOING BACK TO DAN?

WE have gone back to experience. We have made seven changes so hopefully that is not too disrespectful to France!

We are going back to the experience of Dan Biggar and defensively he is very strong and very good in the air. There was a very lively debate about the No.10 position and that’s a nice place for us to be.

STRENGTH IN DEPTH IN BACK-THREE?

AGAIN, it’s the same situation, we feel with this squad and where we are building to Japan 2019 we are a lot stronger position than we were three or four years ago with depth in the squad and it is nice to have those selection dilemmas.

It is a pretty exciting and experienced back-three.

Steff has had some opportunities and it is good to have Liam back on the wing.

WHAT ABOUT THE BACK ROW?

WE had a chat with Aaron Shingler and he is unlucky.

We were happy with the back-row went last week and worked together.

From Aaron’s point of view, Josh is starting again and I thought Justin Tipuric was outstanding last week. Toby comes back in at No. 8.

Josh has been great for us over the last six months, we have been really pleased with his form and felt he deserved another opportunity. He is good over the ball and brings a physical element and we are going to need that against France.

AND TOMAS FRANCIS HOLDING OFF SAMSON LEE?

TOMAS has done a good job (against Italy). Samson didn’t train at all last week, he picked up a virus. We felt that Tomas retains that position and Samson will get some time off the bench.

OVERALL, WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS MATCH?

FOR us it is pretty important in terms of opportunity to finish second. The exciting thing about the Championship at the moment is how close it is and how many teams think they are capable of winning it.

If you look at the Championship over the last couple of years, there has been two significant away wins, one was England against Wales in Cardiff last year and the other one the opening game when Ireland beat France in Paris.

You look at that, hat is the difference between winning the Championship and finishing third or fourth.

For us, it is important this weekend that we play well at home, get a win and finish second in the table.

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN, FINISHING SECOND?

IT would be massive for us. I felt all along going into this competition we could do well in the Six Nations. Congratulations to Ireland for winning the championship already. We all know how close it could have been, they could have easily lost that first game. Obviously it was a fantastic drop goal for Johnny Sexton to win that game.

We feel like we are in a good place, we don’t feel like we are too far away from getting some nice depth in the squad and we continue to improve as a team.

WHAT ATTRIBUTES DO YOU EXPECT FRANCE TO BRING?

I THINK they have played well all competition. They played well against Ireland in their first game, the first 40-50 against Scotland and were outstanding against England last weekend. They were direct, a good defensive team and are going to be hard for us to break down. It is going to be a close encounter and a very physical game.

AND WHAT ARE YOU THOUGHTS ON EDDIE JONES’ COMMENTS?

EDDIE makes a few comments and stuff, it is not offensive to us.

These sort of things happen in discussions so I will let Eddie take care of that in his own press conference.

WOULD THOSE COMMENTS COME BACK TO HAUNT HIM IF HE WANTS TO COACH THE LIONS?

WE all say things behind closed door and stuff, talking about ourselves and other nations and things.

I have said on a couple of occasions, if he gets the opportunity he will do a good job (with the Lions).

The pressure for England isn’t about the comments, the pressure for England is on winning on Saturday.

That is the pressure they are under because they have to win on Saturday.

That’s how important the game is to them because potentially if England lose against Ireland then they have three games against South Africa. They could go from a losing streak of two to six pretty quickly.

They have got their own things to sort out.

HOW WOUND UP ARE THE FRONT ROW AFTER WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF LAST YEAR’S GAME IN PARIS?

WE haven’t really spoken about that at all. I suppose an 100 minute game will go down in history – they know the French team will be a battle, and they have made a couple of changes, particularly up front.

I think the French are aware that there will be scrutiny on the scrum and the front row, for us it is about being positive.

HOW DO YOU GO UP AGAINST WHAT IS A GIGANTIC FRENCH PACK?

IF you look at our record over the last 10 years against France it has been pretty good.

I think we have won six of the last 10. And last year’s defeat was the first in six.

For us it is a matter of working that forward pack, keeping the ball on the park, playing through lots of phases and taking the legs from them. I suppose that is the model Scotland used.

Scotland were under a lot of pressure in the first 40 or 50 minutes but kept playing and the French team ran out of a bit of steam. They have improved, we saw that against England where they played for the full 80 minutes.

We know it will be a tough game but we have got to be prepared to go through a little bit of pain in terms of keeping the pressure on them and trying to wear their forward pack down.

HAVE YOU SPOKEN TO LIAM WILLIAMS THIS WEEK ABOUT LAST WEEKEND?

I have, yes.

WHAT WAS THE MESSAGE?

KEEP your head down.

HOW HAS HE REACTED?

HE has been good, it is a case of don’t throw your toys out of the cot because he is capable of doing that.

He is an emotional player and I like that about him.

I admire his physicality and his intent on that. It’s about him keeping things in check and he knows and he understands that.

It’s not about giving him a clip around the ear and stuff. It is just reminding him of what makes him a good player. You want that emotion in his game and it’s just being able to handle that every now and then.

We have had a chat about that, It wasn’t a long chat and once you have that you don’t bring it up again and talk about it.