Gatland’s assessment of Wales’ heroic effort in defeat at Eden Park

THE BIG Q&A: WARREN GATLAND

WHAT’S THE INJURY SITUATION?

GATLAND: George North damaged a hamstring and it will be assessed to see if he’s going to fit for the rest of the tour, while Gareth Anscombe took a knock to a hip.

It may take a day or two for him to recover, but otherwise there were the usual bumps and bruises.

WHAT WAS YOUR ASSESSMENT OF WALES’ PERFORMANCE?

GATLAND: We were brilliant for 60 minutes. We said we were going to come out and play and we did. We said we needed a game after the match with England.

It’s the learning you take from playing the best team in the world. Sometimes the learning takes place out in the middle. It doesn’t matter what you do on the training field.

We learnt about the relentness of the All Black and the way they keep playing, but we feel we get better the longer we are together.

Players don’t sometimes have many games at that level of intensity. We have learnt a heck of a lot from this game and hopefully will be better for it next week.

WALES WERE LEADING AT THE HOUR-MARK, WHAT WENT WRONG IN THE FINAL 20 MINUTES?

GATLAND: We were blowing a bit – the All Blacks just kept coming at us. We were playing against a team using to playing at a higher level. They are used to putting you under pressure for long periods.

The more we play teams like that we will get better and be more accurate.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF FULL-BACK LIAM WILLIAMS?

GATLAND: He made some lovely breaks. I said we had to be brave and bold, and play some rugby. The two tries we scored were outstanding and we could have had a couple more. But, for some reason, the All Blacks gave away a penalty rather than give us the opportunity to score a try. DID YOU FEEL NEW ZEALAND’S SUBSTITUTIONS WERE A FACTOR IN DETERMINING THE OUTCOME OF THE TEST? GATLAND: It wasn’t a bad bench, was it? Someone like Beauden Barrett came on and TJ Perenara hadn’t been in the squad. I thought Ardie Savea was pretty instrumental when he came on in their back-row and added some fire-power.

GEORGE NORTH HAD A BIG GAME?

GATLAND: It was a great battle between George and Waisake Naholo on the wing. They were absolutely outstanding.

WHAT’S THE IMPORTANCE OF TUESDAY’S MATCH WITH THE CHIEFS?

GATLAND: It will keep players involved and gives them an opportunity to put their hands up for maybe the second or third Tests.

CAN WALES IMPROVE DURING THE REMAINING TWO TESTS?

GATLAND: We have demonstrated, if you look back at our performances on recent tours, we have come up short in the opening match, but we have always improved.

So we are confident we will get better for the second and third Tests. We will learn from this experience.

The lineout creaked in the final 30 minutes and we turned the ball over, which was disappointing. We just need to make sure we are a bit more accurate.

We were hammering away at their try-line at the end of the first half, but turned the ball over.

Maybe the referee (Wayne Barnes) made up for 2007 (when France put New Zealand out of the World Cup) because there was definitely a forward pass for one of their tries.

I don’t know why he didn’t go upstairs to the television match official to check if the last pass was legal. If anyone disagrees with me, tell me now.

In the first half we kicked well from nine (Rhys Webb) and had a good chase. New Zealand kick it back and Dan Biggar kicks it out of our 22 and the All Blacks score.

The message to the players is they have got to be prepared to take risks and put them under pressure.

You can’t allow a team like the All Blacks to get a position in your 22 because they are lethal in that situation.

But there are things we are really happy with.

New Zealand will definitely get better but I’m sure we will as well.