ALMOST... BUT NOT QUITE FOR WALES
13 successive defeats against Wallabies but Gatland sees Wales give positive display
WARREN Gatland last night vowed his Wales team will improve with every autumn game after seeing his side fall to a 13th successive defeat against Australia.
The Wallabies ran in four tries to Wales’ two in a 29-21 victory, but the host nation served up a performance full of attacking intent that suggests Gatland’s optimism is not misplaced.
Rookie wing Steff Evans finished off a spectacular first half try and replacement Hallam Amos grabbed a late consolation.
But tries from hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, second row Adam Coleman and flanker Michael Hooper before half-time, and a real sucker punch of a score by full-back Kurtley Beale just after the hour, sealed Wales’ fate.
Gatland conceded his team were ‘the architects of their own downfall’ at times, with individual errors leading to each Aussie score.
The Kiwi said: “I don’t think there’s anything today that shows there’s a mental block about us playing Australia.
“We were just architects of our downfall because of us not being accurate enough in the first half. “It was not things that they created. “Given the potency they have got as an attacking team, we made it easier for them.
“The pleasing thing is we got stronger and more accurate as the game went on.”
Gatland added: “They will get better from that experience and as a team we tend to get stronger as the campaign goes on.”
The one definite negative was a late ankle injury to Lions centre Jonathan Davies who left the field sitting up in a cart after twisting awkwardly as he fell to ground in a tackle.
Gatland admitted afterwards that Davies’ condition ‘doesn’t look brilliant’.