Gatland Q&A...We played a lot better and there’s so much more to come from us
Q: How did you feel the set-piece went out there? A: I thought it was a step up overall from Saturday.
The scrum was excellent, we kept putting them under pressure, the lineout was generally good on our ball. We have just had a little miscommunication.
There was a not-straight and the throw at the end and we have been penalised a couple of times there. We can improve those things, but we were generally pretty happy with the set-piece. Q: Do you think there was a difference in the cutting edge between the two sides? A: I thought there was a big improvement on Saturday and we will continue to improve. We got out ourselves back into the game and got in front.
The try we conceded before half-time was disappointing, to get ourselves in front and then concede.
Take nothing away from the try West scored and the offloads. We have got to get better at stopping the offloading game we will continue to encounter on this trip. I thought we generally did that well. Our line speed was good. It was just a moment of magic which you do get from New Zealand teams.
I am disappointed we lost the game obviously, but happy there is an improvement.
The thing about playing these quality sides, it’s great preparation for the Test matches. We will learn from a game like this and we will keep improving. Q: But if you are losing games in the build-up to the Test matches, how will that affect momentum and confidence? A: We played a lot better tonight. We put ourselves in a position to win the game and you can take a lot of positives from that. The Crusaders is going to be another tough encounter, but we will have been together a little bit longer, I expect to see an improvement again on Saturday.
There is so much strength in depth in this country, I don’t think there will be a lot of difference between some of the Super Rugby sides and the All Blacks. These guys have been together for six months. The All Blacks have come together cold.
Playing Super Rugby sides is going to be great preparation for the Test matches for us. Q: Do you feel your team created enough scoring opportunities? A: I thought we were unlucky we didn’t score through Jared Payne. We created a few chances. We just need to get better at doing that. I thought both teams cancelled each other out defensively. The Blues had a little bit of magic in terms of that try at the end. Q: Can you give us an injury update? A: Jared Payne had a tight calf. He has had that for a while. The pleasing thing is he has got through 50 or 60 minutes. At half-time it was a bit tight. The calf will hopefully strengthen up. Having not had a lot of rugby we knew it was a possibility of it happening.
He hasn’t pulled it. Dan Biggar failed a HIA, but the medics think he will be fine during the week and OK. It was just cramp with Rhys Webb.
We are in pretty good health at the moment and hopefully we can continue with that. Q: Are you expecting any surprises in the All Blacks squad? A: I am not worried about them at the moment, I am concentrating on us.
Obviously we will be interested to see what their squad is. They have a few injury issues but there is so much depth of quality of players in New Zealand. Q: Is there anything that stands out as a chief learning two games into this tour? A: I thought the pleasing thing for us was it was big step up in performance. I was more disappointed in Saturday night’s performance than I was tonight. I thought we played pretty well and competed with a side that’s got a very good record at home at Eden Park. We put ourselves in front on a coiuple of occasions and it was disappointing to concede that try towards the end of the game when we were in front. Likewise, the try before half-time.
We need to be pretty tough on ourselves.
There were a lot of momentum changes in the game in terms of the number of penalties we gave away. We definitely need to tighten up in that area.
We have created opportunities, but gave away penalties that you would consider soft or needless changed the momentum of the game. Q: Rob Howley talked in the week about how southern hemisphere teams play a brand of rugby chaos. How do you combat that? A: You have just got to stay alive the whole time. We felt at half-time some of the Blues tight forwards were struggling with the game. If we can cut down on the number of penalties we are giving away it’s going to make a big difference.
You have got to stop the moments. If you look at the last try, Courtney (Lawes) has gone low on Luitati, who has got on offload away and then Liam Williams has gone low on Sonny Bill and we need to make sure that we go a bit higher in those tackles to prevent players from getting the ball away in an offload situation.