THE WARRENARREN GATLAND Q&A

a full part in training. He had the shoulder issue that kept him out for a while and then in Switzerland picked up a neck injury from some contact with tackle bags.

He hasn’t had a lot of contact or time, but there are a couple of players where if this was a World Cup game, Tipuric would have been fit, Hill, Adam Beard too.

There is no point if players have a slight knock risking them before we go away next week (to Turkey) in case they wouldn’t be able to take part.

Were you tempted to wrap Dan Biggar in cotton wool and start with Rhys Patchell or Jarrod Evans? Gatland:

We felt it was important Dan started the game this weekend and had an opportunity because he’s been coming off the bench a lot for us in the Six Nations.

We have got the first Ireland game before we select the squad and Jarrod will get some game-time this weekend against England.

We have obviously got Rhys Patchell as well and are trying to give him some game-time too.

Are Jarrod Evans and Rhys Patchell in a shoot-out to be in the squad for the World Cup? Gatland:

.

“Possibly. We have said all along we haven’t made up our minds whether it’s three nines, two 10s or two nines, three 10s and players being able to cover one another’s positions.

Rhys has been training pretty well, he’s been getting better and better.

We have been really impressed with Jarrod and that’s why he’s got the nod of having an opportunity at the weekend.

He’s very good in his attacking play, but he needs to do a lot of work on his kicking.

That’s one aspect of his game he would admit isn’t, probably at international level, quite where it needs to be, so he’s been working really hard with Neil Jenkins (Wales kicking coach) on his out-of-hand kicking.

From an attacking aspect at training he’s looked one of the sharpest of our 10s and we want to see how he can potentially impose himself coming off the bench this weekend.

Were you tempted to pick Leigh Halfpenny in your matchday squad of 23? Gatland:

Not at this stage. It’s an opportunity to have another look at the same back-three.

Leigh may not play in the next game. We know about Leigh and have got to find out about some other players.

Is Leigh a little behind where he needs to be? Gatland:

Not at all, he’s been doing a lot of work with Neil Jenkins and training exceptionally well.

Depending on who the other 10 is, potentially he’s going to be important for us from a goal-kicking perspective so we need to keep that in mind.

He’s been doing everything that’s been asked of him, he’s been a very important mainstay for us and the team for a number of years and I’m sure he will continue to be that. He will get some game-time in the next couple of matches.

Will tactics change with Anscombe out of the World Cup? Gatland:

Tactically we can play different ways – you saw that in the Six Nations when we did it well against England.

Last weekend we went out to play more attacking rugby and we made a lot more line breaks. There was some good stuff but unfortunately our error and turnover rate was pretty high.

Again this weekend we will be encouraging players to be positive in the way they play with off-loading and things.

Our decision-making was pretty good last weekend, some of the execution wasn’t.

George North has given a pass inside to Gareth Anscombe. If it had been a little softer Gareth would have probably scored.

If Liam Williams had given a better pass to George North down the left-hand side he scores in the corner.

We are pretty happy with the chances we created, it’s just the execution which needs to get a little better.

We were disappointed with the first 20 minutes when we went 14-0 down, but we probably dominated the last 60 minutes.

It was 19-all during that so we expect to be better on Saturday with that game under our belt.

That’s why we have chosen guys again for this weekend because, if some of them don’t front up and perform on Saturday, they are opening the door for someone else.

That’s why we have made the players aware they are under pressure.

It’s easy to make a lot of changes, but some of the guys would have been disappointed with last weekend, particularly that first 20 minutes.

It’s about a chance to redeem themselves, to give those players another chance and put some pressure on them to perform.

Why was the scrum under pressure last weekend? Gatland:

I was really disappointed with how the scrums were controlled (by French referee Mathieu Reynal).

We’ve gone in there and tried to be positive about how we’ve been told they will be refereed.

We felt there was a lot of early pushing and pre-engagement. Having spoken to World Rugby about that in terms of the way it’s going to be managed and what we were originally told it would be controlled, we felt that definitely wasn’t the case on