Wales end Six Nations knowing they need to grow
Wales may have finished runners-up to champions Ireland in the Six Nations table but there was a palpable sense of what might have been at the Principality Stadium as Warren Gatland’s men reflected on a mixed campaign.
Liam Williams’ first-half try and three Leigh Halfpenny penalties were all Wales had to show for a tough afternoon’s shift against a heavy-duty France team that would surely have won the game if their fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc had kicked a simple penalty 10 minutes from time.
After a spectacular opening win over Scotland, Wales’s campaign faltered with away defeats to England
and Ireland before returning to Cardiff to beat Italy and France on successive weekends.
Had the television match official Glenn Newman allowed Gareth Anscombe’s first-half try at Twickenham, results could have been even better for Gatland and his players, some of whom will be given time off over the summer after the Wales coach revealed he will not be taking his strongest squad to Argentina.
Encouragingly, Wales have several first-choice players to return ahead of next year’s World Cup with Sam Warburton (neck and knee) and Jonathan Davies (foot) not featuring in the current tournament.
No 8 Taulupe Faletau, who missed the opening three games with a knee injury, is one of the players expected to be stood down for Argentina in June, and the Bath star is convinced Wales will get even better as they get to grips with changes to their attacking game.
“There is definitely more to come,” Faletau said. “We are seeing phases of it and it has been great to watch but to move it on to another level is about doing it for 80 minutes rather than patches.”
With several players emerging as genuine front-line options over the course of the tournament, Wales are developing strength in depth in their squad ahead of next year’s World Cup in Japan. Three wins from five is a decent return considering the deluge of injuries they suffered before the tournament. Davies’s absence was a major blow but his loss was softened by mature displays from Scott Williams and Owen Watkin in the No 13 shirt.
With Hadleigh Parkes looking every inch a Test-match player at inside centre, Wales’s options in the centre and back row look especially strong.
Williams impressed again on Saturday in a scrappy affair in Cardiff and shared Faletau’s view that there is plenty of room for improvement in the Welsh squad.
“After the first game, we were hoping for a little bit more,” said the Scarlets centre. “We are happy with second place but we were confident after that first game that we could have done a job and won every game. I think it has shown how good all the teams are and it came down to one moment in each match which made the difference. So we will learn from that and hopefully we will show the way we want to go and how we want to play.
“We have just got to ensure that that one pass or that one moment in the game is just going our way. We said before the France game that only second place would be good enough for us and we have to win. We got the job done.”
Alun Wyn Jones, Faletau and Halfpenny are among the senior players expected to be rested over the summer as Wales look to ensure their top talents arrive at next year’s World Cup in peak physical condition.
Captain Jones was immense on his return to the starting line-up against France and Gatland paid tribute to the 32-year-old’s consistently world-class performances after the game.
But while he was satisfied with a job well done by his own team, the Wales coach also had a few words of sympathy for his England counterpart Eddie Jones, whose side has capitulated in recent weeks after winning their opening two games.
“The problem is that sport is so fickle people are going to turn on Eddie over the next few days, but this is a tough tournament to win,” Gatland said. “Wales finished fifth last year and we could have been a lot closer and the same applies to England this year.”