WARREN GATLAND

WALES kicked off their autumn campaign with a 21-10 victory over Scotland at the Principality Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Gareth Anscombe put in a solid performance at fly-half, with many keen to see if he would take his chance with Dan Biggar unavailable for the game.

George North surpassed Ieuan Evans to become Wales’ third all-time try scorer and there was some injury news to cover off too.

Here were the thoughts of Wales head coach Warren Gatland after the match... HOW SATISFIED ARE YOU OVERALL WITH THE AFTERNOON’S WORK? WARREN GATLAND: It’s a start for us. We were a bit rusty at times.

For long periods of the game we were pretty comfortable without the ball and defended well.

We scored some nice tries and we will be better for that. DID YOU CONTROL THE GAME AS MUCH AS YOU WOULD HAVE WISHED? WG: In fairness to Scotland, they put us under a lot of pressure in that second half, I think they spent six minutes in our 22, but we defended well.

We put ourselves under pressure going down to 14. We came out of it pretty positively.

Players have worked really hard in the last couple of weeks and there’s no doubt that we’ve probably flattened them a little bit.

We might have made it a bit heavy on their legs. They did find it tough out there but that’s going to make us a lot better for next week. WILL THERE BE MORE EMPHASIS IN TRAINING ON THE BALL SKILLS AS OPPOSED TO FITNESS THIS WEEK? WG: No. We’ll still work on that.

There are aspects of our game that need to improve. The kicking game will need to improve.

That’s been a work-on for players in those roles for a while.

But there were lots of positives and lots to build on.

It was our first game for four months so it was a good worthwhile hit out.

To be honest, If we had come up against Australia today, we would have struggled, with them coming in off the back of the Rugby Championship.

But hopefully that hit out today will be good for us for next week. HOW ARE THE INJURED PLAYERS THAT YOU DIDN’T HAVE AVAILABLE THIS WEEK? WG: They (injured players) need to take a full part in training next week. There will be an injury assessment tomorrow, then we’ll get an update.

Hopefully Ellis (Jenkins) will train fully next week. Samson (Lee) will probably need a bit more time.

Rhys (Patchell) has started doing a bit of contact with the bags, when he starts full contact, we’ll think about him.

We’re not putting any pressure on him. He’ll be back when he’s ready. KEN OWENS TOOK A HEAVY KNOCK IN THE FIRST HALF, THERE WAS A BIT OF BLOOD, IS HE OK? WG: Ken is fine. He’s taken a knock on the nose which bled. As a precaution, he did a HIA and passed it. He had another one after the game and passed that as well.

Just because you get a knock on the face, it doesn’t mean you’re concussed.

It’s understandable and the welfare of the players is the most important thing.

It was precautionary to give him a HIA because there was blood but he’s fine. It wasn’t a concussion, it was just a whack on the nose.