SURPRISE CALL-UP FOR ALED DAVIES AS WALES FACE SPRINGBOKS
WE’RE NOT PLAYING WORLD CUP CATCH-UP – GATLAND
WARREN Gatland faced the media for the final prematch briefing of the autumn series with his team in the lastchance saloon in terms of coming out of it with something of genuine substance to show.
The Wales boss explained the reasons behind his surprise selection of Aled Davies at scrum-half and admitted his team need a result to finish off the campaign.
Gatland also addressed accusations that Wales are lagging behind their Six Nations rivals in the race to be ready for the 2019 World Cup, one of the primary criticisms levelled at them in recent weeks.
Here’s how the press conference unfolded... Question: Can you explain the thinking behind Aled Davies starting at scrum-half and Gareth Davies not being in the squad? Warren Gatland: It’s just a good chance for Aled to get a start. Rhys had a knock last week and today was the first time he took part in training. Gareth has been carrying a shoulder for the whole campaign.
So, Rhys and Gareth haven’t trained this week and Aled has been taking a full part. It’s a great chance for him to play South Africa. Q: How difficult has it been just getting a fit squad out this week? WG: It’s been difficult. I think we’ve had 11 injuries this campaign and given that we made a complete change for the Georgia game.
I’m not sure the reasons, we’ve not done anything different though we did have a lot of people come into camp carrying niggles and knocks.
We’re lucky we still have the cover to pick a squad, but it has been a challenge. Q: When you balance everything, what value is there to this fourth game? WG: It’s a balancing act. The fourth international generates a lot of money, we have to be aware of that.
Part of the union’s job is to support the regions and this money helps keep them going, there’s also contracts for the players and the community game.
The other thing is we always want the opportunity to play against the best teams in the world. We could always take different options, but I’ve always strongly believed the only way you get better is by playing against the best.
On that front, this is a great opportunity for the players. I sat down with Steff Evans last weekend and asked him how he found playing against the All Blacks. He said he had learned a heck of a lot and I said ‘I can’t coach you that, I can’t coach experience’. That is how players learn and get better and that’s what Saturday is about for a number of players. Q: What does Hadleigh Parkes bring and do you see him long-term as a 12, 13 or someone who can play both? WG: Someone who can play both, but primarily as a 12. He has no international experience but he is experienced and has been significant for the Scarlets.
We want to see if he can cope at this level and look at his partnership with Scott (Williams). We debated whether to play Owen (Watkin) as we see him as having a lot of long term potential but hopefully he will get some quality time on Saturday as well. Q: Can you tell us more about how Taulupe Faletau is available and not others based in England, as people aren’t 100% clear on it? WG: I’m not that clear on it either! All I know is that he’s told us he’s available for this game and the others have said they aren’t.
I don’t know what agreements players have with their clubs but Toby said ‘I’m available’ and that’s why he’s been selected. Q: Was Leon Brown in the frame this week? WG: To be honest, no. Given this is his second concussion... we didn’t make the call straight away, but on Saturday night we decided to bring Rhodri (Jones) in.
I spoke to the medics earlier in the week and given his (Leon’s) age and the fact this is his second concussion that it was not worth taking the risk. He needs time to get himself right. Q: You’ve worked with Scott Andrews before, but do you think he’s gone well at Bath since he’s been on loan there? WG: Yes, he has. We just feel he’s been unfortunate in Wales in that he’s been a player who hasn’t had regular first team rugby which has been to his detriment.
He’s always been good around the field but not playing regularly has hampered his chances at the top level. There are some good young boys around, especially the young tighthead at the Blues, but unfortunately Dillon (Lewis) has been carrying an injury.
Given how important the game is we wanted to bring someone in with a bit more experience. Q: Is Ken Owens’ back problem short-term? WG: Hopefully, yes. He pulled up with it on Tuesday but felt a lot better this morning. Given that Rob Evans hasn’t taken a huge part this week in training we felt it was important to get as many fit bodies on the field as possible. Q: You’ve ended up with a team that’s much different from the start of the series but are you pleased players have had more opportunity? WG: That’s what we’ve spoken about... building more depth. Hopefully over the next couple of years, if we are in an injury situation we will have players with rugby under their belts.
Hopefully it will pay dividends long-term. Q: What have you made of South Africa?
They are going through a process of developing some depth at the moment as well.
They have a lot of constraints in terms of their quota system and have a few players who have gone back to their clubs for this game as well.
Probably the weather conditions against Ireland didn’t help them too much, but they had a good performance against Italy. We are expecting a hard encounter on Saturday.
Hopefully we can convert opportunities against South Africa that we didn’t against New Zealand. Q: Do you put more store on performance or result this Saturday when you consider the autumn as a whole? WG: Both. The result is important, we are all aware of that, but we want to do that playing well and as positively as we can.
We did a lot of that on Saturday and I thought their interception try took a lot of sting out of us and we also found their wingers caused us a lot of problems. Q: Wales are said to be lagging behind England, Ireland and Scotland and that their development should have started afresh after the 2015 World Cup. What do you say to that? WG: We said in 2016 in New Zealand that we changed the way we played. If you look at the first two Tests against the All Blacks and the number of passes we put together... the second Test we put 180 passes together.
We’re conscious of what we’re trying