‘Embarrassed’ Pumas will be a lot tougher this time – Gatland
WALES boss Warren Gatland will tell his team to end the season on a high in their final Test against Argentina. He has made a number of changes, including having two opensides.
This is what Gatland had to say about the game in his prematch press conference...
Question: You’ve got Ellis Jenkins and James Davies in the back row, talk us through that decision.
WARREN Gatland: It was pretty hard to leave either of them out, given that they’ve produced man of the match performances in their first two games.
It’s something that we’ve done in the past. To be able to play two sevens, you’ve got to have your tight five performing well and we’re pretty happy with our tight five but we’ve made a couple of changes there.
That tight five need to front up to allow us the luxury of having both of them in the starting line up.
The way they’re playing, we’ll just have to see how they go against Argentina on Saturday.
We were very good at the breakdown, defensively we were really strong but it’s going to be another step up this week.
Q: Cory Hill keeps the captaincy, was that a tough call?
WG: No it was an easy choice really.
Ellis had done a really good job but the fact we’re asking him to play six means he’s got enough on his plate.
It also keeps that bit of continuity with Cory doing the job again. Both of them have been great on this tour and we just felt, after last week, that we’d keep that continuity.
Q: One enforced change with Hadleigh Parkes ruled out of the rest of the tour at centre, what’s the situation there?
WG: He has a compound fracture of the finger. He did it about four minutes into the game on Saturday.
He’s had that cleaned out and 15 ..... Hallam Amos (Dragons) 14 ..... Josh Adams (Worcester) 13 ..... Scott Williams (Ospreys) 12 ...... Owen Watkin (Ospreys) 11 ..... George North (Ospreys) 10 ....... Rhys Patchell (Scarlets) 9 ........... Aled Davies (Ospreys) 1 .............. Rob Evans (Scarlets) 2 .............. Ryan Elias (Scarlets) 3 .......... Tomas Francis (Exeter) 4 .......... Adam Beard (Ospreys) 5 .......... Cory Hill (Dragons - C) 6 ............... Ellis Jenkins (Blues) 8 ....... Ross Moriarty (Dragons) 7 ........ James Davies (Scarlets) Reps: Elliot Dee (Dragons), Nicky Smith (Ospreys), Dillon Lewis (Blues), Bradley Davies (Ospreys), Josh Turnbull (Blues), Tomos Williams (Blues), Gareth Anscombe (Blues), Tom Prydie (Scarlets)
he’ll be seeing a surgeon when he goes back to New Zealand. He’ll have a hand specialist to look at that.
That’s something that will probably keep him out for about six weeks or something like that.
It’s a shame because we thought he was very good against Argentina. He defended well and his communication and chat in the midfield was excellent.
It’s another opportunity for Owen Watkin to step in there, keep improving and keep developing.
Q: How did you separate Rhys Patchell and Gareth Anscombe?
WG: Gareth will get time. When we look at it, there will only be two players who haven’t had involvement in at least two of the games on this tour.
We said we wanted to involve everyone and give them a chance to at least be a part of the 23. We wanted to make some changes but we also needed to try and keep some continuity from week one, instead of making wholesale changes.
We’ve made five changes to the starting line-up, some because we wanted to see certain players but we tried to keep the changes to a minimum.
Q: Samson Lee didn’t get any game time on tour, what’s the situation with his back?
WG: He needs to see someone when he gets back to Wales in terms of sorting that out.
It’s just irritable really and it’s stopped him being able to take a full part in training. We want to see him get back fit and training.
He knows how important the next few months are going to be in terms of getting himself ready for the start of the season but for the November campaign too. WG: Yes, absolutely. We started thinking about this back in 2015, the development of the younger players and we knew we were going to put ourselves under pressure.
Even the game against the Chiefs in 2016, our second tier were exposed that day. So this has been very much about trying to get to the Rugby World Cup with some depth in our squad.
The great position that we’re in at t h e moment is that we’re going to have some really tough decisions to make.
We were talking last night, when we were doing selection, about trying to narrow the loose forwards down to five if everyone is fit and playing well. That’s just going to be a nightmare.
And the pleasing thing for me is we’ve got guys that have started on this tour who aren’t regular starters for their regions, yet we have brought them out here and they have done a great job for us.
That’s been pleasing and then there were three or four Dragons on the pitch at the end last week, so they’re getting some confidence and self-belief.
I suppose the other thing is that no-fear factor. You have got young guys looking to make the most of their opportunities.