Wales should take confidence from Scotland Six Nations loss, says Gatland

Warren Gatland told his Wales side to go out and play some rugby in the second half of their epic 27-26 Six Nations loss to Scotland on Saturday as the team scored 26 unanswered points to nearly pull off one of the great comebacks of all time.

Scotland led 27-0 after 45 minutes in Cardiff, but when they let their discipline slip Wales took advantage of two yellow cards and roared back with four tries, losing by one point when it had seemed they could go down by a record score.

“It’s hard to sum up the game,” Gatland told reporters. “I was really disappointed with that first half. We were inaccurate, had no tempo in our game and gave away some soft penalties.

“The message at halftime was simple — just go out and play some rugby. They should be proud they didn’t throw in the towel. There are probably some learnings for us, but it is a step in the right direction.”

Gatland believes the character of his side shone through, which will hold them in good stead for the game against England at Twickenham next Saturday.

“Like I just said to the players, did we give Scotland too much respect? To do what we did, other teams might have shown less character. We’ve just got to play [against England] like we did in the second half . They are in a rebuilding phase and we will go there with confidence.”

Gatland believes his team’s critics should not be too harsh with fullback Cameron Winnett playing only his 16th game of professional rugby.

“He was good. He was accurate. He got some more involvement in the second half. He didn’t get many attacking chances. But he was calm and controlling,” Gatland said. “You can’t coach experience. When you’re out there in front of 75,000 people, sometimes that takes time for players to get used to that.

“We’ll need a little leeway, but it’s still Test rugby and it’s about winning. That’s what we’ve got to focus on. We need to be tough on ourselves.”

Reuters