Despite falling to a narrow 12-6 defeat to England at Twickenham the Kiwi coach believes they are heading in the right direction as he builds towards the 2019 World Cup in Japan. Wales are currently without key players such as British & Irish Lions stars Jonathan Davies, Taulupe Faletau, Liam Williams and Sam Warburton.
“We are pretty pleased with where we are at,” said Gatland.
“We will get better as a side, and those players will get better, and when we’ve got the opportunity to bring some of that experience back into the team it will continue to make us stronger as well.
“In the first-half, we probably tried to shift the ball on too many occasions when it was too difficult to do that and made it a little bit easier for England to defend. In the second-half, some of their players started to tire, the weather conditions got a bit better and we started to open up a little bit.”
Wales’ Grand Slam and Triple Crown dreams may be over for another season but Gatland believes his side are still very much in contention for the Championship. An opening round NatWest Six Nations victory over Scotland coupled with defeat in London means Wales must defeat Ireland to keep their title hopes alive.
“It could come down to points difference, so hopefully we will be in it for that last weekend,” he said.
“Hopefully someone loses or slips up which will give us an opportunity.
“Ireland have won their first two games, so they are in a good position to potentially go and win the Grand Slam. We are out of that at the moment, which is disappointing, so you are relying on someone else to slip up. For us, the important thing is making sure we continue to get better as a team, and those players from the experience of today, and we go to Ireland and improve on Saturday’s performance.”
