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Gatland more than happy with mounting selection headaches

Gatland more than happy with mounting selection headaches

Warren Gatland has challenged his players to complete a clean-sweep of their summer tour by clinching the series against the Pumas 2-0 this weekend.

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After praising his side for “a fantastic performance” in winning the first Test in San Juan 23-10, the Welsh coach said he was now looking towards a 100% record on Saturday having seen his side beat the Springboks in Washington in their opening match.

“We spoke in the changing rooms about being two from two and wanting to make a clean sweep of it. It’s a good position to be in,” said Gatland.

“I think we’re the only northern hemisphere team to have won at the weekend and that was pretty important for us.
We were under a bit of pressure in terms of territory and possession, but before the game we spoke about how important our defensive performance was going to be. The guys trained well all week and they fronted up.

“That’s what we asked of them. As a coaching team, you can’t ask for any more than when the guys deliver for you and put their bodies on the line – they gave it everything so, it was a really pleasing performance for us.

“We feel we’re in a really good place at the moment – Welsh rugby is in a good place. We’re really looking forward to the next 12 to14 months and on to Japan.”

James Davies picked up the Man of the Match award in only his second international to heap even more pressure for a back row position heading into the World Cup in Tokyo. The Scarlets openside also picked up his first Test try.

“We’re lucky, we’re blessed at the moment with the quality of the loose forwards we’ve got and the No7s. Ellis (Jenkins) was great last week and James was great today, so it’s a good position to be in, particularly when we’ve got a couple who aren’t here as well,” said Gatland.

“I think the boys sat at home watching on the TV have probably got a worse headache than I have. It’s a good position to be in when you’ve got a lot of competition – you’ve got guys wanting the team to do well, but not too well!

“It’s great that these boys have fronted up, and in the last two weeks, and they’re going to give us some real talking points going forward. What’s been pleasing has been that a lot of those players have had more experienced players around them in the past, with a lot more caps.

“They’ve had to really step up and take those leadership roles with younger, inexperienced players around them. I think they’ve been doing a great job in that role.

“I don’t think anyone is surprised by it, I’m pleased with just how hard they’re working at the moment, and to go and give that sort of performance against what we consider to be a very good team is great for us.”

The Pumas had more than enough possession to win the game, but ran into a red brick wall that thwarted them from start to finish. Wales completed 201 of their 223 tackles, ending with a 90% completion rate, while the home side enjoyed 65% possession and 68% territory.

The penalty count ended 14-11 in favour of the Pumas, but significantly Wales won all seven of their scrums and lost only one of their 15 line-outs. In attack, Wales had seven clean breaks to Argentina’s three and came up with two first half tries from Davies and George North, his 33rd in 75 Wales tests, to outscore the Pumas 2-1.

“Probably the hardest thing for us is that if we weren’t in the process that we are at the moment, we wouldn’t have made the changes and made so many subs. We would have kept some players on a bit longer, but it’s not what we’re here for,” said Gatland.

“We’re here to find out about players and give them the opportunity. When we made those changes, we probably lost a little bit of our defensive cohesion but, apart from that, it was very good.

“We took a couple of opportunities. We’d identified that there was a little bit of space at the back of the lineout where Gareth’s (Davies) gone through and George (North) has scored. We’ve taken our three points as well and it was pleasing to see Rhys Patchell with his kicking boots on..

“We talk about controlling the half-way line and I thought the way we managed that for long periods of the game was pretty good. Particularly just before half-time, and when we scored, we controlled that zone and that’s pretty important against good sides.

“We’ve watched a lot of their Super Rugby games and seen where their strengths are. They’re very direct, they’ve got a good scrum and a good line-out drive.

“So, much of our focus has been on height at the scrum and staying in the battle defensively at line-out time and not letting them get anything from that. We did that and then we made the changes.

“We made those because we wanted to get players a relatively significant time in the second half, coming off the bench, rather than 10 or 12 minutes, which we may have done if we were being completely selfish or ruthless about the result.

“In that situation, I wouldn’t have made as many changes as early as we did. But we’re here to learn about a lot of players and develop them as much as we can.

“I think they’re going to learn from that experience. That’s a side that has been together in Super Rugby, so they know each other, they’re very familiar and we’ve had two or three weeks together as a side.

“So you’re putting different combinations out and doing things and the boys were excellent.”
 

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