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One step at a time for Jones and Wales

Stephen Jones during Wales training

One step at a time for Jones and Wales

Wales attack coach Stephen Jones insists the team are taking it one game at a time and focusing on gradual improvements in the 2021 Guinness Six Nations.

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Wayne Pivac’s side have beaten Ireland, Scotland and England in their three Championship games to date to seal a Triple Crown.

Next up is a trip to Rome to face Italy a week on Saturday.

“It’s very simple. We respect Italy and respect the players and coaching group they have,” said Jones.

“They are a very physical outfit and also from my perspective, we have got a lot to improve on from our attacking game. We have got to make sure we are more efficient.

“We have got to get our own house in order.

“It’s great we’ve won our first three games, but we have a big challenge in Rome. We have to overcome that first. Then we can go to Paris alive in the last round which is what we want.

“It’s great to be where we are, but we understand there is a lot of work to be done.

“It is a big hurdle for us first against a physical Italian side and all our energy goes into that. We don’t look any further than our next game and that’s Italy.

“There are lots of aspects we have got to improve on.”

Wayne Pivac holds the Triple Crown alongside his fellow Welsh coaches after victory over England

It’s great we’ve won our first three games, but we have a big challenge in Rome. We have to overcome that first

Wales have lost Scarlets scrum-half Kieran Hardy to a hamstring injury suffered in the 40-24 win over England. Hardy has been released from Pivac’s squad for the rest of the Championship.

But another scrum-half in Tomos Williams has recovered from a hamstring injury of his own while fly-half Dan Biggar should be fit for Italy despite a leg problem.

“For Kieran, it’s unfortunate he has picked up an injury,” said Jones. “Where that leaves us with scrum-halves is simple – we have got three left in the squad who are good to go.

“Tomos is ticking boxes and taking part in training which is great.

“Dan has got an injury that he’s nursing, but we are very optimistic for next week.

“We will find out on Monday, but the reports are that we are pretty optimistic that he is going to be available to us.”

Looking back on the win over England, Jones added: “I was happy with certain aspects of our attacking game, but we have got improvements we have got to make.

“It was 24-24 and for us to score 16 points in those last 20 minutes was good game management from the boys.

“Our efficiency at the contact area was good which allowed us to control that last period of the game which was very important.

“We are obviously happy to be scoring tries, but there are aspects of our game where we should be asking more questions. We’ve got to make sure we keep working hard to ensure our scanning is better.

“There are aspects of our game from attack that we have got to make sure we make some big strides on.

“We are a work in progress, simple as.”

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