Wales led 14-3 in the first half but fell behind after conceding 12 penalties and missing 32 tackles in the game at Principality Stadium.
“I’m just frustrated really. We tried to be positive in the way that we played, and we showed glimpses of that in the way that we started,” said Gatland.
“We could have been 20 points up. We were guilty and we put our hands up – some things we need to be better at.
“I thought we were pretty unlucky on some calls against us, which haven’t helped as well. We’re frustrated as it’s definitely a game we’ve gone out there and targeted to win and we’ve come up a bit short.
“We talked about moving their big forwards around and trying to take the legs off them. We had some success from our drive and then some nice success from some of the attacking shape we’ve been looking to play from.
“We created some space and scored that first try. On a couple of other occasions, that Tommy Reffell yellow card, we’ve created opportunities.
“For me, there were a number of positives in terms of that. In the changing room I said that everyone should be disappointed, but the boys have worked hard in the last couple of weeks.
“We’ve got to get back on the horse on Tuesday and tidy up some things that will help improve us.”
The Welsh cause wasn’t helped when Mason Grady limped off with an ankle injury after only 17 minutes. That slightly exposed the pre-match plan of having a split of six forwards and two backs on the replacement bench.
Sam Costelow came onto the wing to replace Grady, although after the game Gatland revealed it should have been Ellis Bevan to come on.
“Other teams get away with it but all of a sudden, we have a six-two split and the one position we could be exposed was on the wing. That was a little bit tough for us and difficult for Sam to have to go on there and cover us for quite a length of the game,” admitted Gatland.
“We had a long debate about the six-two split. The first time we did it we got caught in the one position in which we were a bit vulnerable.
“We had talked about Ellis Bevan going on there if we lost a wing and he was supposed to go on. I need to get to the bottom of that.”
The last international win for Wales was on 7 October 2023 against Georgia at the World Cup in France. The 10 defeats in a row equaled the worst run in Welsh rugby history between 2002-03 under Steve Hansen.
“I’ve been around long enough to understand that Test match rugby is about performing and winning. But I’m trying to take a little bit of pressure off the players, so they don’t feel too much themselves and they have the confidence to go out there, be accurate and play,” said Gatland.
“I thought there were lots of good things out there today we can build on for next week. If you feel like the world’s caving in on you, that stops you from going out there to play and express yourself.
“There were probably one or two moments when the players look back, they will think if they had been more accurate and got the ball away, we could have created opportunities. But in fairness to the boys, that’s the first thing they’ll do is look at themselves and see where they can be better for next week.”
