Next up for Wales is their first home assignment of the campaign against Ireland at a sold-out Principality Stadium in two weeks’ time. Then there is a trip to Edinburgh to face Scotland before hosting England at home in Round 5.
“I understand about professional sport. Rugby is about performance and it’s about winning,” said Gatland.
“We will continue to work hard to try and rectify that and to give these players some confidence and self-belief so they can go out there with calmness in terms of their skills and decision-making process to hopefully execute the things we’ve been working hard on.”
Wales scored two tries to Italy’s one but Tommaso Allen’s five penalties made the difference between the two teams at Stadio Olimpico.
“Everyone is pretty frustrated. The players are frustrated. The staff and coaches and are frustrated as well. We’re bitterly disappointed. We created some opportunities that we didn’t finish off,” said Gatland.
“Discipline didn’t help us. The penalty count was 14-4 at one point of the game and we got some more in the last 15 minutes.
“We created chances, but in fairness to Italy they kept the scoreboard ticking over with the penalty opportunities they got.
“Apart from that, they didn’t really challenge us from scoring tries. We had some nice opportunities to score – we came down the touchline but the pass to Jac (Morgan) was forward and we had a couple of kicks in behind for Josh (Adams).
“It’s frustrating in terms of our accuracy and discipline. The boys spoke well in the changing room about keeping together and continuing to work hard.
“With the weather conditions, we knew it would be a tight game. It was going to be about kicking and taking the opportunities, particularly if you got into their 22.
“When you’re under pressure, some of your decision-making goes off-cue. You definitely feel the pressure as a team that hasn’t won for a while – it’s the same when we’ve been on winning streaks.
“You can see the composure and the calmness of the team, waiting for those opportunities. That’s just where we are at the moment.
“We just need the bounce of the ball and a couple of decisions to go our way. Those things can quickly turn around.”
“It’s not the easiest position to be in but you have to be strong, continue to go back as a group of players and look at the review stuff, highlight areas where we can still get better.”
“There is no one more disappointed than we are. There was a great contingent of fans in Rome, they are incredibly supportive of the players and want them to do well. We’re disappointed we could not give them something more to cheer about.”
“We trained well but we just have to make sure that we are more clinical. That’s what we’re focusing on, some of the turnovers, the soft penalties allowing them easy access out of their 22 or to keep the scoreboard ticking over
“Those are the things that hopefully are fixable, and they are fixable. We just have to keep hammering home how important those parts of the game are in terms of us kicking accurately and to make sure we are better disciplined.”
