3. WALES RECOGNISE THE CHALLENGE OF IRELAND, ‘ANOTHER LEVEL UP’
WARREN GATLAND: “So we’ve got a group of youngsters, and our role as coaches is to make them better and to learn from those experiences. So it’s going to be a challenge going to Ireland, we’ve came here today without any fear in terms of, we’ve got lot of confidence that we were good enough to win the game and unfortunately fell a little bit short. But we’re playing against, an absolute quality silence at Twickenham, and Ireland, that’s going to be another level up from those first two games”
“We’ve got training next week with the group. We’ve got a couple of days off now, just to freshen up a little bit. So they will start to have a look at their game tomorrow and then start preparing for what is a quality side at the moment, in terms of the Irish. It’s going to challenge for us but like I said, our focus is trying to get better from game to game and I think we’ve done that. That was in the second half last week, and then we’ve come out and started well today, and just make sure that we take the learnings from today’s experience.”
4. ALEX MANN CONTINUES TO IMPRESS – TWO TRIES IN TWO WALES CAPS
WARREN GATLAND: “I think Alex Mann is as a perfect scenario, of what we’re trying to do. We spoke to Dafydd earlier in the week about, we did consider whether we played him at six and go with a bigger forward pack, but not what we’re trying to do at the moment.”
“Yeah, he’s gonna be real quality. He kind of reminds me, because he’s not the biggest in the world, but he kind of reminds me of a New Zealand loose forward in his anticipation, his speed, his footwork. He’s pretty sore and tired at the moment.
“So that was kind of thing after he’d come on last week, when we had a discussion as coaches whether we left him on the bench and brought him on for sort of the impact, but that’s not where we are at the moment. It’s about putting players out there and making them better and experiencing what physicality of an England v Wales game is all about. So he’ll of only improved from that experience he’s had today.”
5. WALES’ FRONT ROW REPLACEMENTS – HIT AND MISS OFF THE BENCH
WARREN GATLAND: “I think we wanted to get Archie (Griffin) on, and with Kieron (Assiratti), it was kind of like looking at 50 minutes. We thought putting Ryan (Elias) on with Archie, would give us a little bit more experience and stuff, in terms of with some fresh legs as well.
“Yeah, we probably lost a little bit more accuracy, but I thought Elliot Dee, was was outstanding today. He was great when he came on in the second half last week, and I thought his work rate and the effort, was just top notch.”