Warren Gatland hopeful Wales will deliver at World Cup despite poor Six Nations
independent.co.ukHead coach Warren Gatland and captain Ken Owens are confident that Wales will make a World Cup impact despite an underwhelming Guinness Six Nations campaign.Wales suffered a fourth defeat in five games when they were beaten 41-28 by France in Paris.It meant they finished fifth in the tournament, with only Italy below them, although a gutsy second-half display that produced tries for Bradley Roberts, Tomos Williams and Rio Dyer delivered a losing bonus-point.It was Wales’ 13th loss from the last 17 Tests, while Australia and Fiji loom large in their World Cup pool later this year, with only two teams going through to the quarter-finals.Wales have just three games left before the World Cup opener against Fiji on September 10 – warm-up fixtures against England (twice) and South Africa in August.“We will surprise some teams in the World Cup by how good we will be and how much we will improve having that time together to prepare,” Gatland said.“We have taken steps in the right direction during this campaign but we have a lot of work to do.“We have developed some youngsters who will learn from these experiences, and we will review stuff and what are the things we need to keep working on to not allow some of those soft tries we did concede.“Today against a team like that when they get on top of you (Wales trailed 34-7 early in the second half), they can really punish you.
A bit like the All Blacks.“But the boys didn’t capitulate. They showed some heart and character. That is what we are looking for as a starting point.“Some of the variation in the second half in terns of our game-management was much better.
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