3. Dewi Lake sees ‘no excuses’ for his side after the defeat to the Springboks
Stepping in to captain his country in the absence of Dafyyd Jenkins, hooker Dewi Lake gave a harsh but fair account of his team’s performance against the Springboks. The Ospreys front row was impressed in how his side stood up to the challenge of South Africa, but was displeased by how Wales were unable to keep the intensity going for the full 80 minutes.
DEWI LAKE: “I don’t think many would have given us that first half. So there are positives to take. But obviously, you know, we can’t be happy with a scoreline like that, with this group and where we want to go. There’s no excuses for that for us. So a lot of positives, but a lot of learning to take obviously into the Summer, and learning that we have to do quickly.
“You know what’s coming with a South African team, especially this one. They proven they’re a world class outfit for the past eight years. Double world champions, that don’t come easily. But you know, I think we fronted up well, we showed up in that physical battle. But that last 30, 20 minutes just come up for us. You know, that’s something that we’ve got work on is being in the fight for eighty minutes.”
4. Gatland proud of Matthew Screetch and Ben Carter in absence of starting locks
Warren Gatland was forced to shuffle up the engine room for the battle with the Boks, due to an assortment of locks ruled out as unavailable for Saturday’s Test at Twickenham. The Exeter Chiefs duo of Dafyyd Jenkins and Christ Tshiunza were ineligible for the fixture, as the match fell outside of the World Rugby recognised international window and the Chiefs locks had to undergo a mandatory stand down period.
Also, Adam Beard was ruled out of the match, as the towering second row suffered an ankle injury. Whilst Jenkins and Tshiunza are set to return to Wales camp for the matches against Australia, Beard, along with former Wales captain Jac Morgan (torn hamstring), are missing out on the triop ‘down under’. Despite the hinderance throughout his forwards depth chart, Gatland praised Screetch and Carter’s performances.
WARREN GATLAND: “They did really well. I thought Ben Carter put himself around the place. I think he put in a couple of good tackles, I think they both acquitted themselves really well. And that was a massive challenge for them and a big step up. But for those two, I’ve talked about them putting themselves up terms of going out there and giving everything that they ever had. So, which is a real positive from it.”