Prior to his team’s journey to Dublin, Gatland discussed the distinctions between Irish and Welsh rugby, stating that the former has been like “plugging holes in a sinking ship”. Ireland is thought to be miles ahead of Wales in both the national team and the regional competition, with the Wales coach stating that they have “the right structures in place”.

But Gatland questioned if the Welsh game would seize the chance for a ‘true reset’ in terms of appointing the correct coaching staff and putting in place the necessary infrastructure, possibly before making any player acquisitions. He acknowledged that he was “not 100 percent” certain that this would happen. Gatland also revealed the flanker’s response to a query regarding the Wales setup, referencing the question posed to Alex Mann at a sponsor dinner: “He said ‘I now know what a professional environment is like and what it should be like.'” We must inspire our regions to aspire to that.”

Hook, however, defended the regions for “working well with what they’ve got” and was not particularly impressed by what he had heard from Gatland. In addition to questioning the timing of the coach’s remarks, the former fly-half called them “a bit bizarre” when he was asked about them during his appearance on BBC Wales’ Scrum V.

“It’s quite funny, a bit bizarre really, the timing of it” stated the man. “If we’re being really honest, he really did put Alex Mann under the bus? Although it is common knowledge that the regions lack financing, infrastructure, and resources, I believe they are making good use of what they do have.

Six Nations star issues apology

The star of Italy, Paolo Garbisi, has apologised for missing a late penalty that would have given his team their first-ever Six Nations victory in France.

Gonzalo Quesada’s team was given a chance to make history in a dramatic way at the end of a forgettable match in Paris. With the score level at 13–13 and the clock running out, they were given a penalty. Ange Capuozzo’s equalising try kept France in the game after they had lost Jonathan Danty to a red card at halftime. France had grabbed the lead through Charles Ollivon.

In dramatic circumstances, the ball toppled off the tee as the shot clock approached the final seconds, but all eyes were on Garbisi as he lined up the high-pressure kick. The fly-half was forced to rush his attempt, but it clipped the right-hand post and bounced wide instead of going goalward.

The Toulon player apologised to his teammates and the Italian supporters in the stadium and at home after the match, expressing his heartbreak even if a draw was still a good outcome for Italy. “I was thinking about trusting my process really, it’s part of my job to put the kick over,” he explained. “I’m sorry for the team and I accept full responsibility for that.”

Garbisi continued, considering the outcome: “The performance was good all around. In my opinion, you’ve done fairly well if you manage to tie France at 13-13 in the final seconds. We benefited from the extra man in the second half.

“We played a poor possession game in the first half, so we spent too much time in our half. We could attack harder and find more space in the second half if we had one extra man, but in the end, it really comes down to the final kick.”

Shaun Edwards ‘very disappointed’

Shaun Edwards, the defensive coach for France, was visibly disappointed with his team’s narrow escape from defeat against Italy on Sunday.

Les Bleus made a dismal start to the Six Nations, losing badly to Ireland in the first round before narrowly defeating Scotland in a contentious match. They were hoped to bounce back against the Italians in Lille, but they were awful again after losing Jonathan Danty to a first-half red card and Mathieu Jalibert to an injury.

Edwards was not pleased with his comments to ITV at full time. The only thing that saved the match from being embarrassing was Paolo Garbisi’s missed penalty in the closing moments. While acknowledging that his team was “overplaying” at times, he claimed that the issues were more with attack than defence.

“We were definitely overplaying a little bit at the end of the game,” he remarked. We conceded a penalty because we took one too many chances. We are upset with a stalemate, but at least the person missed the kick. In the first half, we dominated possession and territory and had all of the ball. With 14 players, 13 points is not too horrible to give up, but we are quite sad that we lost.

He continued, “Obviously, you want your team to score tries.” “The Italy defence deserves respect, but we were under a lot of pressure. It was excellent. While the defence wasn’t very good against Ireland, I have been generally satisfied with it in the last two games. We must produce the ball more quickly at the ruck offensively.

‘No holding back’ as Wales review defeat

Adam Beard has urged the Welsh rugby public to support their team, saying that “there will be no holding back” when Wales reviews their defeat to Ireland.

Although there were some encouraging moments, Warren Gatland’s team lost 31–7 to the Grand Slam contenders in Dublin. Lock Beard stated that even though the youthful Welsh team persevered after being written off, they will still be critical of their performances when they reassemble this week.

“After the game at Aviva Stadium, you can’t ask for more, but the scoreline is pretty disappointing when we look back on it, the effort, and digging in.” “Ireland now has the top team in the world, and those are the standards we aim to meet. Although the outcome disappoints us, there are many valuable lessons to be learned from this game. Although we are still learning, we want to improve in the last two games.

Rugby test match is all about winning, therefore on Mondays we are very harsh on ourselves and put in a lot of work over the course of the week. When we went 17–7, we gave up a few points, and the game would have appeared differently if we had scored in their 22. I hope others can notice how hard we are working. We don’t want to confine ourselves to the narrative that we are a young team or squad. Right now, we want to triumph. That’s the main goal of international rugby, and we put a lot of effort into achieving these successes.”
In addition, the Ospreys man stated that there was much to be learned from their performance in Dublin before they play France in two weeks, adding that the new-look team is “hungry” and “not satisfied with these losses.” Beard said that although developing a strong team for the future is vital, Wales wants to finish the tournament with two wins and assured supporters that they would see a response against Les Bleus.
“[The new squad] will have learned a lot about the intensity of international rugby, the pace and physicality,” he stated. “Learning leads to experience, while inexperience and fresh caps abound. Seldom do people join an international squad and immediately click?

“We are working hard at it, and I’m confident in 12 or 18 months we’ll be a very good side, but we want the triumphs now. It takes time and process. In the final two games, we want to win two of them. No one is willing to accept it. We are here to play well because we are selected for a purpose and we want to win because this is international rugby.

“When we come to a review on a Monday there is no holding back because boys are new into the squad,” he stated. “We are hard on ourselves. We will continue to strive for those wins in the final two games because we are an honest squad, which is beneficial moving ahead.”