Rugby: Rugby-Gatland says some questions answered over World Cup squad after heavy loss

CARDIFF (Reuters) – Wales coach Warren Gatland said his side had hopefully learned some lessons in their 52-16 home warm-up loss to South Africa, adding that the match gave him greater clarity on who to select for his 33-player Rugby World Cup squad on Monday.

The Springboks ran in eight tries as they dominated all facets of the game, out-muscled Wales at the set-piece and caused problems with their stifling rush defence.

“Perhaps it has made our selection easier,” Gatland told reporters. “We will go back to the hotel tonight and have a chat with the coaches and then a final conversation in the morning (to decide the World Cup squad).

“Possibly some of the questions we had have been answered and it’s made things a little easier. It was disappointing. The only positive is the learnings they’ll hopefully take. The disappointing thing for me was the soft tries we gave away.”

Gatland was missing several key players who withdrew late in the week as injury precautions, and hoped the run-out for his wider squad against the Boks would hold them in good stead later on.

“We wanted to give everyone an opportunity. We want to find out about players. There’s no doubt we’ll pick up injuries (at the World Cup). So hopefully players called in will come in a bit better prepared. They’ll learn from it.”

Wales have a win and a draw against England to go with this result in their warm-up matches, and Gatland feels there has been progression.

“I think when you have a defeat like that, it’s how you look for the positives in reviewing it. There were some easy fixes in that four or five of those tries were easy to stop,” he said.

“Contact-wise, we need to be better and with our line speed to stop their physical dominance. There’ll be a lot of learnings we can take from that.

“But I am pleased with progression and how hard we’ve worked. We’ve given young players an opportunity. Some young players have had the chance to play a world-class side that are fully loaded.”

(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Hugh Lawson)