Gatland: 'It is mission accomplished'
Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:47
Two big defeats - 17-43 and 21-37 - at the hands of World Cup holders South Africa have not been enough to douse Welsh coach Warren Gatland's enthusiasm for his depleted team's performances against the Springboks.
In fact Gatland has high hopes for Wales, saying the Six Nations champions will only get better.
"You don't get better unless you play the best," Gatland told BBC Wales.
"The guys realise that with some hard work on and off the pitch we can continue to close the gap and that's desperately what we want to do."
After a very ordinary performance in the opening Test in Bloemfontein, Wales looked more the part and pushed the Boks for 60 minutes in Pretoria before the World Cup holders eased away in the final quarter - through late tries from Jean de Villiers and Bismarck du Plessis.
Wales twice took the lead in Pretoria, with Stephen Jones opening the scoring from a penalty and later Shane Williams scored a stunning try, the 43rd for his country.
The final score looked harsh on Wales, as Gatland felt his players had salvaged their reputations.
"We had a big chat in the changing room afterwards about where we need to go and what we need to do to compete at this level," he said.
"I'd be happy for us to be out here for the next 10 weeks playing the Springboks, because it will only make us a better side.
"This is no disrespect to the Six Nations teams, but if we'd been playing any of them today we would have won.
"This is a new level for us and we think we are only going to get better."
He added: "We don't want to sit on our laurels and say we can make the quarter-final of the World Cup.
"In three years time, we want to be reasonable contenders and believe if we can get everything right on the day and get a few decisions that go our way, we can beat anyone."
