Former All Black Ian Jones feels Welsh players owe Warren Gatland a performance
Former All Black legend Ian Jones has defended Warren Gatland for criticising his team after their 16-16 draw with Fiji on Friday 19 November.
Jones believes that Gatland has been loyal to his players, despite publically criticising a number of them in the draw.
The Wales coach has decided to keep a number of players that started the Fiji Test, including former captain Ryan Jones, who Gatland singled out for criticism after last weekend’s result.
Speaking to BBC Scrum V Radio, Jones said, "Warren Gatland's given a number of these guys an opportunity to state their claim. That doesn't always happen in international sport, but a lot of these guys could have been dropped and justly so from the performance
we saw last Friday night [19 November] against the Fijians."
Jones praised Fiji for their efforts, but he insisted that a draw for Wales against Fiji was not good enough. "Full respect to Fiji, but a draw at home against the Fijians shouldn't happen to Welsh rugby."
The former New Zealand lock feels that the Welsh players owe their coach a big performance, as they prepare to take on the All Blacks at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday 27 November.
Jones feels that the players made some poor decisions during the match with Fiji and that Gatland was not to blame for the poor performance. "They haven't been [loyal], Gatland's been loyal to them. Now it's their turn to step it up because no matter what
happened on the pitch last weekend, none of that had anything to do with Warren Gatland. It had all to do with the guys out there making the decisions."
Wales will have to give their best performance of the season if they are to challenge the All Blacks, who will be looking to record a Grand Slam over the home nations on Saturday.
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