Wales head coach Warren Gatland blames goal kicking for their loss in Bronze Medal match – Rugby News
Wales’ national Rugby Union team head coach, Warren Gatland, has blamed his side’s poor goal kicking skills for the loss in their third place defeat. 2011 Tri Nations winner, Wallabies, beat
Wales in the 2011 Rugby World Cup’s (RWC) third place play-off match against Wales at Eden Park, Auckland on Friday, October 21.
Wallabies defeated Wales 21 – 18 with Wales missing a few important penalties during crucial phases of the game. Earlier, in their semi-final encounter, Wales missed a conversion and a drop
goal, which eventually cost them the place in the final of the tournament. France defeated Wales 9-8 in the first semifinal of the 2011 RWC.
Gatland made the comments while talking to reporters at the end of their Friday, October 21 encounter. Welsh international Rugby Union player, James Hook, was off target in the game. In addition
to Hook, their full back, Leigh Halfpenny, also missed the posts on a few occasions.
Gatland added, “Probably what I am most upset with is (kicking coach) Neil Jenkins and at this level you have to take the opportunities and unfortunately our goal-kicking has let us down.”
Gatland has termed missing these goal-kicking opportunities as very costly. He mentioned that he arrived in New Zealand for the tournament with a relatively better track record in goal kicking.
However, he expressed his disappointment the way in which the tournament has ended for them, with respect to their goal kicking reputation. He said, “Look at the past games and those (kickers) were usually in the 80s (percentage success rate) and have been
reliable goal kickers. But for whatever reason, they missed a couple of critical ones.”
In addition to goal kicking, Gatland confirmed his side had not showed the same level of enthusiasm as they showed in their other games. He said, “Our performance was probably a little bit
down than what we are capable of. But in saying that, they are one of the top sides in the world and they are one of the best defensive teams in the competition.”
Gatland has expressed his pleasure on his young side’s achievement in the world tournament. He praised the likes of Rhys Priestland, Adam Jones and Sam Warburton for their performances in
the tournament, which has helped Wales to finish at the fourth position in the global competition.
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