Wales began their summer Test campaign with a 41-13 defeat at the hands of South Africa at Twickenham.
Warren Gatland’s side fought valiantly and there were some positives but they were ultimately outdone by the power of the Springboks. Prior to kick-off, reports emerged that hooker Sam Parry had left the squad after allegedly feeling disrespected by Gatland.
The Wales boss held court post-match to give his views on Wales’ performance and to clear up the situation with Parry. Here is everything he had to say.
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Q: Warren your thoughts on that?
“There were lots of positives. I thought we did a lot of good things.
“There’s things for us to work on in terms of staying in the moment and making sure we are switched on all the time. I thought we created some opportunities so we’ll go away and get better and make sure we finish that.
“We were under the pump a bit early on with those two yellow cards but we managed our way through that and I thought going in at 14-13 was pretty positive. We fixed a little bit defensively in terms of defending a little bit higher in the second-half because we weren’t getting off the line quick enough.
“I felt there were a few calls that didn’t go our way which was tough and didn’t help with momentum but you’ve just got to deal with that.”
Q: Thoughts on Dewi Lake’s performance?
“I thought he was outstanding today. I thought he was exceptional in terms of the way he played and led the team.
“I thought he showed what he’s capable of doing and I’d like to think he’s only going to get better as a player and a leader as well.”
Q: Does that make your decision on the captaincy easier or harder?
“We’ll have a think about that when we finalise the squad. I’ll talk with the other coaches before we announce that on Monday.”
Q; Keiron Assiratti went off injured and you’ve got a couple of other tightheads injured. How are you looking in that position?
“I spoke to Prav (Mathema) the physio and he’s just going to reassses that and see where all those players are. There are a couple of players with back issues and Henry with a foot issue.
“We just need to make sure that assessment gets done so we can have a clear picture of where we think some of them are.”
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Q: One person who won’t be there on Monday is Sam Parry. I just want to ask you when he left the squad what your initial response was?
“He left on Monday.”
Q: What was your response?
“I was surprised.”
Q: Why was that?
“I was surprised he left the squad.”
Q: Do you know why he left the squad?
“He didn’t talk to me. You need to talk to Sam because he hasn’t spoken to anyone.
“I understand his agent has been pretty vocal and stuff which is a little bit disappointing. Look, Sam came in the week before.
“I was straight up with him and told him what the situation he was in in the squad. We’ve put a release out to all the players that we’d picked a squad of 37 and we were only taking 34 on tour.
“I just wanted to be straight and up front him. As a player I’d like to know where I actually stood.
“I said that he was initially covering for Elliot (Dee) with the injury. So, I was clear in that.
“I said, look, I don’t want to stuff you around, you’ve been brilliant for us when you’ve come in in the past and we’ll just see what happens with that.
“So, I’m not sure how I disrespected him there. I talked on Monday about competition within the squad. I thought there was some real competition with the hookers. I didn’t mention them by name. I didn’t want to leave Sam out so I said Sam as well. If I’ve upset him there was no intention to upset the player.
“I just would have rather him come and see me and say about the way he felt. There was definitely nothing from me in terms of trying to disrespect him or upset him. I just wanted to be honest and up front with him. I think that would have been hopefully a better approach if you’d come and said that rather than just walking off really.
“But I suppose I understand how people take things differently and you’ve just got to deal with that. Whether he’s had any regrets.
“I know he’s good friends with Gareth Thomas and Gareth contacted him straight away and said look just get on the phone and ring him. Hopefully we could have sorted it out.”
Further down the road is the door still open for him?
“In the future yeah. I’d never close the door on a player.
“Whether he’s had any regrets about his decision (I don’t know). Sometimes people make compulsive decisions and players as well.
“I’m the first person to be able to forgive someone in terms of putting their hand up. I don’t get everything right and make mistakes so you’ve got to have a little bit of compassion somewhere that if it was impulsive, considering the next day Elliot pulled out with an injury he would have been on the plane.
“So whether he has any regrets about that I’m not too sure.
Q: How do you think your two second-rows got on today?
“I thought they did really well. I thought Ben Carter put himself around the place physically and put in a couple of good tackles.
“I thought they both acquitted themselves really well. It was a massive challenge for them and a big step up for those two.
“I thought they acquitted themselves in terms of going out there and giving everything that they had which is a real positive from our point of view.”
Q: Do you feel more optimistic about going on tour after what you’ve seen today?
“Absolutely, yeah. We’ve got to identify certain areas where we can get a little bit better.
“Probably in some of the impact coming off the bench in terms of them being accurate because it’s about nailing those big moments. When you nail those big moments then you get some reward out of it.
“We probably were a bit guilty when there were a few opportunities for us in attack. We weren’t quite accurate enough.
“Even defensively we got caught out. We probably just switched off a little bit, haven’t reacted and allowed them to make a couple of breaks.
“So, those are the sort of things we’ll work hard to address and make sure we are.”
Q: Is that just down to experience?
“Absolutely. It’s down to experience and I think a lot of those players who were out there today would have learnt a lot from it.
“There are probably some who are saying ‘I’d love to play South Africa again next week’ because fixing up some of the things they can improve on and be better at.”
Q: Is Cory Hill fit?
“He’s been running and stuff. We could have risked him.
“Possibly he could have gone out there today but it wasn’t happening. There’s no point in him breaking down, he just needed a few extra days.
“He’s got next week before we arrive in Australia on Friday.”
Q: Just on the refereeing decisions you mentioned, was the pass for the Mapimpi try one of those?
“It looked forward to me in terms of the hands and I thought the penalty against Taine Plumtree; he’s made a tackle, he’s rolled and Dewi is on the ball but it’s a penalty against us.
“I’d question that little kick at the end of the game. The referee has said he’s trying to catch the ball but if you are trying to catch the ball you do that with two hands, not with one hand.
“Those are the little things we were a bit frustrated by from our point of view considering we had to deal with a couple of yellow cards and things. But when you’ve got the world champions in front of you they sometimes tend to get a couple of calls go their way.
“We’ve just got to deal with that and we’ve got to make sure we focus on ourselves and be as accurate as we can possibly be. I thought the yellow card on Aaron Wainwright; from where we are sitting I can’t see where he’s touched the ball.
“That’s ended up being a penalty try. I couldn’t quite see the difference between the try that was disallowed for us.
“It looked to be a very similar situation.”
Q: It’s seven losses in a row now and we know the plan is to blood players but Wales haven’t been passed eight losses for quite some time. How important is it that you get a win this summer?
“We are not focusing on that at the moment. We are focussing on getting better as a squad.
“I understand how important results are so I’m quite happy for that pressure to be on me, not on the players. If you focus too much on the result then sometimes it can be added external pressure rather than for us wanting players to get better as individuals and get better at playing at this level, the intensity and making better decisions.
“One of the things that was really effective for us at the World Cup, where our whole priority wasn’t all on winning. Our focus at the World Cup was let’s just become a really hard team to beat and the results will take care of itself.
“There are times when you guys like to add that pressure from the outside.”
Q: Well a lot of people say Test rugby is about winning?
“100%. I agree.”