(Reuters) - The Wales side's worst Six Nations campaign in 21 years has illustrated the scale of the rebuilding job coach that Warren Gatland faces after losing a host of experienced players in the past 12 months.
Gatland, who offered to resign in the wake of five defeats in this year’s championship, is insistent that his young squad will mature into title contenders but as yet there is little evidence of that.
A 24-21 home loss to Italy on Saturday compounded their woes, the scoreline made respectable only by a late flurry of tries as Wales put in a desperately poor performance that should send alarm bells through Welsh Rugby.
Gatland’s offer to resign was rejected out of hand. He likely knew it would be and has built up enough credit through the years with the team to be able to see the job through, but whether he has the players to make Wales contenders for the 2027 World Cup is highly debatable.
"We will go away and review this really carefully. We’ve already done some review stuff and (we will) work on areas that we need to improve," Gatland said in the wake of the Italy defeat.
The manner of the loss on Saturday will have come as a shock even to the experienced coach, such was the dire nature of the first 70 minutes of their performance.
They were outplayed in every facet of the game and bullied on their own turf, where they have now lost seven Six Nations matches in succession, which laid bare all their ills.
The improvement Gatland speaks of will need to be rapid but the loss of Alun Wyn-Jones, Dan Biggar, George North, Justin Tipuric and Louis Rees-Zammit, among others, in a short space of time leaves them low on experience and quality in key areas.
They did play well in patches during the championship -– the second half against Scotland when they might have won the game having scored 26 unanswered points, and the first halves against England and France.
But it was too fleeting and their 21-year-old captain Dafydd Jenkins was left to explain his side’s poor form and promise improvement over and again, a tough ask even for a seasoned professional.
‘Short-term pain for long-term gain’ is the mantra from Gatland but Wales fans are yet to see any evidence that the side will be World Cup contenders in three years’ time.
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Clare Fallon)
