Warren Gatland: Wales coach 'furious' with England defeat at Twickenham
- Published
Warren Gatland has won three games at Twickenham as Wales head coach
Coach Warren Gatland is "furious" with the manner in which Wales threw away victory in Saturday's World Cup warm-up match with England at Twickenham.
Wales led 17-9 against an England side that was at that point down to 12 players, but conceded a try despite the three-man advantage on the field.
The visitors further capitulated when George Ford's penalty completed a 19-17 win for England.
"I'm pretty numb, furious actually and pretty disappointed," said Gatland.
"I hate losing, particularly when you put yourself in a position to close out a game. We need to review that and communicate that to the players."
Gatland is due to name his final 33-man World Cup squad on 21 August and indicated he gained some negative answers on his players.
"We found out about a few people today," said Gatland.
"Just about some game management and in terms of when we had them (England) on the ropes we let them off the hook which was disappointing, but it's answered a few questions.
"We put ourselves in front, in a good position and then we turned it over and gave away some soft penalties in key and crucial moments.
"I didn't feel like we were under a huge amount of pressure for a long time. England scored a try from a driven lineout but they didn't put us under a huge amount of pressure from an attacking perspective, but that was a game we should have won and we cost ourselves."
Gatland hopes players will have learned a "heck of a lot" from the experience and that it will not be repeated.
"There were some good things we did last week and then today we capitulated in terms of our accuracy and some guys not knowing their roles," said Gatland.
"That was disappointing because we've spent a lot of time ensuring there is clarity and everyone knows their roles.
"We gave away some soft penalties where we piggy-backed them up the field and gave them those chances. I think we'll have learnt a lot from that.
"We've had eight (new) caps over the last two weeks which is pretty good and that was the most experienced England team that they've ever put out in terms of the number of caps.
"You've got to be reasonably pleased with that. They didn't really pressure us from an attacking perspective.
"There was a driving lineout maul which we were disappointed to concede. I'm disappointed at the moment but I'll try to find some better positives over the next day or two."
Wales face world champions South Africa in the final warm-up match on Saturday, 19 August in Cardiff just two days before Gatland unveils his party.
"There's still some players we need to find out about and potentially give an opportunity to," said Gatland.
"You couldn't ask for better warm-up matches in terms of the physicality we are looking for with England home and away and then South Africa.
"It's going to be the same sort of test up front and for us we need to take the learnings from today."
