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Scotland fans will hate Gatland's latest comments in wake of drubbing
By Peter Thompson
Warren Gatland said he expected Wales to inflict an emphatic defeat on Scotland after watching his side start their Six Nations campaign with a 34-7 victory in Cardiff.
Scotland travelled to the Principality Stadium with high hopes of beating an injury-hit Wales side, but they were on the end of an opening-day drubbing.
Leigh Halfpenny claimed a 24-point haul - including a brace of tries - as Wales started their campaign in style to leave Scotland shell-shocked.
And the Wales performance came as no surprise to head coach Gatland.
"It was an afternoon that I was expecting, the guys have been outstanding in their preparation and we did go into the game expecting to win and win reasonably comfortably." said the New Zealander.
"I said to the chief executive [of the WRU, Martyn Phillips] that the guys will win by 20, he looked a little bit shocked but that was how well we trained.
"I thought that we defended superbly against a lot of Scottish attacking threats. We coped with that, there was a soft try at the end but our defence was outstanding.
"Getting the bonus point was pretty pleasing as well and we probably left two or three tries out on the pitch as well.
"There is some improvement to do and hopefully as a squad we'll get better for next week."
Wales travel to Twickenham to face defending champions England next Saturday.
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Latest Comments
It's the same criticism of Dmac and Mo'unga as well. Sadly the way the game has been heading recently it's the only way to break down a defence, and a player of Lawrences nature would have a very limited chance at doing that because he's too one dimensional.
Noah Lolesio is your sort of player and that worked OK, but only because his team is far more creative than Englands for example. The highly organized Irish attack was also another that didn't require much from the 10, but that is now changing with Prendergast who is in that league mold like the most new age 10's.
So it is in fact your two which would require even more change to make the most of than Marcus Smith.
Go to commentsThe Stormers sloppiness show that they are a poorly coached side. Fortunately for them, so are the Sharks.
There are tougher opponents waiting and they will be punished heavily unless the coaching improves dramatically.
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