Video: Gatland gives rare post-match apology

Wales head coach Warren Gatland has conceded his team have no chance of winning the Natwest 6 Nations after their 37-27 defeat to Ireland in Dublin.

“I thought they were outstanding Ireland. I will apologise to Joe (Schmidt) if I upset him a couple years ago, being critical of the way that they played. I thought they moved the ball brilliantly well and they were so exciting the way they played today.”

“I thought they were really good. Credit to Joe and the team and their attacking staff, they’re definitely going in the right direction.”

He spoke about the potential championship decider between Ireland and England.

“They are both teams who keep the ball in possession for a long time, they defend very similarly. Ireland are very accurate in the way they play the game. When they get into your 22 they are pretty clinical and they are a tough, tough team to break down. It is going to be an interesting game the last game of the championship in Twickenham.”

Asked by RugbyPass how he saw the game at Twickenham panning out, Gatland responded: “I don’t really care.”

He was also very revealing about his scrum half Gareth Davies.

“He is improving all the time as a nine. Our nines in the squad know at the moment that the way that we want to play, that they are not fit enough to play the style of rugby that we want to play. They are working hard on that aspect of the game, and as a group. He is definitely improving all the time. He is a real running threat, a player who is going to score a lot of tries. We are just continuing to work on him getting to the breakdown quickly, getting the ball away, also being a running threat from the breakdown using the forwards.”