Gatland preparing to dish out pain

ANGRY Wales boss Warren Gatland has warned his players they will “go through some pain” this week after the debacle of Dublin.

Gatland looks set to recall a trio of fit-again Lions – skipper Ryan Jones, scrum-half Mike Phillips and prop Gethin Jenkins – for next Saturday’s Millennium Stadium appointment with fellow RBS 6 Nations strugglers Italy. Young prospects like fly-half Dan Biggar and flanker Sam Warburton could also find themselves in the selection mix as Gatland targets a response following Wales’ tame display against Triple Crown-chasing Ireland.

And the New Zealander has vowed there can be no hiding place for his underperforming squad.

“The time has come when the players are going to go through some pain this week,” said Gatland.

“They will go through some pain at training that they probably haven’t experienced before.

“The coaching staff are hurting, the players are hurting, and we’ve got to give a response and performance on Saturday that reflects how important this is to us.

“I’ve had a couple of bad days. I don’t take defeat too easily, or performances I don’t think aree acceptable.

Wales were outscored 3-0 on tries by Ireland, two of those touchdowns arriving when full-back Lee Byrne was off the pitch after being sin-binned. Ireland’s scoring blitz mirrored England’s two-try blast at Twickenham last month after Wales had lock Alun-Wyn Jones yellow-carded.

Gatland added: “We felt we had made such a big issue of it (yellow cards) after what happened with Alun-Wyn. We’ve seen in this campaign how costly yellow cards have been.

“To see it repeated from our point of view is a concern, but then we are not out there in the white heat of the situation under pressure making those sort of judgments at the time.

“Lee is obviously very disappointed. It has been an instinctive reaction, and it has been very costly.

“To be honest, he was quite lucky he didn’t get a red card in the end because the second incident of throwing the ball away (Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton kicked the resulting penalty), the referee could conceivably have given another yellow card for that.”

For the ninth time in 11 seasons of Six Nations rugby, Wales will fail to secure a top-three championship finish.

They can finish no higher than fourth this time around, while the wooden spoon is still a possibility, albeit a remote one.

For Wales to finish bottom, Italy must win in Cardiff and Scotland avoid defeat against Ireland.

“I am pretty gutted and disappointed with our performance (against Ireland),” said Gatland.

“We weren’t good enough on the day, and on reflection, we haven’t been quite hungry enough. That is disappointing.”