Edwards: Gatland’s return to buoy Wales

Shaun Edwards believes Warren Gatland’s absence has hit Wales hard as the head coach returns to take charge following demoralising defeats to Argentina and Samoa.

Wales had entered the autumn window in bullish mood having won the Six Nations Grand Slam and pushed Australia all the way during their three-Test series Down Under.

But any optimism has quickly vanished after abject displays against the Pumas and Samoans, which saw Wales booed from the Millennium Stadium field.

Gatland was not in charge for those fixtures as he made preparations for his task of leading the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia next summer. But the Kiwi retakes the reins from caretaker boss Rob Howley for the final two matches against New Zealand and Australia.

Few are giving Wales any hope of upsetting the world champion All Blacks, who arrive in Cardiff unbeaten in 19 Tests over the last 15 months.

But assistant coach Edwards believes Gatland’s return to the coaching staff is just the stimulus Wales need ahead of Saturday’s encounter.

“If the gaffer is missing, then it’s going to hit you hard and we are much better when there are five of us all together.”

Wales have come in for heavy criticism following their autumn defeats, which extended their current losing sequence to five matches and puts them in grave danger of missing out on a top-eight seeding for next month’s 2015 World Cup draw.

Former captain Gareth Thomas went as far as to suggest the defeat to Samoa was down to a “pure lack of effort”.

But Edwards dismissed Thomas’ comments. He said: “If he can show me specifics of the game then I would look at it and decide, but I wouldn’t agree with that.

“Personally I felt it was two teams that were pretty equally matched, as they were at the World Cup when we got the better of a one-score game, just like South Africa when they (Samoa) played them as the World Cup.

“On Friday Samoa were a little bit better than at the World Cup because they had the tighthead prop who plays for the champions of France (Toulouse forward Census Johnston) and they had the tighthead prop who plays for the champions of England (Harlequins’ James Johnston).”

Wales have been hard hit by injury this autumn with Adam Jones, Dan Lydiate, Alun Wyn Jones and Josh Turnbull all absent. Hooker Richard Hibbard is also unlikely to feature again during the series due to a shoulder injury, but Wales remain hopeful his Ospreys colleagues Dan Biggar (shoulder) and Ian Evans (knee) will play some part in the final two fixtures.

And there is good news in the form of centre Jonathan Davies and hooker Matthew Rees returning to training.