Warburton still positive despite loss

Editor

Despite losing the Test series to New Zealand in Wellington on Saturday, Wales captain Sam Warburton is encouraged by his side's progress against the world champions.

Just like the first Test in Auckland last week, Wales delivered a competitive performance in the 36-22 defeat and were still in the game atv half-time when the score was deadlocked at 10-10.

And despite failing in their quest to end their run of 28 defeats against the All Blacks, they hope to build on the lessons they are learning by delivering their best showing in next weekend's final Test in Dunedin. 

"It was a great feeling at half-time and we physically felt good," said Warburton.

"But then we made one, two or three mistakes and they scored three tries. That was a huge swing and they really grew after that. But we showed we can keep playing for the 80 minutes – it is just they are ruthless when you make a mistake.

"There is no psychological barrier to get over, they are just a damn good side. You have to take your hat off to them.

"When they had to score tries they capitalised on our mistakes. And they don’t just punish you with three points, it is usually seven. 

"That’s the difficult thing, making sure you are squeaky [clean] in your defence for a long time. I was guilty of making a mistake in defence with Aaron Smith, something I would never normally do, but I did and so I’ll put my hand up.

"That gave away 60 yards of territory which led to a try. I won’t make that mistake again. The systems we have got are working and it is just down to individual mistakes, one of which I made."