Wales centre Jamie Roberts has backed interim head coach Rob Howley to success after last weekend's defeat to Ireland.
Wales were miles off the pace early on in Cardiff, before a resurgence led to them scoring three tries and forcing Ireland to defend for the remainder of the second half.
Defeat however saw Wales lose their eighth consecutive match under Howley's tenure, but Roberts has stated that the players are fully behind their coach.
"We are 100 per cent behind Rob Howley, without a doubt," said Roberts to Wales Online.
"In comparisons with the standards we have set as a team, that first half-hour was very disappointing and it cost us the game. It is one of the worst Wales performances I have ever been involved in.
"Pundits are always going to say negative things but the important thing is we stay tight as a group. Saturday night hurt. I could see it on the faces of all the boys.
"The fact is, if we defended better in the first 20 minutes we would have won the match. But we were 20 points down before we touched the ball.
"It is hugely frustrating because we all know the structure is there for us to win rugby games but we made the wrong decisions on the ball against Ireland.
"We all know that where there are chances to score tries there are chances to win games and we know we can cause France problems on Saturday."
Comments
APV1 says...
Ever heard a player who wants to be selected say, "Our current coach is rubbish. My granny could do a better job. The sooner they're gone the better."..?
Posted 17:36 06th February 2013
jamesliveinhope says...
The biggest mistake was resting players for Samoa. The Argentina result made the Samoa match a must win if any sort of credibility was to be maintained.
Keeping the same side would have given the players the opportunity to redeem themselves and build continuity going into the remaining tests - it could be argued that the players didn't need resting after 1 test any way and a win would have built much needed confidence back going in to the bigger tests later.
Posted 14:26 06th February 2013
melkdave says...
I for one dont blame R.Howley,Wales where losing form at the end of the 6Ns,and the real damage was losing a series they sgould have won in the summer,against Australia.Only the players carry responability for that,they lacked intensity,and passion,and really just went though the motions in the 1st test.Thinking it would be easy.Having lost it doughts set in ,and got worse.As ive said elsewhere Wales only seem to play well when they have self belief,and confidance.That was shot after the 1st test in the summer,and hasnt ben regained yet.
Posted 21:51 05th February 2013
DrDeath says...
Have all the regular Welsh posters moved to a football website since Saturday's events???
Posted 15:29 05th February 2013
rustytrumpet says...
Is it just me or is it only the players and Gatland that give Howley their support. The rest of think he's a waste of space
Posted 12:27 05th February 2013
r0n1n says...
kiss of death from mr roberts... at this rate wales are going to be bottom of the ratings pile... only tonga / scotland to go...
Posted 12:12 05th February 2013
rugby_rockstar says...
Hahaha! Actually to be fair, he probably does have Robert's support because any decent coach would have looked to add some balance to their shambling Frankenstein's monster of a backline by now.
Posted 11:36 05th February 2013