Warren Gatland – ‘Wales and England poles apart’

Warren Gatland says Wales and England are ‘poles apart’ after jumping above the Red Rose in to third place in the world rankings.

Wales claimed a 2-0 series whitewash over Argentina with a 30-12 victory in the second Test in Santa Fe on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Eddie Jones’ England slipped to their sixth successive defeat when they were beaten 23-12 by the Springboks and the New Zealand mentor was quick to stoke the considerable rivalry between the sides.

“The difference between where we are and where England are is poles apart,” the Wales head coach told BBC. “New Zealand are still pretty good, there’s Ireland, and South Africa look like they’re coming good, too.

“But we’re in a good place and we know when we put out our best side – what that is at the moment I’m not sure – we’re able to compete with the big boys. We’ve really suffocated Argentina in the last two weeks and that’s been a huge plus.”

Gatland went on to express his satisfaction with their preparations heading into the next World Cup.

“The last two World Cups have shown with the right preparation we can get a good side together,” Gatland said. “We should have made a semi???final in 2015 – we lost the lead to South Africa with a few minutes to go – and in 2011 we should have reached a World Cup final.

“We’re in the best place we have been in since preceding those last two World Cups and there have been many times when people have been critical of me or the team and then we’ve ended up on the right side of the ledger. You have to be careful of doing that.

“This tour achieved all the things I wanted and it’s put us in good stead for next year. In the past we haven’t had a lot of depth and we’ve spent time just looking for people who can do a job. Now I hope four or five of the loose forwards get injured next year because it’s going to be one hell of a headache trying to narrow that down to five or six based on the way the guys have performed.”