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23:25 GMT, Friday, 14 November 2008

Gatland on an All Blacks mission

Wales coach Warren Gatland

Coach Warren Gatland will be in Dublin on Saturday hoping to gain an insight into their next opponents New Zealand.

Ireland take on the All Blacks at Croke Park and Gatland said: "I'm going to have a look at the All Blacks on with a couple of the other coaches.

"We're taking Rob Howley to have a look and Neil Jenkins to have a look at their kicking game.

"Hopefully just by being there live it's going to give us a little bit more insight into the All Blacks."

Gatland says the extent of the James Hook knee tendon injury that forced him off against the Canucks will not be known until it is assessed on Saturday.

"We'll have to wait and see what happens on Saturday when there's a full injury assessment (of Hook's injury)," said Gatland.

The New Zealander was speaking after Wales' 34-13 win over Canada at the Millennium Stadium on Friday, in which they produced a performance that left the coach with mixed feelings.

He wants a big improvement in skill levels ahead of taking on his fellow countrymen, but also praised individual performers such as 19-year-old fly-half Dan Biggar and recalled Cardiff Blues prop John Yapp, who was named man-of-the-match against the Canucks.

Gatland said: "We tried miracle offloads, miracle passes and some of our skill level let us down.

"It's a win and you've got to be pleased with that. There were a lot of changes from last week (2--15 defeat to South Africa) and the disappointing thing from my point of view is that we spoke beforehand about being clinical and ruthless and that was the unfortunate part.

Dan Biggar gets his pass away "We had 30-odd turnovers in the game and made 19 last week against South Africa and felt that was too many.

"The disappointing thing about tonight is that we probably lacked a little bit of respect for the ball."

Asked if individual errors or 12 changes to the starting line-up and five more as replacements had an effect, he replied: "Probably a little bit of both.

"The fact we made so many changes again and players playing for the first time and technically individually there were just some poor skill level by a few players out there which was disappointing.

"We were looking for a team performance and there were some positives. I thought we scrummaged well and John Yapp did well.

"It was great to see Leigh Halfpenny score a couple of tries and to get some youngsters on with new caps in Martin Roberts and Dan Biggar. Those are the real positives.

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"I thought Dan Biggar did well. He's got to be happy with that at 19 years of age and going in there and controlling a very inexperienced side.

"I think he kept his head pretty well. He'll be disappointed with the intercept. That's two weeks in a row now and we've got to cut that out.

"It was a really mature performance going on for longer than we expected."

As for Wales' chances of toppling the All Blacks for the first time since 1953, Gatland hopes his players will gain inspiration from aspects of their display against South Africa.

He said: "I think the thing is building on the South Africa performance. We've come away from that and been really disappointed.

"But there were lots of positives out of that performance, particularly in the second-half in terms of the way we dominated possession and dominated them physically as well."



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Related to this story:

Wales 34-13 Canada (14 Nov 08 |  Welsh )
Wales v Canada as it happened (14 Nov 08 |  Rugby Union )
Ireland v New Zealand (Sat) (14 Nov 08 |  Rugby Union )
Prop Jones to miss autumn Tests (13 Nov 08 |  Welsh )
Henson ruled out of autumn series (12 Nov 08 |  Welsh )
Gatland targets NZ and Wallabies (09 Nov 08 |  Welsh )
Gatland rings changes for Wales (11 Nov 08 |  Welsh )
Wales 15-20 South Africa (08 Nov 08 |  Welsh )
Northern rocks: Canadian rugby (21 Oct 08 |  Rugby Union )
BBC Sport Wales coverage (28 Oct 08 |  Wales )

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