Warren Gatland says Wales’ embarrassing defeat to the Chiefs has undermined his options over selection for the Test series.
Gatland saw the tour of New Zealand nose-dive as his midweek side were hammered 40-7 by the Chiefs of Waikato on Tuesday at the FMG Stadium.
The Chiefs – who were without 20 players because of All Black call-ups, injuries and unavailability – won by six tries to one to leave head coach Gatland having to pick up the pieces ahead of their second Test against New Zealand in Wellington this Saturday.
Wales were rarely in the encounter against the 2012 and 2013 Super Rugby champions. It was a second-string Wales team who had rested their Test stars, but, equally, the Chiefs were missing all their leading players.
“To be honest it was disappointing,” said Gatland, who must have felt the pain more acutely than others as he was back on home Hamilton turf. “We got dominated at collision time and that was the difference between the two sides.
“It probably answered a few questions on a few players that have been knocking on our door in terms of why they want an opportunity to play at Test-match level. We were second best by a long way tonight.”
Wales captain for the night, lock Luke Charteris, admitted: “This midweek game was a chance for boys who have come on the tour to put their hand up.
“We spoke exactly of that before the game, we said we have to play as a team, not play as individuals, and obviously we didn’t achieve that. It’s frustrating because we were given an opportunity.”
Brad Weber, Tom Sanders and Dominic Bird scored for the Super Rugby side in the first half, with James Lowe, Toni Pulu and Sam McNicol crossing later.
Kristian Dacey replied for Wales, for whom forward Jake Ball went off injured.
Chiefs captain and former All Black Stephen Donald said: “I’m so proud of the boys.
“It wasn’t pretty and we had to defend for probably 80 per cent of the game, but this group of battlers did well tonight.” Donald said there was plenty of excitement beforehand about the chance to play a touring side.
There are a lot of guys who haven’t had much opportunities. The Welsh are a good team, but we just thought, hell, we’re going to rip into them and, hopefully, it was going to be enough and, in the end, it was.”
Chiefs: James Lowe, Toni Pulu, Anton Lienert-Brown, Andrew Horrell, Sam Vaka, Stephen Donald (c), Brad Weber; Mitchell Graham, Rhys Marshall, Hiroshi Yamashita, Dominic Bird, Michael Allardice, Mitchell Brown, Lachlan Boshier, Tom Sanders.
Replacements: Hika Elliot (for Marshall), Siegfried Fisi’ihoi (for Graham), Atu Moli (for Yamashita), Taleni Seu (for Allardice), Tevita Koloamatangi (for Sanders), Kayne Hammington (for Weber), Sam McNicol (for Vaka), Latu Vaeno (for Donald).
Wales: Matthew Morgan, Eli Walker, Tyler Morgan, Scott Williams, Tom James, Rhys Priestland, Gareth Davies; Rob Evans, Scott Baldwin, Tomas Francis, Jake Ball, Luke Charteris (c), Josh Turnbull, Sam Warburton, James King.
Replacements: Kristian Dacey (for Baldwin), Aaron Jarvis (for Evans), Rhodri Jones (for Francis), Bradley Davies (for Ball), Taulupe Faletau (for Warburton), Aled Davies (for Davies), Jamie Roberts (for Morgan), Rhys Patchell (for Williams).
Referee: Mike Fraser (NZRU)
Assistant referee: Nick Briant
Assistant referee: Jamie Nutbrown
TMO: Shane McDermott
