Rhys Webb insists Wales can recover to finish the Six Nations with a flourish after a “harsh” self-examination.
The Wales scrum-half believes his team – beaten 29-13 by Scotland at Murrayfield – can revive their tournament with victories over Ireland and France.
The successive championship defeats for the first time since 2010 have ended Wales’ title hopes for this season, but Webb said: ““We are in this together – we win together, we lose together – and we will pick ourselves up and be harsh on ourselves. We have got two games left, and I am sure we will finish strong.”
Defeat to the Scots followed a home loss to Six Nations favourites England two weeks ago, and life is not about to get any easier, with Ireland arriving in Cardiff on March 10, followed by a Paris appointment with France eight days later.
When Wales last experienced back-to-back Six Nations reversals seven years ago, France and Ireland were their conquerors.
“It’s going to be tough, the first couple of days,” added Webb. “We will look back on this game, be harsh on ourselves, look at the areas we need to improve.
“The main thing is playing for the full 80 minutes. Against England, we played for 65 minutes, against Scotland we felt we just played for 40 minutes.
“We had our chances in the second half, but didn’t capitalise on them. It was a very disappointing day in the office.
“It’s a week off now, so time to look back over this game and get ourselves back up.
“It is going to be hurting, the first couple of days next week, and then we will look forward to Ireland.”
Results apart, Wales will also be gravely concerned that in the second half of their last two games, they have scored a combined total of just three points.
Scotland, without a win against Wales since 2007, were sparked into life by wing Tommy Seymour’s 44th-minute try, gaining momentum they never lost as Wales’ 13-9 interval advantage was emphatically erased.
“We know as a team that international rugby is about playing for the full 80 minutes,” Webb added.
“We talked about coming out strong in the second half, but discipline cost us and basic, sloppy errors slipped into our game.
“They were two sloppy tries (Tim Visser also touched down) to concede from our point of view, tries which we should never have conceded.
“They built from that and gained momentum, and to be fair to Finn Russell, he kicked his points and kept the scoreboard ticking over.”
While Wales now look to salvage pride, Scotland will be on a Triple Crown quest at Twickenham in a fortnight’s time when they face England.
“Scotland have come on leaps and bounds,” Webb said. “They have got some dangerous players in their back-three, and they are a tough team to play against.
“Scotland have beaten Ireland and us, and they are on for the Triple Crown. It would be good for Scotland to go on and win that.”
