Gatland heaps praise on Jones and Williams
Gatland knows his side will have to do more to beat Australia
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Saturday, 21, Nov 2009 05:47
By Tom Powell.
Wales coach Warren Gatland was full of praise for Stephen Jones and Shane Williams who were instrumental in Wales' 33-16 win over Argentina.
Jones contributed with 17 points whilst Williams grabbed two tries in the second half as Wales recorded a comfortable victory in front of 53,082 supporters at the Millennium Stadium.
Gatland said: "Both players were very good. Stephen just gets better with age and I'm especially pleased to see Shane do well because its been a tough year for him since being named world player of the year.
"We've stuck by him though because you always need players who can create things out of nowhere and Shane is one of them."
After an unconvincing 17-13 win against Samoa last Friday Gatland was pleased with today's much improved performance albeit against a lacklustre Argentina side.
"We're pleased to have won what was a tough game reasonably comfortably," he commented. "The defence, lineouts and scrum in particular were excellent and their are a lot of positives to take out of the game."
Wales finish their series of Autumn internationals with an encounter against Australia next Saturday and Gatland knows his team will have to up their game to compete with the team ranked third in the world.
"We've got to up our performance a level next week but we know there is another level in us. We've got a new midfield combination and if we tidy up our play going forward I think we can do that.
"Australia will be smarting from the Ireland game and we've been improving recently so we're looking forward to it."
Captain Ryan Jones is also aware of the bigger challenge Australia will pose Wales next weekend but is confident his side can overcome it.
"We've got to go out there and back ourselves, play with an intensity, execute our game properly and if we can cut out the few errors we are making we will be alright," he remarked.
"Today we deserved the win but we need to stand up, dust ourselves off and get ready for Australia."