Wainwright wants Wales ‘to make things right’
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Aaron Wainwright wants his Welsh teammates to “make things right” and “give the fans something to cheer about” when they take on South Africa in their final Autumn Nations Series match at Principality Stadium on Saturday.
To do that the Dragons back row star wants to try to replicate the fightback in the second quarter of last week’s defeat to the Wallabies – and sustain it throughout the second half.
“We definitely can’t afford another poor start like we had against Australia. The 20-40 minute period of the game, that’s what we will have to take into next week,” said Wainwright.
“The most positive spin we can probably take out of the game is how well we controlled and built pressure in that period.
“We’ve got a chance to make it right next weekend and finish the campaign on a high. That’s the motivation for all the boys – let’s give the fans something to cheer about, let’s get back into winning ways.
Wainwright fully realises the task ahead of Wales playing against a South African side that currently holds the World Cup, The Rugby Championship title.
The Springboks kicked off their international season in June with a win over Wales at Twickenham and have gone on to win 10 of their 12 games to date this year ahead of their final outing of 2024 at Principality Stadium.
“Our discipline wasn’t good against the Wallabies. Once you start giving away penalties and compounding errors, and being inaccurate it’s quite easy for teams to build pressure on you,” added Wainwright.
“It’s hard to get out of that sort of snowball effect and we probably didn’t ride that very well. It’s hard to build momentum when you are giving away errors and discipline isn’t very good, hard to build pressure on teams and force them to make mistakes.”
Despite the defeat to the Wallabies, Wainwright is still fully committed to helping to break the current losing streak and to get Wales back to winning way.
“I personally feel motivated, and I think the group are motivated. It is tough, but it is what we do,” he said.
“We want to go out there and perform and win and give the fans something to get excited about. We want to get Welsh rugby back in a positive light and get out of this hole we are in.
“As players we really need to put down our mark this week. We’ve got ourselves into this, so we are the ones that are going to have to get ourselves out of it. I think when we do that, we will reap the rewards and hopefully the fans will still be there cheering us on.
“We’re in a tough period but going forward to this weekend, what a great chance it is to finish the campaign on a bit of a high.”
Gatland press conference
Warren Gatland is today scheduled to announce his Wales team to play South Africa and hold a much-anticipated press conference.
It will be the first time Gatland has spoken publicly since the immediate aftermath of Sunday's humbling defeat against Australia, with his future in charge of the national team in grave doubt.
The New Zealander is still expected to be at the helm for the match against the Springboks, but could depart soon after, with a number of pundits and former players calling for him to go after 11 straight defeats.
