Gatland: We’ll go on fighting to the end

WARREN Gatland reckons Wales’ nightmare week can inspire a happy ending to their tour of New Zealand.

The All Blacks secured a series triumph with a 36-22 victory in Wellington, after Wales had been embarrassed 40-7 by the Chiefs on Tuesday.

But Gatland believes his men will come out fighting in the final clash in Dunedin.

He said: “We’ll be thinking that we can get better again next week. The big thing for us is continuing to compete against the best team in the world.

“I was pleased with our last quarter and we can build on that.”

Wales were level at 10-10 at half-time. But the world champions showed their ruthless streak after halftime to score 26 unanswered points. Liam Williams broke clear to score from 50 metres to spark a late fight-back but

by the time Jonathan Davies had used all his strength to barge over, it was too little, too late.

But Gatland was proud of the way his troops fought until the last, despite his 25th defeat in 26 matches against Southern Hemisphere opposition.

He said: “The courage to keep playing and not to give up is a huge tick.

“We had 58 per cent territory and possession tonight and that’s a massive number against the All Blacks. We’ve never done that before.

“I’m pretty proud about that performance. There were a couple of key moments which were the difference.

“We’re creating chances and the players are already aware of a couple of things that next week they will do a little bit different because they’ve already learned from tonight.

“They are clinical and those are the small margins that we need to be better at.

“It’s about freshening them up this week and having a real crack in Dunedin.”

Rhys Patchell, above, was teeing off at a golf course in North Wales last Saturday before being jetted into New Zealand as injur y cover.

He went on to start his first Test for Wales and delivered a solid performance, adding his physicality and distribution skills to the Welsh backline.

He will hoping to keep his place next weekend in Dunedin, while Gatland could freshen-up his starting XV.

But the Wales boss was happy with the way the Scarlets new-boy adapted to the highest level.

He said: “I was pleased with the way Rhys went. There were a couple of things defensively that he can work on. He showed some nice pace in that wide channel.”