we Must Improve, Say Welsh Coaches Henry And Hansen

Wales coach Graham Henry said he was in no mood to bow to the pressure after seeing his team lose by a record margin to Ireland for the second time in five months.
Mick Galwey’s side made it a great opening day for new coach Eddie O’Sullivan as they ran in six tries in a 54-10 victory that came only five months after they beat Wales by a then record margin of 36-6 at the Millennium Stadium.
“There is pressure at this level all of the time so nothing has changed really. Obviously, we are hugely disappointed with the way we played and that has to be addressed,” said Henry.
“We gave away early penalties and never got going. All we can do is try to address the problems and build towards the French game.
“You can only do your best and that is what we tried to do today. We don’t go out there to play badly and a lot of the trouble today was that Ireland were quite outstanding.
“Having said that, there are no excuses for the mistakes we made.”
Henry’s new assistant, Steve Hansen, won’t have been happy at the way his forwards caved in against the Irish, but vowed to carry on working hard to improve.
“It’s a case of going back to basics. You cannot make errors like we did today and get away with it, said Hansen.
“Rugby is a basic game where you have to learn to crawl before you walk before you run. We have got to learn to crawl first.
“The build up to this game was outstanding. So that makes it very difficult. We need some inner belief. We cannot forget about today, we need to look at it and work hard over these next two weeks.”
Welsh skipper Scott Quinnell was urging everyone “to take the positives out of the game rather than the many negatives.”
“Nothing went our way. We were penalised at the scrum and never once got the rub of the green,” said Quinnell.
“When that happens like a side which is playing so well, like Ireland today, it is very difficult to stem the tide.”
Irish skipper Mick Galwey had a few words of comfort for the Welsh at the end of the game.
“Wales are not in crisis. Two years ago we were turned over by 50 points by England, but look at us now,” he said.