Warren Gatland’s return to Wales has not inspired a turnaround in results, and he says the time has come for some “tough calls” in the wake of a record defeat to Scotland.

The Dragons were in the game at half time as they trailed 13-7 on Saturday, but fell away after the restart as flyhalf Finn Russell took charge of the game to steer Scotland to a bonus-point Six Nations victory and end an 11-game hoodoo against Gatland.

“We need to make some tough calls moving forward,” the coach told reporters post-match at Murrayfield.

“We are in a bit of a hole at the moment. It’s how we get out of that with the development of the younger players and the squad. We need to be honest and critical in the things we know we can fix up. We’ve got to do it very quickly.”

Gatland had made sweeping changes to the side that had also been thrashed 34-10 by Ireland last weekend, including dropping stalwarts Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric in what is seen as a changing of the guard.

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“It’s a lose-lose situation. People are never happy,” he said when quizzed about his selections. “I thought Dafydd Jenkins was good and Christ Tshiunza made some good carries.

“There’s a review process. We’ve got to be incredibly honest about the changes we need to make. We made a much better start this week.

“Discipline was a focus and being more clinical when you create opportunities. There wasn’t much improvement in those final two areas. We need to fix it up quickly.

“We need to be ruthless. We gave away 19 penalties which isn’t acceptable at this level. We weren’t clinical enough. We quite easily could have gone in at halftime ahead. We went 22-7 down and ended up chasing the game.”

Wales are now off to their worst start to a Six Nations since 2007. Gatland added: “It’s been disappointing the first couple of performances. We have to be honest, be tougher in training and work hard on those moments that are critical in games.

“You have to stay in the arm wrestle in close games, we were in that in the first half and it got away from us. Any loss is tough. We’re disappointed because we were beaten by a team that was better than us on the day and we weren’t good enough.”

Meanwhile, Gatland confirmed that wing Louis Rees-Zammit would be fit for Wales’ next game at home against England on 25 February.

© Agence France-Presse

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