Australia v Wales: Pressure on Warren Gatland to end losing run

Wales have lost experience since the 2023 World Cup with George North, Dan Biggar and Leigh Halfpenny retiring from international rugby, following the likes of Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Ken Owens, while Louis Rees-Zammit has switched sports to American Football.

Some of those players helped form the bedrock of Gatland’s success in his first stint in charge between 2008 and 2019, when he helped deliver three Grand Slams, four Six Nations titles and two World Cup semi-final appearances.

“With Wales sometimes, you’ve got to accept you’ll have some peaks and troughs,” said Gatland.

“You don’t want the troughs to be too long and you want to get out of them as quickly as you can.”

Gatland, 60, has turned to a bunch of rookie young players this year as Wales look towards developing a side for the next World Cup in 2027.

“We decided as a coaching group after the World Cup what we needed to do in terms of building this team through to the next one,” said Gatland.

“We saw a number of players leaving or retiring and there were changes made.

“We knew there was going to be a bit of pain along the way as we look to develop those players.

“You can’t coach experience, that often takes a bit of time with players building through a number of caps.

“In the past, we haven’t had such a turnover in a young group we’ve had to manage and develop. That’s challenging but also exciting.”