Friday 13 February 2015 19:24, UK
Sky Sports' Jonathan Davies reflects on a tough weekend for him and his team, but says they are far from out of the 2015 Six Nations.
That was a tough weekend, I have to say.
Fair play to England, they dug deep during the second period and got the result but from a Welsh perspective we are bitterly disappointed about how we went about playing that second half. We put pressure on ourselves from the kick off after the break by not properly executing the exit, and England capitalised on that and scored a try. We didn’t play in the right areas and they did - we barely spent any time in their 22m area and you aren’t going to win an international with that kind of statistic against you.
We’ve won this competition before after having lost our first game, so there’s no reason to feel like our campaign is over.
We were happy with the way we had played that first half and had identified that the ten minutes that followed after the break were crucial, but we didn’t deliver on that and that’s what’s disappointing.
England’s game plan was sensible and their intensity was greater than ours, and that was probably the most frustrating part of it all. We pride ourselves on a high work rate and intensity and on the day we did not perform to those standards.
Afterwards it was one of the quietest change rooms I have ever sat in. I’ve been part of some tough defeats but that was up there with all of them. But to the credit of each person in the Welsh camp, on Monday morning we had a look at the tape, spoke openly and honestly about what went wrong, and we’ve moved on as a group.
It wasn’t an ideal start but there’s only been one round of competition so we are far from out of it. We can’t control what happens to the other teams, only the games we play in. We’ve won this competition before after having lost our first game, so there’s no reason to feel like our campaign is over.
There’s been talk of momentum and psychological advantage that England gained from it ahead of the World Cup, but I don’t buy into it myself. There is so much rugby to be played between now and our pool match in September; teams will have more time to play together and the situation as well as tournament will be very different.
For a start, everyone was saying ahead of last week that all the pressure was on us to deliver because we were at home and had a more settled side. With the win under their belts, England will be the ones with pressure on them in front of an expectant Twickenham crowd. These things come and go in professional sport and we don’t look too much into it as a group, we just focus on the week ahead.
We now have a tough fixture against Scotland and all the boys are raring to go. We’ve trained well this week and we want to put things right this weekend. Scotland put in a dogged performance against France and will be tough to beat at home.
They have a very settled midfield with players that are performing well for their clubs, so it will be a big challenge for Jamie and me to undertake and we are both looking forward to it. We want to get into the game, control it and leave our mark on it. If we are all able to do that as a team, I believe we can come away with the win.
One great thing about last weekend was going home to see my family. Mum had cooked a Christmas dinner that really turned my mood around and everyone was kind enough to avoid the topic of rugby! I’ve said before that I’m incredibly lucky to do what I do for a living but I do miss the home comforts every now and again, and a bit of time with the family is great for putting a loss on the rugby field into perspective.
