Wales 33-10 Italy, Six Nations, March 20
Gatland happy but frustrated
Scrum.com
March 20, 2010
Welsh hooker Matthew Rees prepares to throw into the lineout in their Six Nations clash against Italy at the Millenium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, March 20, 2010
The lineout was one of Wales' much improved areas against Italy © Getty Images
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Tournaments/Tours: Six Nations
Teams: Italy | Wales

Warren Gatland expressed his satisfaction at watching his side brush Italy aside, but the Wales coach admitted he has found the 2010 Six Nations "frustrating".

The 2008 Grand Slam winners produced their best performance of the tournament to beat the Azzurri, but after narrow defeats to England and France and a disappointing display in Ireland last weekend, Gatland is aware that his side needs to improve.

The hosts cut loose in the second-half at the Millenium Stadium, running out 33-10 winners against an Italian side who ran out of gas.

"We were under pressure so it was an excellent result," Gatland told the BBC. "We created chances and it was nice to have the half-time lead. We have lots to work on, but we showed what we're capable of today.

"I thought it was a professional performance by us and we went out there and showed what potentially we are capable of. In other games we've let ourselves down and been behind and had to chase."

"At half-time we knew there was tries in the game. The ball was in play for 23 minutes of the first half, which is a lot. The pace slowed down and we put them under pressure and created chances. Teams always run on adrenaline and that has a big influence on the first half, but the space opens up in the second.

"This season has been frustrating, we haven't reached our potential and we've let games slip. We feel our final position doesn't reflect where we are right now. We have to keep working and build on our performance. We have a tough summer ahead and today will be a confidence builder."

Man of the Match Stephen Jones said his side knew Italy would allow opportunities in the second-half.

"In that first half we kept a lot of ball," he said. "We knew they would fatigue and so we just kept hammering away at them," Jones said. "It was good. We had a bit more variety to our game and gave more problems this week than last week."

Despite the heavy defeat, Italy coach Nick Mallett was keeping his head saying he wasn't disappointed by their performance. "No, not at all," he said. "I'm very proud of the display, we were fantastic in defence.

"I thought we could have taken more tries out there. We've had a lot of injury problems, we lost our scrum-half early on and we'd just conceded 45 points against France. I'm far from being disappointed, I'm very proud."

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