Wales’ head coach spent an hour addressing questions from supporters on the WRU website on Tuesday (full transcript here) in which he detailed the importance of the 2015 Rugby World Cup and how the squad’s preparation is geared towards the tournament.
“We will meet up as a squad on the 27th (October) for the Autumn campaign and when they come into camp we will sit down and to talk to the players about the year ahead and how the World Cup should be seen as our Olympics and what we need to do to peak for the tournament.
“We have two campaigns together (Dove Men Series and 2015 RBS 6 Nations) to prepare for the World Cup, where our target is to go in and win the tournament.”
Wales kick-off their four-match Dove Men Series against Australia in just over three weeks time. Recent outings against the Wallabies have ended in agonizing late defeats for Wales but Gatland believes his side are good enough to take an opening victory this time around.
“We are definitely good enough to beat Australia, its just having the nous to close these games out, especially when we are in control and in the lead,” said Gatland.
“During training we will be running lots of those scenarios, as we want to go into the campaign fully prepared and ready to get the victories.”
