Wales make the long journey south on Monday ahead of three showdowns with the world champions after their 27-13 defeat at Twickenham. Rob Evans got Gatland’s men off to a flying start at Twickenham, before the Red Rose ran-in five tries to claim the Old Mutual Wealth Cup.
But Gatland reckons his charges are ready to take it to the All Blacks after getting up to test-match speed.
He said: “I was happy with the first half, disappointed with the second half. We definitely needed a run because players haven’t played at that level for a while and were blowing a bit.
“We definitely needed the run; players haven’t played for a while, haven’t played at that level for a long time. We were blowing a bit so to get the game under our belt was pretty good. As I said, I was disappointed with aspects of the second half but not things that we can’t fix. There are things we have to work on too.
“What’s going to be important in New Zealand is keeping that (high) tempo for 80 minutes. We’ve got a lot of players who haven’t played at that level for a while.
“We were happy with the way that we started and lots of things in the first half but struggled with it for 80 minutes. The whole reason for this game was to get that under our belts to hit the ground running in New Zealand.”
Wales kickoff their three-test series against New Zealand at Auckland’s Eden Park, before a midweek clash with Super Rugby’s Chiefs. Dan Lydiate suffered an AC joint injury and faces further assessment, while Ross Moriarty pressed his case to start. And Gatland was impressed with the Gloucester flanker’s performance.
He said: “I thought he carried well and gave us some nice go-forward,” said Gatland. “He had a pretty strong game and his performance was pretty good, so he has put himself in contention for that first Test.”
