Six Nations 2024: Wales aims to avoid achieving 21-year tournament low

Head coach Warren Gatland says his side have to embrace the challenge of trying to avoid becoming the first Wales team to finish bottom of the Six Nations in 21 years.

It was a fourth defeat of this Six Nations campaign for Gatland’s side.

Wales have not lost every match in one tournament since 2003.

Italy, buoyed by a stunning success against Scotland, know if they repeat their Cardiff win of two years ago next Saturday, Wales will prop up the final table.

Even a Wales win against the Azzurri in Cardiff next weekend might not be enough to avoid finishing rock bottom.

“It’s massive, but we’ve got to be excited and embrace that challenge,” said Gatland.

“You can’t hide away from it. I’ve never done that, you can’t go into your shell.

“There’s going to be a lot of external pressure and expectation. International rugby is always about that.

“We’ve got to front up and make sure we work hard next week to give a performance at home.

“You can’t just not talk about it. We said in the changing rooms afterwards we need to be better, especially in those big moments.

“We’ve got to front up next week in training and we know how important it is for us next week that we win.”

Gatland praised the Italy victory against Scotland and know they will arrive in Wales full of confidence.

“I thought it was a good performance from Italy,” said Gatland.

“It was good for the tournament as well, having a lot of teams under pressure and having a lot of jeopardy.

“It creates excitement. They are a team that hangs in there and when they do get opportunities, they’ve been good at taking them and keeping the scoreboard ticking over.

“Physically, they’re in pretty good shape in terms of competing at this level.

“It’s going to be a challenge for us and it’ll be massive for them, because they’ll be thinking they can finish in their best possible position in the Six Nations with a good performance next week.

“We definitely don’t want to finish at the bottom and we want to come away with a win. So it becomes pretty important for us.”

Wales managed tries against France from Rio Dyer, Tomos Williams and Joe Roberts who formed a new-look centre partnership with Owen Watkin, after Nick Tompkins and George North were dropped.

“I know a lot was made about the centres and as a combination they did ok,” said Gatland.

“They’ll learn from that, defensively about some of the line speed.

“We’re trying to integrate people, without being too radical with the changes, but also giving those guys a chance at this level.”

Gatland explained why he chose to change half-backs Sam Costelow and Tomos Williams for Ioan Lloyd and Gareth Davies just before the hour mark when Wales were leading.

“It was about just getting some fresh legs on,” said Gatland.

“I thought Gareth Davies might bring something a little bit more defensively.

“We’ve been pleased with Ioan in terms of him coming on and getting the ball through his hands as an attacking threat.

“I thought Sam Costelow had a good game. We’ve been working on him, in terms of some width.

“We want to get him wider and be more of an attacking and running threat.

“I thought he was a lot better in that area today. When we kept the ball, run hard and challenge them, and got some offloads away, I thought that was when he looked dangerous.

“There were lots of parts of that game that were reasonably good today. We were in front but unfortunately, we probably capitulated a little bit in the last 15 minutes.”

Flanker Tommy Reffell was forced off in the second half with a knee injury and Gatland says he will be “assessed over the next day or so”.