Matt Sherratt reflects on first game as interim head coach of WRU

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Matt Sherratt reflected on his first game as interim head coach of Wales, acknowledging both positives and areas for improvement. Stepping in during a transitional period for the WRU, he emphasised the team’s effort and commitment while recognising the need for further refinement.

Transcript

00:00So the stage at Cardiff was set for Matt Sherratt to take charge of Wales in the Six Nations.

00:11Already an incredibly tough task facing the back-to-back winners who went on to claim the triple crown with the victory.

00:19Ireland were fantastic but there were positives for the hosting nation. Here's what the interim boss had to say.

00:27I loved it. I've enjoyed the week as well actually. It was obviously a very busy start of the week.

00:34But everything about it, the journey into the ground is unbelievable.

00:38Brilliant atmosphere, wasn't it? So, yeah, very, very enjoyable day.

00:43Yeah, if I'm honest, I think we probably got a little bit more of the training week on the field than I had imagined.

00:49Credit to the players. We've had really three days training.

00:53So to replicate what we did Tuesday, Thursday, as many times as we did, I was pretty pleased.

01:01It shows a good group, very engaged all week.

01:06We asked for two things before the game, show the crowd some emotion and some ambition.

01:11And I think within structure, which was important, we did that.

01:15While Wales ended up falling to a 15th successive Test defeat, the performance of Sherrod's side succeeded expectations.

01:24Yeah, it's been a good week. It's been a lot of learning with new stuff coming in and new calls to play.

01:33But I thought the boys in the squad have been brilliant at adapting to that.

01:38They've been great this week, wanting to learn and trying to get better.

01:42And like Matt said, there's a little bit more out there today that we showed than possibly we expected.

01:49So that's a massive positive that we can take over into the next few weeks.

01:52You know, we can take a lot of positives from that, especially with the week that we've had.

01:56And, yeah, we spoke about we'd be proud of the effort that we put in as a group and as a squad,

02:02and the effort we put in throughout the week.

02:04And we can just keep on building on to that over the next couple of weeks, on to the Scotland game.

02:11There's always pride in that jersey when the boys step on that field.

02:16And our boys always give 100 per cent, never lack of effort.

02:21Following a disappointing loss to Italy in Round 2, we must make sure there's positives about this performance against the champions.

02:29Sherrod made eight changes to his squad, which included bringing in Gloucester pair Gareth Anscombe and Max Lewin.

02:36There was an outstanding display in Sherrod's first game.

02:39There's no doubt about that.

02:41But he has since said he has no ambitions to take up the job on a permanent basis.

02:47No, not at all. I loved today. I really enjoyed watching the players play as well.

02:52But, no, I'm pretty certain on my next steps, and that's back at Cardiff.

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