Wales Players Accept Joint Accountability for Defeats

Dewi Lake has played 16 internationals for Wales. The Autumn Nations Series match will feature Wales against Australia at Principality Stadium, Cardiff, on Sunday, 17 November, with a kick-off at 16:10 GMT. Live coverage will be provided by S4C, BBC Radio Wales, Radio Cymru, and through live text and commentary on the BBC Sport website and app. Wales captain Dewi Lake asserts that the team’s players accept accountability for their current losing streak, amidst increasing scrutiny on head coach Warren Gatland. Gatland has been the subject of escalating criticism after the team’s tenth consecutive Test match loss. On Sunday, Wales will play Australia, seeking to prevent recording the most unfavorable sequence of results in the history of Welsh rugby. Lake, aged 25, recognizes that ultimately, it is the players on the field who possess the capacity to extricate the team from its current predicament. When questioned about whether the players feel accountable for the pressure on Gatland, Lake responded: “Yes, of course. Gats isn’t on the field is he?” He added: “They [the coaches] give us the best platform to go and perform and we should have comfortably won that game against Fiji.” Lake further stated: “The pressure is on all of us as a group when we’re on a losing run like we are. We’re all feeling it.” He concluded: “Of course it hurts. We don’t go out to lose but at some point we need to flip that.” To date, Wales has been defeated in every Test match played in 2024, a situation that, if it continues, would mark the first full calendar year without a victory since 1937, a year in which they competed in only three matches. This performance has led former players, including Jamie Roberts, Mike Phillips, and Tom Shanklin, to voice criticism of Gatland and, in some instances, to raise questions regarding his tenure. The head coach has made efforts to redirect scrutiny from the players towards himself, and Lake acknowledges the difficulty in preventing a youthful squad from becoming withdrawn under the considerable burden of expectations. Lake commented: “We’ve spoken as a group about still trying to enjoy the moment and playing with the shackles off.” He added: “But it is difficult because you can’t help thinking if anything goes wrong, that’s going to come back on me.” Lake also noted: “There’s always an edge around camp with boys fighting for places and for every inch.” He concluded this point by stating: “Nothing has changed from our work from last week but we need to tighten up our discipline and be more clinical.” These issues have been persistent concerns throughout what has been a challenging year for Wales. Of the ten losses recorded to date, five have been by a margin of eight points or fewer, a detail Wales is holding onto as an indication that they are not far from reversing their fortunes. Lake stated: “We know we’re a good enough team to get results. We can take confidence from wins like that over Australia at the World Cup and even the summer.” He elaborated: “Teams aren’t battering us. We’ve been one score away from being on the right side of the result, so we know we’re close.” Lake also recalled: “Teams have gone on losing runs before. In 2002-03, Wales went on the same run and then 18 months later won a Grand Slam.” Currently, a single victory would be highly valued by Wales.