Gareth Anscombe Remains Optimistic Despite Wales’ Defeat

Gareth Anscombe, whose appearance against Fiji marked his first at test level beating Australia at last year’s World Cup, asserts that Wales possesses the talent to defeat Australia and avert their longest losing streak. The Wales fly-half indicated that Sunday’s loss to Fiji – their 10th Test loss in a row – will “sting for a few days.” However, Wales has only a limited number of days to reverse their fortunes for the year before facing the Wallabies in Cardiff, or they risk being relegated to an inglorious position in rugby history. Anscombe commented, “The Fiji loss hurt and it’s going to sting for a couple of days but you can’t dwell on it for too long at this level.” He continued, “I know we’ve now had 10 losses in a row, but we’ve got to find a way to pick ourselves back up to get over the line.” He further added, “I still think our best performance is good enough to beat Australia, we fully believe that. We need to tidy up a few areas, be more accurate and not make life hard for ourselves. Then there’s no reason why we don’t give ourselves a great chance.” Despite the defeat, positive aspects emerged that can be developed, notably the early tries. This positive was, however, tempered by regret over a third well-executed try being disallowed due to Tommy Reffell’s yellow card offence. Anscombe stated, “We did a lot of good, which is why there are positives, but ultimately we’ve talked about needing to get a win.” He added, “We’ll be hard on ourselves because we’ve got to improve pretty quickly with two sides on the up coming in the next two weeks.” Australia was responsible for two of Wales’ last three losses, occurring during the summer period. They have now arrived in Cardiff following an impressive 42-37 victory against England. The Wallabies have previously achieved comparable late victories at the Principality Stadium, notably in 2022 when they overcame a 34-13 deficit. This result concluded Wayne Pivac’s tenure as Wales head coach and paved the way for Gatland’s return. Anscombe remarked, “Without a doubt the Wallabies are growing in confidence so it’s going to be a great challenge, but we’ve had success against them in the past here.” He continued, “I truly believe we will be a lot better for playing this week. A few of us have been away for a while and things were a little clunky at times.” He concluded, “The southern hemisphere sides are coming here pretty battle hardened while we’re just getting back into the season. But this group gets better the longer it spends together.”