Sherratt praises Wales 'maturity' during narrow Scotland defeat

Sherratt praises Wales 'maturity' during narrow Scotland defeat

Matt Sherratt hailed the "maturity" of Wales' second-half performance during their Six Nations defeat by Scotland.

Wales suffered their record-extending 16th successive Test defeat, after going down 35-29 at Murrayfield on Sunday.

Nevertheless, it was a spirited display by Sherratt's side, who trailed 35-8 heading into the final 20 minutes, but scored three tries to secure two bonus points.

Wales conclude their Six Nations campaign against England next weekend, and the interim head coach believes his players have "some green shoots" to build on in Cardiff.

"The most pleasing thing was that you could sense just before half-time, if we started chasing the game and getting unstructured, we'd hurt ourselves," Sherratt said.


"There was an element of maturity in the second half where we weren't reckless. It gave us something to build on and some green shoots going into the England game.

"There was no lack of passion out there. There was a hell of a lot of effort from our boys in those last 20 minutes.


"It was nice to get that four-try bonus point, but what was more pleasing was seeing the desperation of them defending our line. The amount of tackles some of our forwards put into those sets was outstanding."

Wales face the prospect of losing all their Six Nations matches for a second successive championship.

However, Sherratt urged his players not to show "desperation and anxiety" over the potential continuation of their losing streak.

"There's no point hanging on to the past at all," he added. "It [the losing run] is not something I'm going to talk about, it's there in the background.

"Everyone knows that, but if you start taking the pitch with desperation and anxiety and worrying where the next win comes from, it's just going to chew you up.

"What I can promise the players next week is I'll do my best to make them a better team. So, I'll be positive, and we'll have a plan for England."

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