'One of the worst first halves of my coaching career': Gatland reacts to Six Nations defeat

Warren Gatland says Wales' Six Nations opener was "one of the worst" halves of rugby in his coaching career.

"It's probably one of the worst 40-minute performances in my whole rugby career as a coach," he told S4C.

Wales lost to Scotland at the Principality Stadium for the first time in over 20 years last night.

The young side were 27-0 down at half time, with Head Coach Gatland describing the performance as "absolutely terrible".

"We're really disappointed with the first half, we had no tempo, we weren't accurate enough." he said.

But Wales almost managed to turn it around, falling short of a historic comeback to end the match 26-27.

Gatland said his message to the players at half time was "simple: just go out there and play some rugby."

It wasn't all bad though, he said the side showed "real character" to "keep fighting" in the second half.

Wales' new captain Dafydd Jenkins echoed this, saying he was "incredibly proud of the boys in the second half."

"We could've thrown the towel in but we didn't."

At 21 years old, he's the second youngest captain of a Welsh Squad, behind Welsh Rugby legend Gareth Edwards.

He said although captaining a Six Nations opener was "incredible", it "doesn't really mean anything if you're not winning."

Another of the young side, Rio Dyer scored his fifth international trie in the second half push.

He said the squad spent the first 40 minutes "in their shell", but attitudes changed during the break.

"We've got nothing to lose now, let's go and show what we can actually do"

Looking ahead to their next Six Nations tie against rivals England, he said Wales need to use the second half performance to "build momentum onto next week."

Gatland says the squad head to Twickenham "with a lot of confidence that we can build on that second half performance.

"We know what we want to do."