Graham Price: Gatland is running out of excuses - Wales must beat Australia

Warren Gatland has selected his team to face an in-form Wallabies side on Sunday and it's largely the side I would have gone for. I would have had Tom Rogers on the bench with Rio Dyer starting but Tom is a good player who deserves an opportunity.

I don't know what's happened with Dyer because he's played in the majority of Wales games this calendar year but he doesn't seem to be in favour with Gatland anymore. I think Tom Rogers will do OK under the circumstances but we are not playing the same Australian team we did in the summer.

They seem to have got some of their old magic back. The former rugby league star Joseph Suaalii was outstanding in his first-ever game of professional rugby union.

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We lost the games in the summer although we could have won them. When you are on the end of 10 losses on the bounce your confidence takes a hit and you tend to lose your composure.

Regarding Ellis Bevan's selection I would have dropped Tomos Williams anyway, even if he wasn't injured. I thought he let us down last Sunday when he took that kickable penalty quickly at a critical point in the second half.

He shouldn't have done that. We missed two opportunities to score.

In one of them we could have kicked for goal or we could have kicked to the corner because our driving lineout was causing Fiji problems. But that was a really hot headed incident from Tomos which cost us dearly.

Another thing that sticks out to me was the way Tomos Williams was handed off. It was described in one of the papers as unceremoniously but it was representative of the whole game.

He was actually put in his place like the Welsh team were put in their place.

Coming onto the forwards I think Nicky Smith should have had an opportunity to start.

I remember seeing him standing on the touchline and thinking how impressive his physique was now he's gone off to Leicester. When he appeared in the first few scrums the set-piece had improved.

There aren't as many scrums in games these days but they are still vitally important. Nicky showed he could get under his opponent in the scrum and shunt him back which is what we need.

He needs an opportunity to start a game. On the tighthead I know Gatland likes Archie Griffin but he's only third choice at Bath and has only played two games at club level this season because of his illness.

The two games he's played have been off the bench which is no preparation for international rugby. He gave a scrum penalty away at near the 30-minute mark most likely because of his lack of fitness.

I would have preferred to have seen Henry Thomas start at tighthead. He's a good scrummager and an experienced player.

We are going to come up against some very good scrummaging units and I think Thomas is the best option for now. Archie has the makings of becoming a good prop but his scrummaging is a work in progress, although the rest of his game is very good.

In the backrow I would have put Jac Morgan on the blindside with Tommy Reffell staying on the openside. I’m not normally keen on selecting players out of position but Jac has previously gained enough experience playing there and, unlike during the World Cup, he hasn’t got the added role of captaincy to occupy himself with.

I see Gatland is saying that it’s the media that controls the narrative. I disagree. the narrative is influenced by performances and, ultimately, results.

This game and, subsequently, the narrative could have been so much more different. Under the circumstances, it’s a game we could have won, but when you’re on the wrong end of a nine-game losing streak other things come into play. We created enough opportunities to have won the game.

Unfortunately, we didn’t capitalise on them, mainly, through a loss of composure when the opportunities presented themselves, thus causing unforced errors. Unfortunately, losing becomes a habit that is difficult to break.

The narrative, inevitably, becomes ‘The Wales supporters arrived at the Principality Stadium hoping to see a morale-boosting win but came away disappointed as Fiji made history and our long wait for a victory became even longer.’ You can imagine the conversations in clubs and pubs around Wales.

This week we’ve got Australia which is another game we should have been targeting as part of our comeback/resurrection from nine consecutive defeats but following Australia’s victory over England, it looks like their getting their mojo back. They will not be the same Australia team that we beat 40-6 in the Rugby World Cup 2023.

Instead of building on a confidence-boosting victory over Fiji, we now have to lick our wounds, pick up the pieces and decide where we go from here.

If we don’t beat Australia then we will next meet the current world champions, who have just regained their position at the top of the world rankings. Thus, facing the stigma of not having won a Test in 2024.

We demonstrated in the first quarter of the Fiji game what we a capable of when we put our minds to it and apply ourselves with precision and consistency. However, a lack of confidence from getting into the losing habit appears to have affected our ability to maintain our composure at the crucial moment.

Wales' game plan appears to involve a lot of kicking but Australia gave us a harsh lesson in the kick-chase during the summer. We will need to execute the plan well. As Tom Wright demonstrated with his try in the first Test during our summer tour, they will be more than willing to penalise us for any misdirected kicks.

We will, again, need to be prepared to do a lot of tackling. In that respect, on the summer tour there were many heroes defensively. I’m afraid I was not convinced of that during Sunday’s game.

I’m not going to get involved in wishful thinking in my prediction of the result because I believe that If we perform as we did against Fiji we will lose again. However, reflecting on all the other games we have played this year, the circumstances were such that, we could have won them all, apart from South Africa and Ireland.

But one thing is for sure Wales really need a win this Sunday to lift the pressure from the shoulders of Warren Gatland who is running out of excuses.