GAT: WE COULD SURPRISE YOU

Gatland emulated the fifth position of Wayne Pivac's side in last season's Six Nations table.

- NICK PATTISON

France 41

Wales 28

WARREN GATLAND believes his Wales side will surprise teams at the World Cup in France later this year despite this fourth defeat in five games.

But he said: "We will surprise some teams in the World Cup by how good we will be.

"And by how much we will improve having that time together to prepare.

"We are taking steps in the right direction during this campaign, but we have a lot of work to do."

Gatland, who took over from Pivac in December for a second stint in charge, believes Wales will benefit from the time they have spent together over the last two months.

"It was a very short preparation time in terms of meeting with the players, a lot of new players, and trying to find out where we were as a squad," he added.

"We realised from the start there's a reasonable amount of work to do in a lot of areas.