Skip to content

Ken Owens expects strong Wales response to Australia reverse

Australia's Tevita Kuridrani is tackled by Wales Ken Owens and Bradley Davies during the Autumn International match at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff.
Image: Tevita Kuridrani is tackled by Ken Owens and Bradley Davies of Wales

Ken Owens believes recent history shows that Wales can bounce back quickly from Saturday's 32-8 defeat to Australia in Cardiff.

Argentina are next up in six days time, followed by Japan and South Africa, as Wales look to get back on track following a 12th successive defeat to the Wallabies.

"It's do-able," said Wales hooker Owens when asked if Wales can respond quickly to the reverse in their opening autumn international.

"We were frustrated with how the England game went before we went to New Zealand [in June], and we played very well in the first and second Tests.

"We have got to do that this week, and do it quickly.

"Australia have been playing international rugby, we've been playing club [regional] rugby, but we've had a fortnight of training at international Test level, so we can't use that as an excuse.

"We have just got to lick our wounds.

Also See:

"A lot of it is about winning that gain-line, and they held on to the ball and played the territory much better than us. It felt on the pitch that we didn't win the battle of the gain-line."

Wales were down and out at half-time, trailing by 17 points, as they ultimately suffered an eighth defeat in the last 12 Tests against all opponents.

Bernard Foley dives over to score Australia's fourth try against Wales
Image: Bernard Foley dives over to score Australia's fourth try against Wales

"We had trained at a decent intensity, and we just haven't delivered," Owens added. "We need to make sure we are at the races from the start of the game next Saturday.

"We obviously didn't get any ball [in the first-half], which was hugely frustrating. They attacked very well and we failed to match them and meet them on the gain-line.

"They got the momentum, and there was something like an 80/20 split in terms of possession in the first-half, and in Test match rugby, you are not going to get anything with that sort of deficit."

Tevita Kuridrani of Australia powers over to score his team's third try
Image: Kuridrani scores the Wallabies' third try

Wales have beaten Argentina in four of the last five Tests, but the 2015 World Cup semi-finalists will be dangerous opponents ready to thrive on any Welsh shortcomings.

"Argentina are on a bit of a roll," Owens said. "They have beaten Japan and had a good Rugby Championship again, and they are going to be coming here for a win, so we are going to have to turn up, get momentum into our game and deliver.

"They have got a good set-piece, a big scrummaging game, but they have evolved their game as well.

"They offload a hell of a lot, they have got a lot of trick plays and things like that. They try to play at a high tempo with a lot of offloads."

Around Sky