Sam Warburton warns ‘we can only get better’ after Wales beat Scotland

[BoRINg]

Sam Warburton issued a warning to Wales’s rivals in this year’s Six Nations when he stating that there was much more to come from him and his team-mates.

The Cardiff Blue back-row told the BBC: “Historically we get better as the tournament goes on, which is a positive as we were slow out of the blocks last week [in the 16-16 draw in Dublin]. It was a much better performance this week.”

Warburton was very complimentary of the Scots, who pushed the home side to the limit, saying: “ We had to work hard and if people were surprised by that they shouldn‘t have been. Credit to Scotland they were fantastic and certainly don’t deserve to be zero for two.

“We all saw how Scotland played in the World Cup and we knew it would be a challenge. It is going to be a really tough Six Nations this year.”

Martyn Williams, the former Wales captain, was relieved to see his side seal the game with a 27-23 victory and was particularly impressed with Jamie Roberts and described his performance as “monumental”.

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He enthused: “Jamie was virtually unstoppable from two or three metres out. He was monumental last week in Dublin and again today. He is a huge force for Wales.”

Roberts, the Wales centre, said the Scots defence deserved much praise as they created the biggest headaches for Wales. He told the BBC: “It was a good game of rugby today. Scotland defended well and they put us under a bit of pressure. A win’s a win, but fair play to Scotland to play until the end. The support here is incredible and it’s an absolute privilege to play here.”

The major turning point for Wales came in the 70th minute when George North carved open what had been an obdurate Scottish defence until that point. The Northampton Saints winger was delighted with his match-winning try but admitted it wasn’t all pretty to watch. He said: “Sometimes you have to play ugly to get the game won and we did just that when we had to. We had to dig very deep. Having gone in three points down at half-time there was a lot of pressure on us when we came out. The boys showed a lot of quality to come out and win as they did.”

Looking forward to their remaining games in the Six Nations he added: “The way we played today we can improve on some things. We need to be more clinical in certain areas, and we know where they are.”

Greig Laidlaw, the Scotland captain, was understandably disappointed but took some positives from the game. The Gloucester scrum-half, scorer of three penalties and a conversion, observed: “We are getting closer. We are doing so many good things but a couple of soft moments cost us. We need to improve on the lineout.”