Focus on Scotland! Gatland laughs off Jones’ ‘tired’ jibe

Warren Gatland has laughed off Eddie Jones’ claim Wales are looking tired heading into the final weekend of the Six Nations, and told his counterpart to focus on Scotland.

Wales are in pole position to win the title and the Grand Slam on Saturday but, should they slip up against Ireland, England could claim top spot.

Ahead of his side’s Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland, Jones suggested Wales are “starting to look a bit tired” and that Ireland were “peaking at the right time”.

Jones’ comments were brushed aside by Gatland in his own media conference, and the coach is confident his squad are motivated to seal a fifth win.

The Wales coach said: “What the hell is Eddie Jones doing talking about our game?

“If it was me, I would be concentrating on playing Scotland. I’ve got no comment on Eddie Jones is talking about.

TEAM NEWS  Unbeaten Wales name unchanged squad for final 2019 #GuinnessSixNations encounter against @IrishRugby on Saturday. Dim newid i’r garfan am y 50fed gêm Chwe Gwlad Warren Gatland fel prif hyfforddwr Cymru.#HWFN #ForTheJersey pic.twitter.com/hB5pdUlrP9

— Welsh Rugby Union  (@WelshRugbyUnion) March 14, 2019

“I think, if you look at the stats, England have made a hell of a lot more tackles than we have in this tournament so my advice to Eddie is to just concentrate on the Scotland match.”

And Gatland has warned Jones that his mind games will only serve to inspire Wales more.

“I pride myself on the record that I’ve had in big matches when it’s really mattered, and even I get more of a buzz when people write us off – which has happened on a few of occasions,” he added.

“It’s about building belief and confidence in the players.

“We’ve worked in the down weeks, we’ve trained as hard as I’ve ever seen a team train, there’s no way that anyone has trained as hard as us in this Six Nations.”

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