Gatland sees bright future amid the gloom

As Warren Gatland paced the damp Auckland pitch, the New Zealander knew some good could come out of even this hurtful defeat for his adopted country. The Wales coach said: "We have some young players that have come on in the last 12 months and have really developed. Players like Toby Faletau, Scott Williams, Jon Davies and Lloyd Williams – this group of youngsters, a lot of them will be around in 2015. We need to keep working on the academies and development and really getting into schoolboy rugby, and in the long term help develop the game in Wales."

Ironically, the lack of spending power at regions such as the Newport Gwent Dragons and Scarlets has helped promote Welsh talent. "Some of the regions financially are under a bit of pressure so are not able to pay to bring in foreign players," said Gatland, who has a contract through, up to and including the next World Cup. "The younger players have come through and as a national coaching set-up we have benefited from that."