Rob Howley insists Wales can still contest the Six Nations title by channelling the frustration at their heart-breaking late loss to England.
The Wales coach believes his team can summon enough reserves to hit back when they go to Scotland in two weeks’ time and still compete for a championship they last won four years ago.
A brilliant finish by England wing Elliot Daly condemned Wales to a 21-16 defeat in Cardiff. It means since beating England in 2013 – when Howley was again in temporary charge – Wales have now won only one of their last six meetings against the old enemy.
But Howley said: “One of the qualities of a team is how you bounce back. Some of these players have bounced back before and I’ve no doubt that we will get a reaction, because there is a lot of character in that dressing room.
“It was a pleasant place to be after the game but we have to bottle that feeling as players and coaches and be better for that experience at Murrayfield.”
Wales led 13-8 at half-time thanks to a well-crafted try by wing Liam Williams and it looked like the boot of Leigh Halfpenny would take the spoils until England came on the charge late on.
Howley said: “It was an outstanding test match. The intensity and application of our players for 75 minutes was outstanding.
“We played with pace and accuracy, as did England, and it was a high octane Test match with a lot of quality.
“International games are won in the last 10 minutes when composure, discipline and execution come under pressure.
“We defended heroically at times, Dan Biggar was outstanding and the interception summed up his display defensively.
“But we just couldn’t get a foothold in the last 10 minutes and when you are playing against a side who are 15 games unbeaten, they know how to win.
“We didn’t get over the line, we lost but it was a fantastic performance. It’s a tough one but we take that, bottle it and will use it in two weeks when we go to Murrayfield.”
Wales tested England in every department but England’s defence was superb, their replacements again full of energy and their eye for a try razor-sharp just as Wales finally ran out of gas.
England coach Eddie Jones took his team’s winning streak to 16 matches and said: “I was really pleased with our grit and we have now become a team that is hard to beat and even when a side beats us I don’t think they are going to beat us and that is what we want to be like.
“We are gritty team with characters in there that don’t know how to get beaten and that was evident today.”
England started and finished strongly but the middle half of the game belonged to Wales.
“Our first 20 minutes we were two passes away from scoring three tries and the last 20 we showed outstanding composure to win that game,” Jones said.
“At stages in between I thought we were going to fade out of the game but we hung in there making tackles and Courtney Lawes is like a human ice pack. He has ice all over him after that many tackles and carries. Joe Launchbury as well. We have good characters in our team and young players which is even more attractive for us going forward.”
England should win their next game with ease based on Italy’s poor display against Ireland on Saturday, and with a home match against Scotland before the Super Saturday finale in Dublin, they have been made odds-on to secure back to back Grand Slams.
Wales must win their meaning matches in Edinburgh, at home to Ireland, and against France in Paris and hope they can pick up enough bonus points if England slip in Dublin.
The last time Jones brought a team to Cardiff as coach of Australia they were beaten and he lost his job.
“You have to give Wales a lot of credit because that’s the best I’ve seen them play,” Jones said.
“It was only in the second half that we started to get our line speed better. In the first half they had almost a flawless attack and kept the possession for long periods of time and it was difficult get the ball off them.
“But I loved the atmosphere – it was a proper test match with fans giving you stick throughout the game.”