We drew strength from winning run, says Wales coach Gatland

CARDIFF, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Wales coach Warren Gatland said his team's record run of victories played a big part in helping them fight back to beat England 21-13 in the Six Nations on Saturday and extend their winning streak to 12.

Gatland also questioned England's big-match temperament after they failed to reproduce the impressive form that brought big wins over Ireland and France in their first two matches of the tournament.

“We said before we left the hotel that we would win today because we’ve forgotten how to lose,” Gatland told reporters.

“England were outstanding in the first two games but when I look back on England in the last few years, when it’s really mattered, I’ve questioned whether they can win these big games," he added.

“We’ve had a record of being pretty good in them and the fans deserve to celebrate as that was some performance.”

England came into the match on a run of five consecutive Six Nations wins over Wales but amid that was the 2015 World Cup pool defeat at Twickenham and their Grand Slam-seeking team also suffered a humiliating 30-3 loss to the Welsh in 2013.

That was Wales’s last title but they remain on course for another, and a Grand Slam if they win their games against Scotland and Ireland to stretch what is a national record 12 in a row.

“It’s a pleasing day and we can enjoy the next couple of weeks and start focusing on Scotland but we spoke in the changing-rooms… we’ve done the hard work now and we’ve got to go up to Scotland and they’ll be very tough to beat up there,” said Gatland, in his last season as Wales coach.

“We’re in a good position because you guys were all talking England up, saying there was going to be 15 points in it. We knew exactly where we were and I said to the players they had no idea what animal was turning up this week but we did.

“We went through some pain last week in terms of how hard we trained. The message to the players was that there is no way anyone is training as hard as us and I think it paid dividends."

AERIAL THREAT

Gatland said he thought his team had caught England out tactically and they dealt far better with the aerial threat than Ireland or France.

“We worked so hard on that and I thought we were outstanding in the air,” he said. “I thought we were smart tactically. They didn’t expect us to come with a pick-and-go strategy in the 22 and that definitely caught them out.”

Gatland sent on Dan Biggar for the last quarter and he quickly took hold of the game when it was at his most heated. Jones’s replacements, in contrast, were unable to make much impact.

“That’s been the biggest thing that we have strived for in the last few years - making sure we had impact and accuracy coming off the bench,” Gatland said.

“In the past, that’s been our biggest weakness, but the boys coming off the bench did a fantastic job for us. We finished incredibly strongly.”

Gatland is excited about the prospect of signing off from the Six Nations with a Grand Slam.

“It would be nice, though I try not to get too far ahead of myself,” he said.

“I knew how important this game would be. My experience with Wales in the past is that we always get stronger as tournaments go. When it really matters, we’ve fronted up in the past and tended to perform and we did that today.” (Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ed Osmond)