Poles apart.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland has rubbed salt on Eddie Jones’ wounds following England’s horrible run of recent form, claiming Wales and England are now ‘poles apart.’

England suffered their fifth straight Test defeat against South Africa on Saturday, and have dropped down to sixth in the World Rugby Rankings. Wales meanwhile have built on their 2nd placed Six Nations finish with a June clean sweep over South Africa and Argentina (2).

Their excellent run has seen them move up to third in the World Rankings. When asked about moving above England in the rankings, Gatland responded:

“The difference between the two teams right now in terms of where we are and where they are is poles apart.” Gatland told the BBC.

“New Zealand are still pretty good, there’s Ireland, and South Africa look like they’re coming good, too.

“But we’re in a good place and we know when we put out our best side – what that is at the moment I’m not sure – we’re able to compete with the big boys.

“We’ve really suffocated Argentina in the last two weeks and that’s been a huge plus.”

Gatland went on to express his satisfaction with Wales’ preparations for the Rugby World Cup in Japan next year.

“The last two World Cups have shown with the right preparation we can get a good side together,” Gatland said. “We should have made a semi???final in 2015 – we lost the lead to South Africa with a few minutes to go – and in 2011 we should have reached a World Cup final.

“We’re in the best place we have been in since preceding those last two World Cups and there have been many times when people have been critical of me or the team and then we’ve ended up on the right side of the ledger. You have to be careful of doing that.

“This tour achieved all the things I wanted and it’s put us in good stead for next year. In the past we haven’t had a lot of depth and we’ve spent time just looking for people who can do a job. Now I hope four or five of the loose forwards get injured next year because it’s going to be one hell of a headache trying to narrow that down to five or six based on the way the guys have performed.”