Forward Aaron Wainwright says next weekend’s Six Nations tie against Scotland is an opportunity for Wales to “deliver something better”.
Scotland arrived in Cardiff having beaten England 31-20, while Wales have lost 13 consecutive games in the competition dating back to 2023.
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After losing 48-7 to England on the opening weekend, Steve Tandy’s beleaguered side were swept 54-12 by France on Sunday – although the Wales camp believed their performance had improved.
“It’s obviously tough, the first two games of the tournament, the scores were tough,” Eight said.
“After the game we talked about the big picture and the journey we’re on as a team and trying to stay focused and learn from each game.
“Hopefully, later on in the next few weeks, we can look back at these results and performance and think about how far we’ve come.”
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Wainwright won his first title in 64 games with Wales in 2018 and was part of the 2019 Grand Slam winning squad.
However, the 29-year-old Dragons back-rower has endured a miserable three years with Wales since his second World Cup appearance in 2023, recording just two wins against Japan in his past 25 Tests.
Wales have conceded 50 points at the Principality Stadium more than five times in less than a year, while Argentina, South Africa, England and now France have all registered record wins in Cardiff.
They have also allowed 102 points in their first two games of the season, their worst defensive performance in the Six Nations in 25 years.
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“You’re not going to get better if you don’t play against the best teams in the world,” Wainwright added.
“England are on a huge winning streak and France are one of the best teams in the world.”
Despite conceding eight goals against the defending champions, Wainwright insisted there was improvement against France.
“I thought our defense was really tight at times and there were a couple of times where they were passing the ball from 10 or nine positions and they were getting around us, so I thought we didn’t spread out enough on defense. [defence],” he said.
“I think they got us in there and once they got us in there and were able to unload there, it was hard to regain control…That’s when they got themselves into trouble, so it was tough to deal with.
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“Obviously, we’re looking forward to taking that knowledge into next week.”
Scotland came in for considerable criticism following a poor performance in their opening game in Rome, losing to Italy.
However, they swept past England with what head coach Gregor Townsend described as “the best rugby we have ever played”.
Wales will also face Scotland, but they have the disadvantage of playing a day shorter.
“Yeah, I guess you can look at it that way,” Wainwright said after Sunday’s loss.
“We had a conversation in the dressing room afterwards and we’ll have a great opportunity next week to come here and deliver something better, like I just said, by going on a journey.
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“If we can look ahead, look ahead to next week, and start putting those building blocks in place, then the bigger picture will fall into place.”
