Wales' new defence coach lays out his demands to players and sees opportunity

New Wales defence coach Peter Murchie believes his side has a high ceiling and is confident they can improve significantly over the coming months. Murchie arrives in Wales with an impressive pedigree, having worked alongside Steve Tandy in Gregor Townsend’s Scotland set-up before helping guide Kobe Steelers to the Japan Rugby League One title. He inherits a Welsh side ranked 11th in the world but one showing signs of revival, their Six Nations victory over Italy offers tangible evidence of progress after a difficult period. JOIN OUR WALES RUGBY FACEBOOK PAGE Latest news, analysis and much more And the 40-year-old is convinced there are brighter days ahead for Wales, believing the current squad is capable of making significant strides in the months and years to come.

"I see a young player base. We are not where we want to be at the moment if you look at previous results," he said. "We know we are not where we need to be or want to be but there's a lot of potential in the group. There's a lot of young players who have improved a lot in these last two campaigns specifically.

"I think there's growth in this group and there is a high ceiling. "There's a lot of improvement and we can get a lot better. "I just saw opportunity." Defence has been a persistent weakness for Wales in recent seasons, although there were encouraging signs of progress during the closing stages of the Six Nations. In Steve Tandy's first nine matches in charge, Wales conceded 372 points and 53 tries, underlining the scale of the task facing the new regime.

With fixtures against the Barbarians, Fiji, Argentina and South Africa looming this summer, the challenges are unlikely to ease, but Murchie's arrival offers hope that greater defensive resilience is beginning to take shape. "I think that in terms of non-negotiables you need to know what you want," he said. "It's getting that across to the group in terms of detail. Every defence coach and every coach has got their own philosophy in terms of how they are trying to coach and what their technical details are going to be.

"You want to start to see that come across as you go session to session; it starts getting embedded a bit more and obviously following through into the games. "It's that intent. It's intent when we are training. "What I see from this group is they are not afraid of hard work so you want to see that intent and you want to see that mindset of getting better and improving.

"When you've got a good mindset like this group has got and you've got an age profile that's young and want to improve it's a good group to get your hands on and want to work with. "For me it's that intent, that hard work and that want to get better." Murchie will be following in the footsteps of the legendary Shaun Edwards but wants to put his own stamp on this squad. "I'm not going to compare myself to Shaun Edwards but we want success," he said. "You don't come into a new group and not want success.

"We want success and we want to be part of this group being better. For me that means doing my job at a world class level. "I wouldn't take myself too seriously off the pitch but I have got a mentality about me on the pitch. "I demand high standards so I look to try to build relationships with the players and build accountability as a group.

"I think when I'm on the pitch I'm demanding of a standard to get better and improve. "I work well with players and look to build leadership within the group so we can grow." Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our free daily newsletter here and our WhatsApp channel here for all the breaking news.