The Wales captain, Alun Wyn Jones, believes it is possible Warren Gatland will one day coach England.

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Gatland, who won his third Six Nations grand slam with Wales on Saturday, will leave his post as head coach after the World Cup in Japan. The New Zealander has already been linked with succeeding Eddie Jones at Twickenham and the Wales captain, asked if he could see that happening, said: “I am sure he will have a little bit of time off and take a break away from it, I should imagine, and then decide what he wants to do. If he does, we wish him well. In professional sport you never say never.”

Gatland and his players were greeted by about 1,000 fans on the Senedd steps in Cardiff Bay during a reception hosted by the National Assembly for Wales and Welsh Government on Monday. It came 48 hours after Wales claimed their first grand slam for seven years and first Six Nations title since 2013 by beating Ireland 25-7 in Cardiff.

They now head to the World Cup as major contenders and are being tipped by many at least to match their semi-final achievement of 2011.

“It is very easy for other teams now to say we are going to be putting our hands up, to take the pressure off themselves,” Jones said. “People will pick apart the deficiencies we still have in our game. If we didn’t have that, there would be no point in us being here. We are well aware of that, and Gats is always a coach who puts us under pressure and challenges us, irrelevant of games.

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“Everyone dreams – we all dream – but there is work still to do. We are comfortable with the deficiencies we have and we will work on them. We will see what happens.”