Welsh coach Steve Hansen steadfastly refused to resign yesterday and declared he was just at the beginning of his reign, even though his team face the likely prospect of securing the wooden spoon in this year's Six Nations championship.

Saturday's 30-22 defeat by Scotland left the Welsh without a point from three matches and in real danger of their first whitewash.

Defeat also reduced the New Zealander's record since taking over from compatriot Graham Henry to 10 defeats in 14 matches, and the four victories have included minnows Romania and Canada.

But the former Canterbury Crusaders coach said he had no intention of satisfying his growing band of critics by stepping down.

"What is sacking someone going to achieve?" he told the BBC. "I review my situation every day, just like any other person that works in a job. Why would I want to leave?

"It's a job that is just beginning as far as I am concerned and there is a lot of work to be done. This is the best lot of players we have got. I'd like 10 more ball carriers. I'd like 10 Jonah Lomus. But we haven't got them," he added bluntly.

Hansen said the current problems were more down to the infrastructure of the domestic game, which is currently being addressed with the clubs merging to form provinces.

"The problem we've got in this country is that you have players coming into the national side who are not prepared properly. It's not the players' fault or the coaches' at the clubs fault. It is the system that we have which is not producing what we need at international level."

Hansen claimed he was not experiencing the doubts that eventually led Henry to resign after he had been the subject of a campaign to oust him in the media and falling out with several of his players.

"I'm not at all having the sort of doubts that led Graham Henry to quit. It's a job that's just beginning as far as I'm concerned," Hansen said.

The game in Wales took another hit last night when Swansea, the champions of Wales three times in the past 11 years, went into temporary administration and asked their players to take a 50 per cent pay cut until the end of the season.

The club has also requested its 34 senior players whose contracts run into next season and beyond to voluntarily sever them without compensation.

Meanwhile, England coach Clive Woodward may want to deflect the questions over a potential Grand Slam decider in Dublin on March 30th, but he is going to find it hard to avoid the subject.

Hardly surprising considering England are without a Grand Slam since 1995 and Woodward has yet to taste it under his leadership, having three times seen it snatched from his grasp on the final day.

Woodward, whose side play hosts to Scotland next, knows his side cannot afford to take their foot off the pedal as they did after an opening 20-minute blitz had seen them lead Italy 33-0.

"We certainly took our foot off the pedal, and we started losing our own lineout ball, the scrum became a bit slow and there were a couple of silly knock-ons."

Woodward believes there were more positives than negatives in the performance and is praying Ireland do not fail against the Welsh.

"The players know and I know that this is the Championship," he said. "We are ahead of Ireland by three points and are really, really hoping that we can beat Scotland.

"I hope Ireland can beat Wales. We all know that we are not quite at our best yet, but the Championship has the ability to come up with some exciting games and our next two should be brilliant."

Certainly the organisers will be hoping the tournament goes down to its last match with the outcome undecided.