There are some strong teams left in this Rugby World Cup but Warren Gatland remains convinced his Wales side can compete with any of them. Before Saturday’s quarter-final against Argentina, the head coach has also taken aim at critics of the tournament draw, suggesting one or two sides with tough last-eight fixtures have only themselves to blame.
Gatland, having confirmed the fit-again Dan Biggar and Liam Williams in his starting XV, is definitely not buying the argument that the draw is artificially ‘top heavy’, countering that teams like Ireland and France are simply paying the price for underperforming at the last World Cup in Japan four years ago.
Wales, who narrowly lost 19-16 to the eventual champions South Africa in the 2019 semi-finals, have also emerged unbeaten from a tricky pool which also contained Australia and Fiji, and Gatland believes those who think Wales are lucky to be avoiding teams such as New Zealand or the Springboks in the quarter-finals are not giving his squad sufficient respect.
“It’s not our fault this happened,” said Gatland. “I’d just say to the other teams they should have done better in the last World Cup. That’s where the draw has come from. If teams had better performances and results [in 2019] they would probably be in different pools. You didn’t hear us complaining in 2015 about Fiji, Australia, England and ourselves being in the same pool. You’re dealt a hand and you’ve just got to deal with it.”
The topic has resurfaced because two of the top four teams in the current world rankings will be heading home this weekend. Wales, in contrast, came into this tournament ranked 10th but, crucially, were fourth in the World Rugby standings when the seedings for the competition were finalised.
Wales L Williams; Rees-Zammit, North, Tompkins, Adams; Biggar, Davies; Thomas, Elias, Francis, Rowlands, Beard, Morgan (c), Reffell, Wainwright.
Replacements: Lake, Domachowski, Lewis, Jenkins, Tshiunza, T Williams, Costelow, Dyer.
Argentina Mallia; Boffelli, Cinti, Chocobares, M Carreras; S Carreras, Cubelli; Gallo, Montoya (c), Gómez Kodela, Petti, Lavanini, Gonzalez, Kremer, Isa.
Replacements: Creevy, Sclavi, Bello, Alemanno, Bruni, Bazan Velez, Sanchez, Moroni.
Gatland agrees with those who believe the draw should not have been conducted almost three years in advance but is not about to apologise now that it might be favouring Wales. “Whether the people in control of that next time can put the pools together a bit later, that’s up to them. We can’t change what’s been done. All I can say: we were in control of what we’re doing. We’re happy with the progress we’ve made, considering a lot of people in this room were saying we wouldn’t get out of our group. We’re not surprised that we are here or that we topped the pool. After all the hard work that we’ve put in, we’re definitely not ready to go home yet.”
It was a vintage Gatland cocktail: three parts Kiwi common sense to one part sly mischief. In the same vein was his view that it will be progress for rugby globally if the northern hemisphere can sweep the board by contributing all four semi-finalists, at the expense of his homeland New Zealand, the world champion Boks, Fiji and, last but not least, the Pumas.
“The first step was all northern hemisphere teams finishing top of the pools. That has never happened before so that is a real positive for the game considering how much the southern hemisphere have dominated the World Cups in the past. I can only see that being positive for the game if that potentially does happen.”
Sitting in a basketball arena in the port city of Toulon, he was also happy enough to lob a calculated message or two in the direction of Argentina’s head coach, Michael Cheika, who has suggested Wales are favourites for Saturday’s game in Marseille. “I don’t know where Michael has got that from, he’s probably trying to take some pressure off himself. We haven’t spoken about underdogs or favourites tags, we are just going through our own processes and working as hard as we can to make sure the preparation is right for Saturday.”
An intriguing contest is certainly on the cards, with Argentina having made two changes to their starting XV. The Dragons scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou has been replaced by Tomás Cubelli with Facundo Isa coming in for the injured Pablo Matera, ruled out with a torn hamstring.
Wales will field 14 of the starting side that defeated Australia and Fiji in the pool stages, with the exception of the injured Taulupe Faletau, with the back-row contest looming as pivotal. Leicester’s Tommy Reffell has been promoted to openside flanker, with the captain, Jac Morgan, switching to the blindside and Aaron Wainwright at No 8, and there is a clear desire to counter the threat of another Tiger, Julián Montoya, around the contact area. “The breakdown is going to be very competitive and we felt with the way Tommy played with his turnovers, you just want your best players on the pitch,” said Gatland.
If they can score another victory over Argentina, against whom they have lost just once in their past seven meetings, Gatland’s side will have reached their third semi-final in the last four World Cups. The centre George North is set to become the first Welshman to appear in four World Cup quarter-finals but Gatland reckons his entire squad are ready for what is coming: “It’s pressure rugby now, isn’t it? You’ve just got embrace it, you can’t hide away from it.”
