Murray Kinsella reports from London
THERE HAVE BEEN many snipes at Wales’ decision to put their players through a gruelling summer of heavy physical preparation for the World Cup, but Warren Gatland and his coaches feel they were utterly vindicated last night.
The Welsh were by far the more impressive team in the final 30 minutes as they beat England 28-25, showing impressive composure and fitness to conjure a sublime Gareth Davies try and hold onto the lead Dan Biggar subsequently secured off the tee.
Remarkably, the victory was secured with three of their starting backs having been helped off with serious injuries. Scott Williams’ knee, Hallam Amos’ shoulder and Liam Williams’ head all suffered.
Wales finished the game with two scrum-halves and two out-halves in the backline, but sealed the deal.
Those in-game blows came on top of the pre-World Cup losses of vital men like Jonathan Davies, Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb.
Even going in to the game, people knew that we had some world-class players missing,” said assistant coach Shaun Edwards after the remarkable Welsh win.
“We then lost players as we were going along and we were behind twice by 10 points against a team that had not lost at home for, I think, three years. All that mixed in makes the victory even more special. Plus the fact that it was in the World Cup, the biggest stage of all.
“You’ve got to remember what these lads went through in the summer. People have criticised our training schedule, but they are so wrong. We have got one of the leading people in the world in strength and conditioning in Paul Stridgeon - not just in our sport, but in any sport.
“He is one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in the whole world and he and his staff worked their socks off. That showed in the second half. We were coming on strong between 60 and 80 minutes even with all the injuries we have had.”
Wales move forward with the major confidence boost of having won in Twickenham, but their injury list is a real thorn in the side ahead of Thursday’s Pool A meeting with Fiji at the Millennium Stadium.
Edwards said Scott Williams’ knee injury and Hallam Amos’ apparently dislocated shoulder were “long-term” concerns, while there was unhappiness at how Liam Williams was badly concussed.
There was definitely contact between part of Tom Wood’s body and Liam’s head,” said Edwards. “It is something we are going to look at, with regards to citing. But we will make a comment on that later on.
“It is clearly obvious there was some contact with the head. The decision will be made by our manager after discussions with Warren, but as I say, we did lose one of our best players in a position where we are quite short at the moment.”
With such a crucial tie to come against Fiji, Wales are now looking at using George North at outside centre, and possibly bringing Alex Cuthbert and Rhys Priestland into their decimated backline.
Despite the six-day turnaround, Wales are unlikely to make many changes aside from those forced on them.
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“I don’t think we will be resting too many players, but obviously that’s down to the boss,” said Edwards. “One thing you find out about Welsh teams, or any rugby team to be honest, is that when you get some momentum you want to keep that momentum going.
“We do have quite a long turnaround between the Fiji game and the Australia game (on Saturday 10 October), so the boys will get rested next weekend.
So we will be putting out a pretty strong team against Fiji, showing them the respect they deserve after they have played so well so far in the competition.”
Come through that test without any further injuries, and with the win that Wales are good enough to achieve, and Pool A might be decided in the meeting with Australia in Twickenham.
With his squad limping along, Gatland won’t be looking beyond Thursday. Despite the doubts, Wales are alive and kicking in this World Cup. A country is behind them.
“In Wales we are all delighted,” said Edwards. “I went to mass this morning and even the priest came out and put his hands up in the air to celebrate. That’s when you know you are making a difference to the nation.”
