Wales fans still buoyant despite their injury worries ahead of semi-final
It has been nothing but bad news for Wales in the build-up to their World Cup semi-final with South Africa on Sunday in Yokohama.
The week started with loose forward Josh Navidi being ruled out for the rest of the tournament with a hamstring injury sustained against France in the quarter-final, and the misery was compounded as full-back Liam Williams’ RWC was ended with an ankle injury in training.
This is added to the bad luck that Warren Gatland’s side have had over the past few months, as Taulupe Faletau, Gareth Anscombe and Cory Hill all succumbed to injury before the tournament started (although Hill did travel to Japan).
Despite this, some Welsh fans on social media remain buoyant and hopeful about their chances this weekend. Gatland had emphasised before the tournament that this squad has the most depth of any during his eleven-year tenure in charge and that is shown by his selection.
To be able to call upon Ross Moriarty and Leigh Halfpenny to replace Navidi and Williams only goes to show that Wales have barely been weakened. In fact, Gatland himself has said that the Scarlets full-back was in contention to play anyway.
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He said: “We had a long debate about whether we started Leigh in the first place and potentially move Liam to the wing. There was a long discussion about that so Leigh was probably unlucky he was not in the team in the first place. We are disappointed for a world-class player like Liam, but we are happy bringing in someone with the experience of Leigh.”
With Jonathan Davies, who missed the quarter-final with a knee injury, returning to the side to partner Hadleigh Parkes, who has had injuries worries of his own, this is the good news to counter the torrent the bad news that has come the way of Wales this week.
Having both Parkes and Davies on the field is a major boost to fans, although they must remain tentative as Davies was originally named to start against France.
Gatland and Shaun Edwards have built a team that thrives when they are up against it and there is still the belief that they can make history. This is what has been said:
The Springboks will enter this game as firm favourites, but it must be noted that Wales have won five of the last six encounters between the two teams - and all four since the 2015 RWC.
They would have undoubtedly had injury problems in those past matches and there is no better coach than Gatland to get the best out of a team in whatever circumstances are dealt.
WATCH: Jim Hamilton discusses semi-finals weekend at the World Cup in the latest episode of Don't Mess With Jim
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You’ve got to look forward to next weekend more than anything too.
They really use this sorta system? Much smaller pool of bonus points available, that would mean they have far less impact. Interestingly you must be withen winning range/chance in France’s Top 14 league, rather that just draw territory, so 6 points instead of 7. Fairly arbitrary and pointless (something the NRL would do to try and look cool), but kinda cool.
I said it Nick’s and other articles, I’m not sure about the fixed nature of matchups in these opening rounds. For instance, I would be interested in seeing an improved ranking/prediction/reflection ladder to what we had last year, were some author here game so rejigged list of teams purely based of ‘who had played who’ so far in the competition. It was designed to analyze the ladder and better predict what the real order would be after the full round robin had completed. It needed some improvement, like factoring in historical data as well, as it was a bit skiwif, but it is the sort of thing that would give a better depiction of what sort of contests weve had so far, because just using my intuition, the matchups have been very ‘level appropriate’ so far, and were jet to get the other end of the spectrum, season ranked bottom sides v top sides etc.
Go to commentsAs a former rugby player, I spent 20 years as a specialist tackling coach in the AFL, SANFL, and Southern Football League. During this time, I was fortunate to be part of teams winning seven premierships. I believe there is a valuable place for cross-code coaching in these sports. I made many lifelong friends and enjoyed sharing knowledge and skills from different sporting backgrounds, which is encouraged at many elite levels.
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