Warren Gatland made sure media attention was focused on the positive rather than the negative when naming his 31-man squad for the World Cup. The Wales head coach had made headline-hogging omissions in mid-August but there were no personnel surprises when making his final cut.
Gatland had to drop seven players from the squad and those he omitted had 19 caps between them compared with the 210 of the three Lions – Mike Phillips, Richard Hibbard and James Hook – he had released less than three weeks before. The focus this time was on who was in rather than who was out and the one left-field inclusion was the Bristol fly-half Matthew Morgan, who was named as a back-three option.
At 5ft 8in and 11st 7lb, Morgan is some way removed from the bulky backs Gatland has favoured, and while his inclusion should not be interpreted as a departure from the overtly physical approach that Wales have adopted this decade – one that brought them victory against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday – but evidence of a plan B. “He has a bit of x factor, which is important, and can cover a few positions,” Gatland said. “We have a nice balance between physicality and skill.”
Another talking point was Gatland’s decision to select, like group rivals Australia, two hookers rather than the customary three. Injuries in the second row prompted him to name five locks – the ones carrying injuries being Alun Wyn Jones, who captained the side in Dublin but suffered medial ligament damage to his left knee in Dublin and will not play until the 26 September Pool A game against England, Luke Charteris (back and neck strains), and Bradley Davies, who was making his first appearance for nearly six months on Saturday.
“Alun has enough rugby behind him and enough experience that he will rock up on the day against England,” Gatland said. “If we have an injury in the second row, we might call in a hooker as the replacement. We could end up in an awkward spot at hooker having gone for two if one gets injured and a discussion we will have with them is that, if they miss a game, they may be out of the squad. I promise you we will not make up injuries because that’s not fair on any player and I’d never do that. We know we are a bit exposed but we are close to home with two of our games in Cardiff and we can call on players.”
While Wales have a settled team, they lack the strength in depth of their main group opponents, England and Australia, something Gatland acknowledged in making some observations about the tournament hosts who announced their 31 for the World Cup last week.
“It must have been tough on England’s coaches because the strength in depth they have is massive,” he said. “I’d love to have the luxury of leaving out Luther Burrell, a player who has caused us problems in the pastt. They are going to miss Dylan Hartley. Where England have been good in the past couple of years is with the impact coming off the bench, but looking at their squad I am not sure they are going to have that same luxury. They have got the problem of which way they want to play and who they want to play.
“Who will they have at nine and 10? Who are they going to play in midfield? What will be the make-up of their back row? It seems they need Geoff Parling to call their line-outs, so who partners him and who comes off the bench? We are much more settled and more comfortable with the experience and combinations we have. They have some world-class players and a depth I would love to have, but they are not 100 sure of where they are going. On the day, we are both capable of beating each other.”
Wales will be led by the flanker Sam Warburton, as they were in the 2011 World Cup. He missed the Dublin win because of a shoulder injury but expects to be fit for selection for Saturday’s final warm-up match against Italy at the Millennium Stadium having at one point feared he would be ruled out of the tournament.
“I got hit in a tackle in training and was hit on the point I had suffered nerve damage twice before,” said Warburton. “I was worried because the other two occasions I had the same injury I was out for two or three months. I was panicking for a few days because you never know with nerve damage, but it settled down quickly. We have a lot more experience than we did four years ago with a number of leaders in the team and we will need that in a tough group. Getting out of it will probably take as much effort as it did to make the semi-finals in 2011.”
Gatland expects the prop Samson Lee, who had an achilles tendon operation last March, to be fit for the opening game against Uruguay, but the wing Liam Williams, who had foot surgery in June, is giving more cause for concern. It may be that Wales, after opting for a 17-14 split between forwards and backs and naming six back-three players, will swell their contingent at hooker should Williams be ruled out.
