Warren Gatland is prepared for what he believes will be the most closely fought World Cup yet and called on the media to keep writing off his Wales side, who are in a group with England and the winners of the previous two tournaments primarily hosted in Britain, Australia.
Gatland has had to replace three players since announcing his World Cup 31at the end of last month, including the wing Eli Walker, who had only come into the squad for Leigh Halfpenny following the Lion’s injury in the final warm-up match. Halfpenny had surgery on the ligament damage he suffered to his right knee against Italy and will be out for up to eight months.
“I am a great believer in being positive and not dwelling on the disappointment of losing players,” the Wales coach said. “If you do it affects the squad and your own preparation. You have to believe the other players can do a job and Eli’s is not the last injury we will pick up. I know we struggle sometimes with depth but we feel confident that we have a squad to do a job.
“I believe this is going to be the closest World Cup. There are a number of teams who need a bit of luck to get through the pools but everyone then has an opportunity. We did that in 2011 and we know how close we came to reaching the final. I think there are seven or eight teams who will fancy themselves if they make the last eight.
“Last autumn was the best the northern hemisphere had done against the southern hemisphere for a number of years, and at the end of the Six Nations we saw expansive rugby played. That was a real positive and I hope we see some hard grounds and good rugby.”
Wales open their campaign against Uruguay at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday, two days after England and Fiji kick off the tournament at Twickenham, a match Gatland and his squad will be watching closely before their meetings with the pair in a five-day spell from 26 September.
“It’s going to be tough for both sides,” Gatland said. “It will be a great occasion and it’s good that the World Cup is kicking off with a quality fixture. Fiji are a little bit of an unknown quantity but their performances in recent months suggest they are going to be a handful for any team. They haven’t come here to make up the numbers and you have to respect them for that.”
Gatland will announce his side to play Uruguay on Friday. He is set to omit a number of his frontline players in readiness for the bigger battles to come and by replacing Walker, a wing, with a wing-forward, Ross Moriarty, he is arming himself for the rest of the group.
“By pulling Eli out before Wednesday we have the option of calling him back if we pick up an injury later on,” Gatland said. “The medical opinion was he will be out for three or four weeks and we felt limited in terms of wing cover. We felt that as there was going to be pressure on the loose forwards in the coming weeks, Ross should come in. He was unlucky to miss out in the first place.”
Gatland does not share the opinion that the group will be decided on points difference. “Everyone is talking about that but our last game is against Australia so the other teams will know the permutations before we do. It is all about one game at a time and we just want to play well against Uruguay and win.
“If you [reporters] write us off as much as possible, which seems to be happening at the moment, that’s the best situation for a Wales team to be in. Those things galvanise us and make us stronger, so continue to do it.”
