We’ve prepared well, are being the favourites sits
CENTRE Jonathan Davies and flyhalf Dan Biggar were named in the Wales starting line-up for tomorrow’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final against France.
Davies has recovered from a knee injury suffered against Fiji nine days ago, while fly-half Biggar has successfully followed return to play protocols following a head injury.
Wing George North has shaken off an ankle knock to also start, with Wales head coach Warren Gatland naming the same team that accounted for Pool D rivals Australia last month.
Here’s what Gatland had to say in his press conference...
Question: How close were the two centres to perhaps not making it?
Warren Gatland: Hadleigh Parkes took a full part in today’s session. That was the first time. He got a knock on the shoulder. Jonathan trained two days ago, so he was fit.
As a squad, we’re pretty happy really.
There are still a couple of sore bodies from the four games but we are in a good state.
Q: Dan Biggar has had two head knocks, is there any concern about him?
WG: We put out a statement explaining the process we have gone through. He felt better after the game. It was clear, so we made sure we consulted the right people.
We got him scanned and used an independent consultant. That was important. We feel that we’ve gone through the due diligence and covered all the bases.
He’s done all the protocols and been fit for three or four days. We’re taking all the precautions.
He’s desperate to play but we’ve been conscious in the past with George North, who had a few knocks.
If he gets a knock in the next couple of games or next couple of months, obviously there will be a different course of action.
But he’s very confident that he’s 100%.
Q: What are you expecting from France?
WG: They’ve only played three games in this tournament.
They’re a big, physical team. We’ve got a great record against them, won seven out of the last eight games against them. The one that we lost was the 100 minute game in Paris, when they scored in the last minute.
Having said that, they’ve always been close games but we go in with a lot of belief and a lot of self confidence.
We’re really excited about the game. The support that we’ve had in Japan has been phenomenal.
You see the number of red jerseys and the number of Japanese people that are supporting us. We feel like we’re playing at home a little bit.
The roof will be shut on Sunday, so the weather conditions shouldn’t deter from the rugby.
We’re feeling really positive about the way we have prepared.
We had a great training session this morning. There’s been an edge this week. The players have been incredibly professional in the way they’ve prepared.
Staff have done extra work to try and nail off every situation because we know we’re in the knockout stages.
The message to the players has been ‘we have two choices here, we’re either on the plane on Monday going home or we’re here until the end of the tournament.
Q: The pressure is really on now, it’s do or die, do you see a side that loves that pressure? WG: I wouldn’t be using words like do or die. I think it’s a bit sensitive at the moment, given what’s happened in the last few weeks.
It’s just another game of rugby but we know how important it is.
We’re very focused on wanting to go out there and stay in this tournament.
There is a lot of confidence in this squad. We feel we haven’t given an 80 minute performance yet. We’ve been good in patches.
We’ve been building nicely this week. We’ve had three really good sessions.
Anything could happen in international rugby If you’re good enough, then you win the games.
If the other team plays better than you, then you lose.
We’re in a good place and we’re really positive about the way we prepared. We go into this game with a lot of confidence.
Q: Four years ago you had a lot of injuries, this time you’re fully fit, are you confident you can handle the favourites tag? WG: I think we’ve been doing that Michael Cheika said we were favourites against Australia and we handled that.
That comes with the territory of building and being confident.
For us, you take out the World Cup warm-up games, we’ve won 18 competitive games in a row, we’re Grand Slam champions.
We know we get stronger as tournaments wear on and we get more confident, more cohesive.
We’re building nicely but we still feel like we’re going in under the radar.
There’s a lot more talk about other teams and other games. That suits us.
But there’s a lot of belief and a lot of self confidence within our group.
Q: What have you learned from your previous experiences of knockout rugby at World Cups? WG: I haven’t learned anything really. You win them, you go on, you lose them you go home!
You’ve got to come with a gameplan, in which the players are very aware of what you’re trying to create.
We’ve done that in the past. Look back to 2011 (quarter-final) and Ireland went in as big favourites, but the way that we prepared for that was with a gameplan to shut Ronan O’Gara’s kicking down.
You have to bring things that are different, things teams aren’t expecting.
We’ve prepared well for this game. It’s about going in and making sure you’re systematically trying to break down an opposition with the way that you’ve prepared and planned the game.
Those are the sorts of things that you refer back to and your experience from the past in other games.
Often, it’s games that you’ve lost that are more significant for helping you prepare as coaches for a game.
We’re aware of France’s individual threats. They’re a big side, their offloading game.
But then they are the team who have given up the most turnovers in the competition and they’ve played one game less.
So there may be opportunities from turnovers but they have some very key individuals.
Defensively, Shaun’s been a little bit more on edge this week. I’m not sure why!
He’s pretty pumped up from a defensive point of view and we’ve been working hard defensively.
He wasn’t too happy with conceding a try against Uruguay and he let the players know pretty clearly in the changing rooms afterwards.
But we’ve trained well and we’ve prepared extremely well. We go into this game with a lot of confidence.
Q: What are you best and worst memories of playing against France?
WG: The worst memory is the World Cup semi-final in 2011. The best memory? I’m not sure... This Sunday?