Rugby union: are Wales World Cup contenders?
Wales’s 13-6 victory over England may only have been a World Cup warm-up, said Paul Rees in The Observer. But it certainly “did not lack heat”. A week after losing to their arch-rivals, the “quickwitted” Welsh got their revenge in Cardiff: once again, they showed “how difficult they are to overcome when they are geared up for a scrap”. They limited England to just six points – the visitors’ lowest score in six years. It was Wales’s 15th victory in 16 matches; with less than a month to go before the World Cup starts in Japan, they are now back on top of the world rankings.
Despite their ranking, the Welsh aren’t favourites to win the tournament, said Robert Kitson in the same paper. Almost everyone is tipping the All Blacks to lift the trophy for the third time in a row. But Warren Gatland’s side should, at the very least, be considered “serious contenders”. They now have the “depth to bother all comers”, as well as talented youngsters: Aaron Wainwright, their 21-year-old flanker, could be one of the World Cup’s “breakout stars”. Tactically, Wales were “sharp as a tack” against England, said Ian McGeechan in The Sunday Telegraph. When they had the ball, their fly-half, Dan Biggar, “varied his game superbly”; when they didn’t they were even better, and “notably quicker to get back their defensive alignment than England” were. The whole performance was a defensive masterclass. England, by contrast, didn’t look anything like World Cup contenders, said Owen Slot in The Times. All they had to offer was their power game – and still they failed to “blow Wales away”. But they needn’t worry too much, because they wouldn’t dare to go into a key World Cup tie playing this way. It’s clear just how much better they can be – and that, in its way, is a “peculiar encouragement”.