‘We’ve gone for a strong side, we want to continue good run’
WARREN Gatland has gone for 13 Grand Slam-winning stars in his side to face England in their first Rugby World Cup warm-up this weekend.
After the team news was announced, Gatland was on hand to discuss injury concerns, how close he is to deciding his final 31-man squad and how he’s treating Wales’ four warm-ups in his pre-match press conference.
Here’s everything the Wales boss had to say...
Warren, you’ve picked a very strong side, England have a different tactic...
Question: Warren Gatland:
number of things.
We’re trying to build on the run of form we’ve got. From a confidence point of view, we’re stressing that.
These first two games, we play on Sunday and then we have a six-day turnaround, which replicates the first two games of the Rugby World Cup. That’s good preparation for us. This is our first game of three before we name our squad. England are in a different scenario as they name theirs on Monday. I presume Eddie knows a large contingent of his squad and it’s a chance for others to stake a claim on Sunday.
It’s a landmark game for Alun Wyn Jones, sum up his value to Wales...
In the last 12 months, he’s done an outstanding job as captain of the side.
He’s a player that led incredibly well by example and his attitude during the Six Nations.
He’s recognised worldwide as one of the best in his position. He thoroughly deserves that.
The bigger the occasion, the bigger the challenge, the more he seems to thrive.
He’s comfortable in the position he’s in at the moment and he deserves the accolades that are thrown his way.
Q: WG:
For us, there are a
What I like about him at the moment is his calmness and the respect he has from the other players.
Also, his ability to allow other senior players in the team to express themselves and have a voice.
The squad’s in a really good position at the moment, it’s healthy and there’s a lot of confidence.
How do you plan on using the four warm-up games?
We’ve had a plan for the last two years and we haven’t deviated from it.
There’s a good chance that we may back up a lot of those players next week as well.
Then give some players an opportunity against Ireland before we announce the squad.
We told the squad last Wednesday, so these guys have had nine days together knowing what the team was, which has been good for their preparation.
We’ve tried to be extremely transparent in terms of telling the players exactly what our thoughts are, what our plan was, what the breakdown of the final 31 would look like.
There were no surprises for the squad and that’s been positive in terms of how they’ve responded to that.
How close are you to deciding 31 man squad and how much bearing will the warm-up games have?
They’ll have a huge bearing. If you gave a piece of paper to everyone in this room and the whole squad, they could probably write down 23 or 24 players who had a good chance of making it.
That’s completely understandable given where we are at the moment and players that have delivered for us.
But there are those fringe players, ones coming back from injury, that will
Q: WG: Q: WG:
get an opportunity through training and probably that home game against Ireland.
We’re in a different situation to England.
We’ve been pretty settled. We’re trying to get the balance right building on the confidence we’ve created.
It’s not always about trying a new combination and breaking up successful ones. It’s about continuing to build the momentum. That’s been a big part of our mindset.
How much of a blow was Taulupe Faletau’s injury and were you tempted to protect Ross Moriarty?
It was disappointing for him. He still had some work to do, he was catching up.
He hadn’t been with us for a while so there was still some work to do from a conditioning perspective but he had made some good progress.
But it’s disappointing. You get a player who had hardly ever been injured in Wales and then he leaves and he gets injuries.
You’ve got to feel for Toby. He showed a couple of signs of his real class in training.
We may pick up a few more injuries. There’s a good chance that Tomos Williams may not be on the bench on Sunday. He got a shoulder knock in training today. I don’t know the extent of that but it would probably rule him out of Sunday.
That would mean Aled Davies would come on the bench.
We originally picked Cory Hill in the second row but his ankle is a little bit tight and we decided it wasn’t worth the risk.
If we feel we need to protect some players then we’ll do that.
Fingers crossed that we don’t pick up too many injuries going forward, we’re bound to get one or two more but hopefully not too many.
How are the players who were coming back from injury?
Q: WG: Q: WG:
Aaron Shingler is good, he’s been in full training for a few weeks.
Josh Navidi had been troubled by a hamstring injury and is back in full training today.
We’ve been looking after James Davies, who’s had issues with the back. We’ve got a few niggles but most players are pretty much up and running. Samson Lee has a hamstring issue. Rob Evans has a shoulder and a neck irritation.
Hopefully they’ll come into consideration over the next couple of weeks.
We’re trying to be smart about players we expose but also trying to manage some others.