Wales reach for the sky against the muchfancied Springboks
Reach for the sky promises to be the theme of Wales’s semi-final against South Africa with neither side disposed to take risks in their own half. They both pride themselves on going the distance and not being physically dominated and what is expected to be the tightest of contests is more likely to be decided by a mistake rather than a moment of brilliance.
Every Wales player who has been on media duty this week has said the same thing, following the lead taken by their head coach, Warren Gatland. The quarter-final victory over France was notable for the result rather than the performance and a repeat against the Springboks will result in a flight home next Saturday rather than an appearance in the final.
“France were the better team on the day and the match was decided by a red card,” said the Wales prop Tomas Francis whose battle up front against Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira will be one of the key individual contests. “We stuck in there and while we were not too happy with the performance, we are not dwelling on it but making sure we step up as a pack.
“We were not good enough against France. We let them outmuscle us a bit and we were not pleased. A lot of it is about attitude and we showed that, especially when Ross [Moriarty] received a yellow card shortly after coming on. We stayed strong and we know the threats South Africa will pose.”
Wales made three changes from the team that defeated France through Moriarty’s late try. Two were enforced with Josh Navidi’s tournament ending that afternoon when he suffered a hamstring injury while Liam Williams damaged ankle ligaments in training this week after colliding with a teammate.
Moriarty replaces Navidi while Leigh Halfpenny takes over from Williams at full-back. The Lions centre Jonathan Davies, who pulled out last week because he felt he had not fully recovered from the knee injury he sustained against Fiji in the third round, resumes his partnership with Hadleigh Parkes.
“When you have a player of Leigh’s ability and achievement coming into the side it shows the strength in depth that we have built up,” said Francis. “The same with Ross in the back row. South Africa beat us in the last World Cup with a try late on in the quarterfinal and we have not forgotten that.”
Gatland predicted at the start of the year that Wales would win the Six Nations, which they did. He then said he believed they were good enough to lift the World Cup. His players are two matches away from proving him right.
“Winning the World Cup is one of the things you have to dream about and I am probably the greatest optimist in terms of believing something is poss