Put your big boy pants on

ROB PAGE admits Wales deserve criticism for their World Cup woes and has urged his stars to put their “big boy pants on”.

Wales’ first World Cup since 1958 has been a big letdown and they prop up Group B with only one point.

The Dragons now need to secure their first win over England since 1984 to give them any chance of reaching the last 16.

But they have been boosted by a number of shocks in this tournament and will look to follow suit tonight.

Dragons boss Page (inset) said: “My frustration and disappointment is that we’ve shown nowhere near the levels of performance that have got us to this World Cup.

“We’re all getting criticism now and rightly so. We’re big enough to take it – it’s not a problem.

“We put our big boy pants on and get on with it. We want to react in a positive manner and I’ll pick a team that’ll go out and give everything to the cause.

“We don’t look back at stats like when was the last time Wales beat England. I think this tournament has shown every team is beatable.” Wales have only played well for 45 minutes, in the second half against USA as they fought back to earn a 1-1 draw, but any hope of building on that momentum vanished in a dire loss against Iran.

Page added: “We didn’t turn up and Iran were up for it.

“They rose to the challenge and we didn’t. We crumbled under a bit of pressure maybe, I don’t know.

“Now we’ve got to be ready for England.

“We have had a couple of days’ prep and there’s no excuses.”