Every team came to the Rugby World Cup with a lofty goal.
Some were overly ambitious — Australia.
Some wanted respect — Italy.
Some wanted to say they’re here — Chile.
Every team stated they wanted to win one game at least.
Except Wales.
Wales came to France not with a determination to win, but a determination not to lose. The Welsh mantra is: We want to be hard to beat.
Four teams have tried to beat them and four teams have failed. Next up is Argentina in the quarterfinals on Saturday in Marseille.
Wales coach Warren Gatland says confidently, “We’re not ready to go home yet.”
Most thought they would be home by now. Wales was in turmoil from the start of the year. Female employees accused the union of sexism and discrimination. Players threatened to strike over contracts. Wales won just once in the Six Nations. Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Rhys Webb retired unexpectedly. Team captain Ken Owens withdrew with another sore back. Gatland said if he’d known about all of the problems he wouldn’t have returned to take charge of Wales a second time last December.
But he also said at the time that he welcomed the pessimism about Wales’ chances at the Rugby World Cup. “There’s nothing the Welsh boys love better than being written off,” Gatland said in June. “They tend to respond to that.”
The response has been far from pretty but very effective. After driving a low-spirited squad through his infamous boot camps, Gatland has hitched Wales to an easily followed plan of not playing in their half, applying pressure at the other end from reliably strong set-pieces, and laying bodies on the line in a steely defense.
They were lucky to beat Fiji, crushed a clueless Australia, and earned routine wins against Portugal and Georgia to top Pool C.
“We’re not surprised where we are, top of the group,” Gatland says. “A line in the sand was drawn under (the troubles in the first half of the year) and if we can make the semifinals it would be a huge achievement for this group who have done a great job. I know there are some people in some teams out there who won’t want to face a Wales team when they start playing with confidence and start having momentum. That is when we are at our most dangerous, and we are starting to look that way.”
Dan Biggar is fit to start after a pectoral injury. With the exit of the injured Taulupe Faletau, Gatland has paired Tommy Reffell and captain Jac Morgan, playing two openside flankers like he did in the 2015 run to the semifinals with captain Sam Warburton and Tipuric.
Argentina has dealt with its own major loss of Pablo Matera by calling in back-rower Facundo Isa and scrumhalf Tomas Cubelli, two of their nine survivors from the 2015 quarterfinal win against Ireland.
The Pumas have been underwhelming in France. After starting with a deer-in-the-headlights loss to 14-man England, they have improved in tough wins against Samoa and Japan. Their scrum is vulnerable, their attack is predictable, but the pack loves to grind, their discipline is tight, and Emiliano Boffelli is a world-class goalkicker.
“We know Wales are favorites, everyone’s made that point to us bar our Argentine supporters,” Pumas coach Michael Cheika says.
“We know that we’re going to have to do something different, something special to be competitive with them. I’m a huge believer in our team. I love the fellas, they’re always together, they’re very committed, and I know they’ll really enjoy this occasion.”
Cheika is enjoying his own remarkable run. A year ago, he coached Lebanon to the quarterfinals of the Rugby League World Cup and a week later watched the Pumas lose to Wales 20-13 in Cardiff. It was the fourth time in eight meetings a Gatland-coached team beat him. He’s drilled the Pumas on what to expect at Stade Velodrome.
“It is important we know how to attack because they are a team that likes to defend,” Cheika says. “We have to be intelligent, dynamic, be clear about each one’s role and have continuity in our attack. It is an important challenge to be consistent. In these types of games it is very important how we come back from difficult situations and mistakes. Because there are going to be mistakes, both on our own and due to our opposition’s merit.”
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Lineups:
Wales: Liam Williams, Louis Rees Zammit, George North, Nick Tompkins, Josh Adams, Dan Biggar, Gareth Davies; Aaron Wainwright, Tommy Reffell, Jac Morgan (captain), Adam Beard, Will Rowlands, Tomas Francis, Ryan Elias, Gareth Thomas. Reserves: Dewi Lake, Corey Domachowski, Dillon Lewis, Dafydd Jenkins, Christ Tshiunza, Tomos Williams, Sam Costelow, Rio Dyer.
Argentina: Juan Cruz Mallia, Emiliano Boffelli, Lucio Cinti, Santiago Chocobares, Mateo Carreras, Santiago Carreras, Tomas Cubelli; Facundo Isa, Marcos Kremer, Juan Martin Gonzalez, Tomas Lavanini, Guido Petti, Francisco Gómez Kodela, Julian Montoya (captain), Thomas Gallo. Reserves: Agustín Creevy, Joel Sclavi, Eduardo Bello, Matias Alemanno, Rodrigo Bruni, Lautaro Bazan Velez, Nicolas Sanchez, Matías Moroni.
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