Welsh in 'prime form' for Celtic crunch
Wales will face Ireland in Saturday’s World Cup quarterfinal buoyed by a lack of injuries to the squad, something that has forced rival stars Dan Carter and Frans Steyn to pull out of the tournament.
The Welsh have seemingly run into prime form and ended their pool play with a clinical 66-0 dismantling of a poor Fijian side.
“We’re looking pretty healthy, probably the healthiest we’ve been going into this week. It’s very promising in that area,” defence coach Shaun Edwards said of the Welsh injuries.
“It’s a nice change for us really, because we had to come over here without quite a few of our star players, so it makes a welcome change for us to be having a nice run with injuries.
“Over the last two or three years we’ve definitively had more than our fair share of injuries and it’s probably come at the right time that we have a lot of guys available.”
With the All Blacks coming to terms with the blow of losing Carter with a severe groin injury and the Springboks having lost the in-form Steyn to a shoulder problem, Edwards said injuries were to be expected.
“Every team realises now that in such a collision-based sport you are going to pick up injuries,” said the former Wigan and Great Britain Rugby League star.
“All coaches hope and pray that they are not going to get their star players injured, but percentages tell you you’re going to lose a star or a key player or two along the way.”
Edwards dubbed the Wellington quarterfinal against Ireland as a “50-50 game”.
“It’s pretty hard to pick the winner. They are two teams that have run into a bit of form, relatively injury-free.
“The Irish, after being criticised for their pre-World Cup form, are obviously running into some very strong form themselves.”
But he said both the Welsh and Irish players would take the quarterfinal in their stride, as used as they are to the knock-out nature of the European Cup.
“It’s just like a Heineken Cup situation where you have your group stages and then you’re into a sudden-death situation, so our guys are used to that, as are the Irish lads,” he said, adding he was left beaming by keeping Fiji scoreless.
“I was pleased with the lads because of their attitude really. The lads were really disappointed that we didn’t get a nil against Namibia,” Edwards said.
“There was an interception try that we gave away unfortunately and Stephen Jones has held his hand up and apologised.
“It’s very unusual to get a zero nowadays in rugby. To get a zero you have to shoot out to a quite convincing first-half lead otherwise people go for penalties.
“Fiji battled on to the end and did their best, but our line held strong until the end of the game.
“We got some good tackling practice in and because the game is a six-day turnaround, it’s not easy to get full-on contact sessions in when you’re training.”
AFP
