What a difference a win makes. Wales spent last week under siege conditions, fending off questions about their year so far, about their lowly ranking relative to their first opponents Fiji, even about the pre-match nerves of Warren Gatland, in Welsh rugby the most successful maestro of all. One bonus-point win later, they roll out an exciting young team and start talking about World Cup finals.
There is no doubting their World Cup pedigree of late: a semi-final, quarter-final and semi-final in the past three editions under Gatland, lost by margins of one, four and three points respectively. “I stated beforehand, don’t write us off,” said Gatland. “This team is capable of doing something special and I still believe that. For us it’s about one game at a time. We have done well in previous World Cups and would like to get to a final of a World Cup.”
After the controversial epic against Fiji on Sunday night in Bordeaux, Wales sit alongside Australia on maximum points at the top of Pool C. Fiji must now beat Australia in what will be another intense encounter this Sunday, but Wales can afford to turn over most of the team for their no-doubt-gentler assignment with Portugal in Nice. That said, Portugal are the highest-ranked “fifth” team in any of the pools, 16th in the world, one place above Uruguay. After Thursday night’s match in Lille, mighty France can tell you how good Uruguay are.
Gatland has made 13 changes, bringing in the other of his co-captains, Dewi Lake, for only his third start for Wales, his 10th cap overall. Lake, the 24-year-old hooker, was named as co-captain with Jac Morgan, who captained the side against Fiji. Lake was rested as a precaution for that game but now leads a team that look young and exciting.
Dan Lydiate, Taulupe Faletau and Leigh Halfpenny might be considered stalwarts of Wales’s outgoing generation, but the rest of the side bristles with young talent, guided by a half-back pairing of Goldilocks-zone experience – Tomos Williams, who wins his 50th cap, and Gareth Anscombe.
A couple of pairings will be of particular interest. In the centre, Johnny Williams and Mason Grady pose a physical challenge for the Portuguese, each man a punchy 17 stone or so, but perhaps the future for Wales will be best served by the partnership in the engine room.
Dafydd Jenkins and Christ Tshiunza are barely out of their teens, but Jenkins has already been touted as the next Alun Wyn Jones, while Tshiunza defies comparisons: a galloping, leaping athlete who could probably play a number of other positions – and not just in the back row, where he has also turned out for Wales. This will be his first start as a lock.
Both young men play their rugby at Exeter, both attend the local university. “It is still a bit weird,” said Tshiunza. “We are roommates as well, and sometimes we just lie in bed and look over at each other and say: ‘What are we doing here? To be 20-years-old, what have we done to deserve this?’”
Portugal roll out most of the side that earned qualification for this tournament with a 16-16 draw against USA in November last year. As if to prove that was no fluke, they beat them again 46-20 in the Algarve in August. This is their first match of this World Cup, having appeared at only one other, in 2007.
They are coached by Patrice Lagisquet, the imperious France winger of yore, once known as the Bayonne Express. Eleven of the starting team play their rugby professionally in France, although only one in the Top 14 – the hooker Mike Tadjer of Perpignan. The right-wing Vincent Pinto is one of four players to have played for France Under-20s. He won the world championship with them in 2019.
“Portugal are kind of a similar version of Fiji,” said Gatland. “They like to move the ball around.” If nothing else, Wales’s encounter with them should be easy on the eye.
