Warren Gatland has insisted none of Wales’ rivals can have any complaints with the lopsided Rugby World Cup draw.
Wales will take on Argentina in Marseille on Saturday, with England taking on Fiji a day later at the Stade Velodrome. Ireland will play with New Zealand in Paris on Saturday, before France meet South Africa the next day in the capital.
The world’s four top-ranked teams will all clash in Paris, leaving the Marseille matches comprising lower-rated outfits.
Wales boss Gatland rejected suggestions of an easy ride through one half of the World Cup draw – claiming superior performance at the 2019 World Cup would have cut the issue for other teams.
“I just say to the other teams, they should have done better in the last World Cup shouldn’t they?” said Gatland.
“That is where the draw has come from. It’s not our fault that it happened. If teams had better performances and results from the last World Cup they would probably be in different pools.
“You didn’t hear us complaining in 2015 when we had Fiji, Australia and England in the same pool, we never complained about that. You are dealt the hand and you have just got to deal with it.”
Wales have been able to recall fit-again Dan Biggar to start at fly-half to face the Pumas, while Jac Morgan will captain the side and shift to blindside flanker in the absence of Taulupe Faleutau.
Faletau misses out after breaking his arm, with Aaron Wainwright at No 8 and Tommy Reffell at openside flanker.
Argentina boss Michael Cheika has branded Wales favourites for the Saturday clash. Wales head coach Gatland was nonplussed by the call, but also unfazed.
Asked if he was comfortable with Wales being labelled favourites, Gatland replied: “Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know where Michael has got that from, he’s probably trying to take some pressure off himself.
“We haven’t spoken about underdogs or favourites’ tags, we are just going through our own processes and working as hard as we can to make sure the preparation is right for Saturday.”
Wales team to face Argentina in Marseille
Starting XV: L Williams; L Rees-Zammit, G North, N Tompkins, J Adams; D Biggar, G Davies; G Thomas, R Elias, T Francis; W Rowlands, A Beard; J Morgan (capt), T Reffell, A Wainwright.
Replacements: D Lake, C Domachowski, D Lewis, D Jenkins, C Tshiunza, T Williams, S Costelow, R Dyer.
