BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) – Victory for Wales over Fiji has opened a pathway to possibly emulating their semi-final place at the last Rugby World Cup even if they have had a horror year and arrived at the tournament without much expectation.
In a thriller in Bordeaux on Sunday, the Welsh held on for a slender 32-26 win over Fiji in their Pool C opener which effectively clears the way for them to move through the group phase and onto next month’s knockout stages.
“I think it’s pretty significant for us. Fiji had probably gone into the game as favourites and with everyone expecting them to win,” said coach Warren Gatland, reflecting on a fortunate escape as Fiji missed out on a last gasp score that could have handed them victory when Semi Radradra knocked on with the tryline in sight.
Australia are the other Tier 1 nation in the pool and fancied to advance with the pre-tournament expectation that either Fiji or Wales would take the other qualifying spot. Georgia and Portugal are the other teams in the group but not expected to make any impact.
Wales are therefore on track for a quarter-final meeting with one of the top two finishers in Pool D, which barring any upsets should be Argentina and England.
England are one of two teams that Wales managed to beat in eight internationals played this year before the World Cup. Although it is still a long way off, the Welsh could be eyeing a semi-final spot thanks to Sunday’s success in Bordeaux.
This is despite a year of mediocre returns as they lost four of five games in the Six Nations and two of their three World Cup warm-up internationals.
“What I’m pleased about is some really positive stuff, but some really good learnings for a group of young players,” added Gatland, who returned to the Wales job in December.
“We’ve always been a team that build on confidence and get better in tournaments. So that’s exciting,”
Gatland had taken them to the 2019 World Cup semi-final where they narrowly lost to eventual winners South Africa.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
