Warren Gatland says Wales are in a ‘good place’ after reporting he has all his 33 players available for crunch World Cup opener against Fiji
- Wales boss Warren Gatland has no injury concerns ahead of World Cup opener
- Taulupe Faletau expected to be fit to face Fiji after recovering from a calf injury
- Latest Rugby World Cup 2023 news, including fixtures, live scores and results
The heavy police presence as Wales trained at Stade de Porchefontaine on a sweltering Tuesday afternoon on the outskirts of Paris seemed a touch excessive.
Perhaps Warren Gatland’s side know trouble is around the corner. The thing is, the French authorities won’t be able to help Wales against Fiji in Bordeaux on Sunday.
What will be of assistance to their head coach is a fully fit squad. After a summer of injury worries – particularly surrounding key No 8 Taulupe Faletau – Gatland has all 33 of his players available for his team’s Pool C opener.
‘Everyone is fit,’ said Gatland in Versailles, after coming straight from the Wales training pitch where temperatures touched 33 degrees.
‘It’s a positive place for us to be in. We’ve worked incredibly hard over the last few months. We’ve been preparing well for Fiji in the last couple of weeks. I think we’re in a good place.
Wales boss Warren Gatland has no injury concerns ahead of their World Cup opener
‘I’m really looking forward to this. It’s my fifth World Cup. We (Wales) have made a couple of semi-finals and it would be nice to go one better.’
Faletau missed all three of Wales’ World Cup warm-up fixtures with a calf injury, but his return to fitness means he is now likely to be pitched straight back into action against Fiji.
His fellow summer injury concerns Gareth Anscombe, Dewi Lake, Ryan Elias and Dafydd Jenkins all trained on Tuesday too.
Co-captain and hooker Lake did have strapping on his knee. So too did full-back Liam Williams. But that is not a concern for Gatland.
‘He’s been taking a full part in training for the past three weeks,’ he said, referring to Faletau.
‘He’s done a lot of off-feet conditioning. They (the fitness team) have worked him incredibly hard and he’s definitely in contention for the weekend.’
Versailles school children climbed trees to get a glimpse of Wales training, the youngsters given a more light-handed approach than the assembled journalists.
Wales have a tight security system around them here. It felt unnecessary. Gatland will be hoping his team keep Fiji as tightly boxed in. It promises to be a difficult challenge.
Taulupe Faletau is expected to be fit to face Fiji after recovering from a calf injury
Fresh from a first victory over England at Twickenham last month, Fiji are full of beans. The Pacific Islanders are hugely dangerous and now seem to have a semblance of control to go with the attacking panache and undoubted flair they’ve always had. Gatland acknowledged as much.
‘I thought they were excellent at Twickenham,’ said Gatland, who watched Fiji down England live. ‘They’ve got some great athletes. We’re aware of that. They’re a lot more structured now as a team than they traditionally have been in the past in terms of their exiting and kicking game.
‘The weather conditions weren’t brilliant at Twickenham, but they kicked 27 times which is pretty high for a Fijian side. They’ve got individuals who can break the game open.
‘At some point, we know they’ll do that. It’s about how we scramble and get back.
‘They’ve always had world-class individual athletes who could open up a game. But bringing that organisation and structure makes them more dangerous.
‘We’ve got to impose our game on them as well. It’s going to be an exciting challenge.’
Temperatures across France are set to remain in the mid-thirties for the opening round of World Cup matches, even for those which take place in the evening with local kick-off times of 9pm.
Wales against Fiji falls into that category. World Rugby will make a call on whether drinks breaks midway through each half will be implemented to protect player welfare in the heat.
Fiji will be full of confidence following a first victory over England at Twickenham last month
While Gatland said he would not contest whatever decision the game’s governing body makes, he did point out his preference would be for them not to happen. Why?
‘We would like the ball on the park as often as we could,’ he said. ‘We think we’re in pretty good shape physically.’
Wales feel they are in supreme condition when it comes to fitness – something which was a trademark characteristic of the sides Gatland took to World Cup semi-finals in 2011 and 2019.
The current heat in France is not a worry for them given their summer preparation camps were in Switzerland and boiling Turkey.
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