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Wales have 'plenty to work on' ahead of Australia showdown

By PA
Taulupe Faletau/ PA

Taulupe Faletau has highlighted Wales’ sense of belief and confidence as they close in on a fourth successive Rugby World Cup quarter-final appearance.

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Australia’s defeat against Fiji means that Wales are four points clear at the top of Pool C.

They need a maximum of seven points from two more games – against the Wallabies next Sunday and then Georgia – to guarantee a last-eight spot as group winners.

And that would maintain their impressive record under head coach Warren Gatland of reaching the knockout phase in every World Cup campaign he has overseen.

“With the work we have done we are very confident in the group of what we can do,” number eight Faletau said.

“That is our approach going forward with each game – knowing the work we have put in and backing that.

“The togetherness we have built in that time together will put us in good stead.”

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While Wales are in total control of their World Cup destiny, Eddie Jones’ Australia have entered the last-chance saloon following a 22-15 loss to Fiji.

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It was Fiji’s first triumph against the Wallabies since 1954, and Australia are hovering on the brink of a pool stage exit for the first time.

When it comes to World Cup action, Wales and Australia are familiar rivals, having played each other seven times.

And while Australia lead that particular series 4-3, Wales have won three of the last four in all competitions.

Faletau added: “We have got to concentrate on ourselves. There will be a lot to work on from the Portugal game and we will look to make those improvements going into Australia.

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“With the time we have had together there is definitely belief within the group. In each game we believe we can get a result against any team on the day.

“We will take confidence from the two wins, but there is definitely plenty to work on going into Australia.”

Faletau, who has won 102 caps, is two games into his return from a calf muscle injury that ruled him out of Wales’ three-Test preparation schedule.

He highlighted an impressive display against Portugal by claiming Wales’ bonus-point touchdown, while he also made a try-saving tackle earlier in the contest.

A further step up from the 32-year-old can now be realistically expected, and Gatland said: “The more game-time he has and a string of games, he gets better.

“That is why, even with the short turnaround (between Fiji and Portugal) we wanted to give him some more rugby.

“I thought he did some really good things, and he will continue to get better with more rugby.”

Rugby World Cup

Pool A
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
France
2
2
0
0
8
2
New Zealand
2
1
1
0
5
3
Italy
1
1
0
0
5
4
Uruguay
1
0
1
0
0
5
Namibia
2
0
2
0
0
Pool B
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Ireland
2
2
0
0
10
2
South Africa
2
2
0
0
9
3
Scotland
1
0
1
0
0
4
Tonga
1
0
1
0
0
5
Romania
2
0
2
0
0
Pool C
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Wales
2
2
0
0
10
2
Fiji
2
1
1
0
6
3
Australia
2
1
1
0
6
4
Georgia
1
0
1
0
0
5
Portugal
1
0
1
0
0
Pool D
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
England
2
2
0
0
9
2
Samoa
1
1
0
0
5
3
Japan
2
1
1
0
5
4
Argentina
1
0
1
0
0
5
Chile
2
0
2
0
0
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J
JW 5 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

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