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We can win the World Cup says Wales fullback Liam Williams

(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Liam Williams believes Wales can win the World Cup in Japan.

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The reigning Six Nations champions face a quarter-final showdown with France in Oita on Sunday.

Wales have beaten Les Bleus seven times in eight meetings since losing a controversial World Cup semi-final to them in 2011 when captain Sam Warburton was sent off.

Continue reading below…

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If they knock out France, it will be a semi-final appointment with South Africa or a resurgent Japan in Yokohama.

“There is only one thing we think we can do and that is win it,” Wales full-back Williams said.

“I wouldn’t say we’ve got the easy route. We’ve got France next, and we need to beat them to be looking at the bigger picture.

“I think we can go on and win it.

“Over the past 18 months, we’ve won the Six Nations and we’ve been away on a couple of these camps and it has all brought us in to one huge team.

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“I think that has been great for Wales and hopefully it is going to put us in really good stead.”

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Saracens star Williams would achieve a remarkable individual grand slam if Wales go on to be crowned world champions.

Already this year he helped Wales win the Six Nations title and the Grand Slam before being part of a Saracens team that landed the Heineken Champions Cup and Gallagher Premiership.

And he is enjoying every minute of the World Cup, which has been highlighted by hosts Japan winning their group with four successive wins, including memorable victories over Ireland and Scotland.

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“They were unbelievable – fair play to them,” added Williams, reflecting on the 28-21 win against Scotland two days ago.

“I thought the accuracy of their passing was unbelievable. We know it has been quite hot out here and sweaty, so the passing was unbelievable and they played with some real structure as well, which was just amazing. Scotland didn’t really have any answers.

“Some people try to play like that, some people like to kick a bit more. Japan like to keep the ball in hand.

“It depends what works for a team, I guess. But we were watching it in the changing rooms after the (Wales versus Uruguay) game, and it was unbelievable.”

For Williams and company, though, the immediate challenge is France, and beating a Six Nations rival that could set up a full-scale tilt at global glory.

“I think France have been playing really well,” he said.

“They have got some old heads in their team and they have a lot of experience as well. We will go on to the training pitch this week and work on the stuff that we will need to beat France.

“We’ve started a couple of our games quite well. Obviously against Australia we started really well in the first half but we dropped off. We need to start hard and keep that up for the whole game.”

RugbyPass World Cup city guide to Oita:

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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