What a difference a win makes. Wales spent last week under siege conditions, fending off questions about their year so far, about their lowly ranking relative to their first opponents Fiji, even about the pre-match nerves of Warren Gatland, in Welsh rugby the most successful maestro of all. One bonus-point win later, they roll out an exciting young team and start talking about World Cup finals.
There is no doubting their World Cup pedigree of late: a semi-final, quarter-final and semi-final in the past three editions under Gatland, lost by margins of one, four and three points respectively. “I stated beforehand, don’t write us off,” said Gatland. “This team is capable of doing something special and I still believe that. For us it’s about one game at a time. We have done well in previous World Cups and would like to get to a final of a World Cup.”
