State of the Nation: Much improved Wales make great strides at Rugby World Cup

David Skippers 02 Nov 2023 4:59 PM

Wales SON image RWC 2023.jpg — Wales head coach Warren Gatland and co-captain Jac Morgan.

Now that the dust has settled on another memorable Rugby World Cup, we bring you our State of the Nations pieces. Next up, it’s Warren Gatland’s Wales.

After a forgetful Six Nations campaign, in which they finished in fifth position, there was plenty of room for improvement for Wales as they headed into the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.

Despite losing legends of Welsh rugby like Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric, who both retired ahead of the World Cup, head coach Gatland did well to unearth new stars at the tournament, and they did brilliantly to advance to their fourth successful Rugby World Cup quarter-final where they eventually bowed out to Argentina.

Tournament summary

After their underwhelming Six Nations, Wales flew under the radar in the build-up to the World Cup, and they delivered some indifferent results in their warm-up matches – against England and South Africa – ahead of the global showpiece.

They went into their Pool C opener against Fiji as slight underdogs but came out on top in an eight-try thriller, which was one of the World Cup’s most entertaining matches.

Although they made a terrific start and held the upper hand for long periods, Fiji came back strongly during the latter stages of that game, but Wales managed to keep them at bay with a solid defensive effort and held on to clinch a 32-26 victory.

Their next clash was against minnows Portugal, and although Wales were expected to cruise to a comfortable victory, that wasn’t the case and they had to dig deep for victory and only secured a bonus-point in the game’s dying moments when Taulupe Faletau crossed for a try.

Next up, was the highly anticipated encounter against two-time World Cup winners Australia – a match in which Wales blew their opponents away with an outstanding all-round performance en route to a 40-6 triumph.

Pure joy 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿#RWC2023 | #WALvAUS pic.twitter.com/6CB4j6vR79

— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) September 24, 2023

That result all but secured them top position in their pool, and they finished off their group phase campaign in style courtesy of a 43-19 victory over Georgia – with Louis Rees-Zammit leading the way with a hat-trick of tries – which set them up nicely for their quarter-final with Argentina.

Wales approached that encounter with plenty of confidence, but although it was a tightly contested encounter, Los Pumas’ superior aerial game and breakdown dominance guided them to a 29-17 win. It meant that Wales’ World Cup journey had come to an end, but despite that, they can hold their heads high as a spot in the global showpiece’s play-offs is something which they looked like missing out on when they completed their Six Nations campaign.

Standout players

Gatland sprung a surprise in the build-up to the global showpiece when he announced Jac Morgan and Dewi Lake as the team’s co-captains, and while Lake’s tournament was hampered by a knee injury sustained in a warm-up match against England, Morgan had no such worries.

Despite coming into the World Cup with just 11 Test caps under his belt, the 23-year-old played with a maturity beyond his years as he led by example. Morgan caught the eye with outstanding all-round performances as he was in the thick of the action on attack, defence and at the breakdown, while his brilliant 50/22 kick in the win over Australia is something which will live on long in the memories of Wales supporters.

Amongst the other members in Wales’ squad, Louis Rees-Zammit also showed that he is set to play at international level for several years to come as he possesses an outstanding skill-set. The 22-year-old caught the eye with some excellent performances as he showed off his brilliance on attack, especially his finishing ability, which resulted in him finishing the tournament as one of the leading try-scorers with five tries scored, and his best performance came in the pool match against Georgia when he was rewarded with a well-taken hat-trick.

Where did Louis Rees-Zammit come from? 🤯⚡#RWC2023 | #WALvGEO pic.twitter.com/hauFgpLSmg

— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 9, 2023

Another player who highlighted his importance to the Welsh cause was Racing 92 second-row Will Rowlands, who made his mark with several outstanding performances at the coalface of his country’s forward efforts. Rowlands was a valuable source of possession in the lineouts but made his biggest contribution on defence, where he put in several big shifts throughout the competition. In fact, the 32-year-old made more tackles than any Welshman at the tournament (65).

Statistic leaders

Rowlands’ 65 tackles puts him in sixth position in that department for the entire competition, while Morgan is not too far behind in 11th spot with 61 hits made. Meanwhile, Rees-Zammit’s five tries saw him finishing in seventh position in the try-scoring charts.

As a team, Wales’ defence was a big part of their success, and they finished in fourth place for tackles made (835) during the competition. That was no mean feat as the teams who finished above them – South Africa, New Zealand and England – were all semi-finalists, who each played two matches more than them. Wales also finished seventh for points scored (160), eighth for offloads (38), 10th for clean breaks (28), seventh for both tries scored (19) and conversions (16).

Success story

Although the retirement of veterans like former skipper Jones and Tipuric – as well as Dan Biggar, who called time on his Test career after the World Cup – were setbacks, it was offset by the emergence of players like Morgan and Dafydd Jenkins and Sam Costelow who showed that they have the ability to emulate their aforementioned countrymen by representing Wales in the international arena for several years to come.

In the build-up to their World Cup campaign, Gatland revealed gruelling details of their training camp ahead of the global showpiece at The Green Mile army-style fitness camp in Cardiff. Their emphasis on improving their fitness played its part as it helped them reach the play-offs, and if they continue in this vein, it should also stand them in good stead during the Six Nations.

Main regret

Gatland and his charges were easily the best team in their pool and deservedly topped their pool after securing bonus-point victories in three out of four of their matches during that stage of the competition. That set them up nicely for the quarter-finals, and although they did well to push Los Pumas until the game’s closing stages, their discipline let them down in that match as they conceded a whopping 12 penalties to Argentina’s seven. If they want to be competitive during next year’s Six Nations, they will have to improve their discipline to achieve that goal.