Gatland's men get lesson in finishing

AS distressing dress rehearsals go, this one leaves a wishful Wales pinning their faith in the old showbiz dictum that ‘It’ll be all right on the night’.

- PETER JACKSON

 

The night in question, for so long a distant date on a faraway horizon, is now the next match: Fiji in Bordeaux three weeks today, a fixture guaranteed to raise anxiety levels throughout a Red Dragon brotherhood all too aware of what happened when France last hosted the World Cup.

There is a lot to be put right and precious little time in which to do it if history is not to repeat itself on the opening weekend, a match of such importance that it will either send Wales sailing off on a voyage towards the semi-finals or leave them in danger of being scuttled by the South Pacific champions as they were in Nantes 16 years ago.

Nagging questions abound, most ominously those prompted by the continuing absence of Taulupe Faletau and Gareth Anscombe. Neither has been deemed fit for action since both appeared on the same Cardiff-Ospreys stage at the end of last season, four long months ago.

Other questions will have kept the Welsh management agonising long into the night over their final 33: questions over the scrummaging amid further set-piece fractures exposed by the Boks, questions over the balance of the back row.

The faithful who keep coming in vast numbers will have gone home asking questions of their own, not least over the damaging magnitude of the result. Anyone looking at the line-ups knew a Welsh team with too many Test novices would take a beating but few feared it would be one of the most severe ever witnessed in Cardiff.