Full-back Liam Williams and prop Samson Lee come back into the side after injury, while there are opportunities for wing Hallam Amos, fly-half Rhys Priestland and scrum-half Gareth Davies. “He will take a full part in training next week”.
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Six first-team regulars were rested but there were six injuries and Cory Allen, scorer of three tries, suffered a hamstring tear likely to end his World Cup.
“Sometimes those things galvanise us and make us stronger as a unit, so continue to do it. Please.” We’re only three days into the tournament and already people are growing exhausted of the constant input from the television match official. We have got to have four so we may have to make a hard decision to replace one of them.
Gatland said he welcomed being written off, claiming Wales – who play two of their pool games on home soil in Cardiff – are content the pressure of expectation is relieved due to the loss of a combined 78 caps of experience.
“I think that is good for the game”.
“I think we have to be respectful to Uruguay, we are expecting them to be a lot more organised than when we saw them play against Japan and Russian Federation “. That happens at this level.
“You don’t want to be the one up on the board on Monday morning for a defensive error, or you are going to have Shaun on your back for sure”.
“It was a very tough game, Uruguay made it tough for us right from the start”, Wales coach Warren Gatland told reporters.
Fiji is taking a positive approach in their so-called “pool of death”, which features hosts England, Rugby Championship winners Australia and Wales, as well as Uruguay.
“We’re satisfied to get first one under our belt and get a win”, Gatland said. “It’ll be great to swap jerseys with them”.
“We have Justin Tipuric and Sam Warbuton as well and if your back row is functioning well as a unit you have a pretty good chance of defending well”. Aaron Jarvis popped a rib cartilage so he was in quite significant pain.
Gatland – whose mood has not been helped by losing key kicker Leigh Halfpenny and halfback Rhys Webb to injury in the final warm-up Test against Italy – said of the South Americans: “I wouldn’t mind having them last”.
When asked on Friday if places in the side to face England were up for grabs this weekend, Gatland said: “Not really, no”.
DAN Lydiate is set to return to the Welsh starting line-up for the World Cup opener against Uruguay in Cardiff on Sunday (2.30).
“Shaun wants to improve us and his way of helping us is by embarrassing us!”
LUKE CHARTERIS: Looked frustrated at times, but he will be a major player for Wales moving forward throughout the World Cup – 6.
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Centre Williams will hope to add to the nine tries that he has scored for his country but he also knows that he needs to avoid the ire of defensive drill sergeant Edwards.
