‘I’d just say to the other teams they should have done better in the last World Cup’
Wales head coach Warren Gatland looks on as Dan Biggar kicks the ball during a training session at Stade Felix Mayol in Toulon on Thursday. Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA Wire, the head coach has also taken aim at critics of the tournament draw, suggesting one or two sides with tough last-eight fixtures have only themselves to blame.
Gatland agrees with those who believe the draw should not have been conducted almost three years in advance but is not about to apologise that it might now be favouring Wales. “Whether the people in control of that next time can put the pools together a bit later, that’s up to them. We can’t change what’s been done. All I can say, we were in control of what we’re doing.
Sitting in a basketball arena in the port city of Toulon, he was also happy enough to lob a calculated message or two in the direction of Argentina’s head coach, Michael Cheika, who has suggested Wales are favourites for Saturday’s game in Marseilles. Wales will field 14 of the starting side that defeated Australia and Fiji in the pool stages, with the exception of the injured Taulupe Faletau, with the backrow contest looming as pivotal.
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