Welsh coach Warren Gatland names unchanged squad for Samoa clash - Rugby News
Wales coach, Warren Gatland, has announced an unchanged side for their next clash of Rugby World Cup 2011 against Samoa on September 18, in Hamilton. Gatland revealed his 22-member unit on September 16 and told the media that he is retaining the previous
combinations for the upcoming match for their reasonably good performance against the Springboks.
The Welsh side gave a real tough time to the Springboks in their opening match of world showpiece and lost the match by just one points’ difference. Wales’ team which was trailing by 6-10 at the end of first half bounced back quite nicely into the match
and took a handy lead of 16-10 right after the break. They tackled many of the Boks attacks in the match but 65th minute try of Francois Hougaard proved fatal for them. Morne Steyn scored the conversion goal for Boks in the next minute and sealed
the victory for his side.
Wales played a well composed match against the defending champs South Africa. However, they missed two of the five penalty goals scoring opportunities that cost them an early defeat in the event.
Talking to the reporters about their forthcoming match against Samoa, Gatland said that his side would not repeat the same mistakes they made against Springboks. He added that, “We were extremely disappointed to lose last week against the Springboks, but
we did maintain momentum with aspects of the performance providing a host of positive points to take into Sunday's match against Samoa.”
He also said that, “There are one or two areas we know we need to work on but we are looking for much of the same from all involved. We could not fault the effort, passion and commitment of the players last week and we have simply said we are looking for
the same again against Samoa on Sunday.”
Wales’ squad for Samoa match:
Wales: 15 James Hook, 14 George North, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton (c), 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Alun Wyn Jones, 4 Luke Charteris, 3 Adam Jones, 2
Huw Bennett, 1 Paul James.
Replacements: 16 Lloyd Burns, 17 Gethin Jenkins, 18 Bradley Davies, 19 Andy Powell, 20 Tavis Knoyle, 21 Scott Williams, 22 Leigh Halfpenny.
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