Welsh World Cup Squad

First topic message reminder :

Dragons not playing until tomorrow and quiet on here so just wondered what early thoughts are on the Welsh WC squad.  I think a lot of it will pick itself unless injury or shock retirements dictate.  I have gone with a 30 man squad 16/14 forwards/back split same as last world cup so here's my thought.

Here's the 47 man Training Squad, Players in bold are the ones I think are already inked in:

Props (5) JENKINS,JAMES,LEE, Evans, Francis, Jarvis, Andrews
Hookers (3) BALDWIN,OWENS, Dacey
2 Row (3) AWJ, CHARTERIS, Ball, Davies, Day
Backrow (5) FALETAU, WARBURTON, LYDIATE, TIPURIC,Moriarty, King

No9s (3) WEBB, Davies, Ll Williams
No10s (3) BIGGAR, PRIESTLAND, Anscombe, Morgan
Centres (3) ROBERTS, Sc WILLIAMS, Morgan, Allen
Back 3 (5) NORTH, HALFPENNY, Li WILLIAMS, Cuthbert, Walker, Amos, James (Then 2 from Cuthbert, Amos, Walker) For me Cuthbert and Amos

As I said the ones in Bold are the ones I feel are already pencilled in to go. Updated squad as we stand now

Fanster wrote:

ScarletSpiderman wrote:No Fanster, because I predicted your response before you posted it

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:

Fanster wrote:Morgan, Dixon and Amos will all more than likely be held back by the Dragons, not playing top euro rugby and not playing with any players of any real quality.

Which is sad, as they are all potentially international standard, they just need to move to bigger clubs who can bring that talent through.

What like Lydiate and Faletau have been held back you mean.

Oooh I can predict the answer to that "Lydiate has left the Dragons because they were holding him back, and Faletau is looking to do the same thing.  So yes the Dragons have held them back" (this is not my view point, but just the expected reply to your post).

Stay in the pack buddy, it's warm and you won't have to explain yourself...

Hey how did you know I used to be a lock??

SS .

munkian wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:Lydiate hasn't exactly pulled up trees in France. If Faletau moves to Bath he'll be playing with some cracking back rowers though.

Though hes done well at the Ospreys

Brain fart, had it in my head he was still over there.

I didn't realise until earlier that the squad is being cut to the 31 man squad after the Ireland game.

So I am guessing we will see a very mix n match squad for that game with the players Gatland see as on the fringe of getting in given one last chance.

Switzerland? Why not the Beacons?
Must be costing a blydi fortune just so they can run up and down and back up again.

Cardiff Dave wrote:Switzerland? Why not the Beacons?
Must be costing a blydi fortune just so they can run up and down and back up again.

Altitude training Dave. The Beacons isn't exactly high, so no use.

Griff wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:Switzerland? Why not the Beacons?
Must be costing a blydi fortune just so they can run up and down and back up again.

Altitude training Dave.  The Beacons isn't exactly high, so no use.

Nor are there facilities there or a decent climate to train in.

Plus people keep getting hit by lightening there.

Plus its in Wales - most teams will train away from their home nation pre world cup

Apart from that like...

munkian wrote:

Griff wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:Switzerland? Why not the Beacons?
Must be costing a blydi fortune just so they can run up and down and back up again.

Altitude training Dave.  The Beacons isn't exactly high, so no use.

Nor are there facilities there or a decent climate to train in.

Plus people keep getting hit by lightening there.

Plus its in Wales - most teams will train away from their home nation pre world cup

Interesting article.....

"Altitude training: Challenging conventional wisdom"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/world_olympic_dreams/9432880.stm

Cardiff Dave wrote:

munkian wrote:

Griff wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:Switzerland? Why not the Beacons?
Must be costing a blydi fortune just so they can run up and down and back up again.

Altitude training Dave.  The Beacons isn't exactly high, so no use.

Nor are there facilities there or a decent climate to train in.

Plus people keep getting hit by lightening there.

Plus its in Wales - most teams will train away from their home nation pre world cup

Interesting article.....

"Altitude training: Challenging conventional wisdom"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/world_olympic_dreams/9432880.stm

I think the Welsh team are using a differing method to this though, called LH TL, in which they recover only at altitude and train as intense as possible nearer sea level.

Mainly based on Millets (2010) recomendations, it should target Hypoxic Ventilator response until acclimatisation, in which Muscle and ATP capacity are increased.

If I have that right, and thats what they are actually doing, I know of only 1 other nation who has used this method, South Africa went to Kenya in recent years I think.

Cardiff Dave wrote:Switzerland? Why not the Beacons?
Must be costing a blydi fortune just so they can run up and down and back up again.

Warren Gatland = The Grand Old Duke of York.

Fanster wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

munkian wrote:

Griff wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:Switzerland? Why not the Beacons?
Must be costing a blydi fortune just so they can run up and down and back up again.

Altitude training Dave.  The Beacons isn't exactly high, so no use.

Nor are there facilities there or a decent climate to train in.

Plus people keep getting hit by lightening there.

Plus its in Wales - most teams will train away from their home nation pre world cup

Interesting article.....

"Altitude training: Challenging conventional wisdom"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/world_olympic_dreams/9432880.stm

I think the Welsh team are using a differing method to this though, called LH TL, in which they recover only at altitude and train as intense as possible nearer sea level.

Mainly based on Millets (2010) recomendations, it should target Hypoxic Ventilator response until acclimatisation, in which Muscle and ATP capacity are increased.

If I have that right, and thats what they are actually doing, I know of only 1 other nation who has used this method, South Africa went to Kenya in recent years I think.

Refers to that in the article ie live high (for 28 days), train low. The squad is training high though at the moment I thought.
Also mentioned is "the England football team were criticised for using high altitude training following their failure at the 2010 World Cup." That line is a link, but click on it and you get "not found". Puzzling.

Griff wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:Switzerland? Why not the Beacons?
Must be costing a blydi fortune just so they can run up and down and back up again.

Altitude training Dave.  The Beacons isn't exactly high, so no use.

Need to build them higher then.
Any volunteers with picks and shovels?

Yes. My country needs me. Have access to JCBs too

Good to hear that tommas francis has made a posotive impact in his training. I hope he has a good run in the warm ups.

Jhamer25 wrote:Good to hear that tommas francis has made a posotive impact in his training. I hope he has a good run in the warm ups.

I think they will give Lee as much time as possible to recover and we most probably not see him (or Williams) until the final game so you would hope that Francis gets a start in at least one of the others.

His name is Tomas. It doesn't take much learning, and it you can't remember it, Google it and then copy and paste.

That's not aimed at any one person, but I've seen so many variants and it's not a long, complicated name.

Cardiff Dave wrote:

Fanster wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

munkian wrote:

Griff wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:Switzerland? Why not the Beacons?
Must be costing a blydi fortune just so they can run up and down and back up again.

Altitude training Dave.  The Beacons isn't exactly high, so no use.

Nor are there facilities there or a decent climate to train in.

Plus people keep getting hit by lightening there.

Plus its in Wales - most teams will train away from their home nation pre world cup

Interesting article.....

"Altitude training: Challenging conventional wisdom"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/world_olympic_dreams/9432880.stm

I think the Welsh team are using a differing method to this though, called LH TL, in which they recover only at altitude and train as intense as possible nearer sea level.

Mainly based on Millets (2010) recomendations, it should target Hypoxic Ventilator response until acclimatisation, in which Muscle and ATP capacity are increased.

If I have that right, and thats what they are actually doing, I know of only 1 other nation who has used this method, South Africa went to Kenya in recent years I think.

Refers to that in the article ie live high (for 28 days), train low. The squad is training high though at the moment I thought.
Also mentioned is "the England football team were criticised for using high altitude training following their failure at the 2010 World Cup." That line is a link, but click on it and you get "not found". Puzzling.

The English football team were living and training at altitude though were't they in 2010? And that was more to acclimatise to the location of the games they played as opposed to trying to get physiological gains from it.

LH TL is at this stage a bit of an experimental theory, as is the opposing LL TH, which has it's own merits apparently...

One thing I hope they are not doing though is what is commonly refered to as 'transfusions' where they will take their richly oxygenated blood at altitude and reinfuse it pre competition.

It's been rumoured Gatland has used this method previously, and with team Wales seems to do everything he can to reinact these results without the actual transfusion.

Fanster wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

Fanster wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

munkian wrote:

Griff wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:Switzerland? Why not the Beacons?
Must be costing a blydi fortune just so they can run up and down and back up again.

Altitude training Dave.  The Beacons isn't exactly high, so no use.

Nor are there facilities there or a decent climate to train in.

Plus people keep getting hit by lightening there.

Plus its in Wales - most teams will train away from their home nation pre world cup

Interesting article.....

"Altitude training: Challenging conventional wisdom"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/world_olympic_dreams/9432880.stm

I think the Welsh team are using a differing method to this though, called LH TL, in which they recover only at altitude and train as intense as possible nearer sea level.

Mainly based on Millets (2010) recomendations, it should target Hypoxic Ventilator response until acclimatisation, in which Muscle and ATP capacity are increased.

If I have that right, and thats what they are actually doing, I know of only 1 other nation who has used this method, South Africa went to Kenya in recent years I think.

Refers to that in the article ie live high (for 28 days), train low. The squad is training high though at the moment I thought.
Also mentioned is "the England football team were criticised for using high altitude training following their failure at the 2010 World Cup." That line is a link, but click on it and you get "not found". Puzzling.

The English football team were living and training at altitude though were't they in 2010? And that was more to acclimatise to the location of the games they played as opposed to trying to get physiological gains from it.

LH TL is at this stage a bit of an experimental theory, as is the opposing LL TH, which has it's own merits apparently...

One thing I hope they are not doing though is what is commonly refered to as 'transfusions' where they will take their richly oxygenated blood at altitude and reinfuse it pre competition.

It's been rumoured Gatland has used this method previously, and with team Wales seems to do everything he can to reinact these results without the actual transfusion.

by who? L Armstrong? BS.

Prove that this rumour is BS.

Fanster wrote:Prove that this rumour is BS.

People generally have to prove rumours ARE true, not that they AREN'T...

Fanster wrote:Prove that this rumour is BS.

Prove it isn't

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:His name is Tomas. It doesn't take much learning, and it you can't remember it, Google it and then copy and paste.

That's not aimed at any one person, but I've seen so many variants and it's not a long, complicated name.

To be fair Owens isn't a hard name to get right either yet there are numerous posters who talk about Owen as a hooked option. And in the days of auto-correct etc it's easy for these mistakes to occur and keep on reoccurring too.

munkian wrote:

Fanster wrote:Prove that this rumour is BS.

People generally have to prove rumours ARE true, not that they AREN'T...

I spoke to a family friend who is a physio with the WRU and she said that this is absolutely untrue.

So, England and Wales are going down the 'beat everyone up route'. You'd have to worry about Australia, but the England v Wales game is going to be some clash.

Sin é wrote:So, England and Wales are going down the 'beat everyone up route'. You'd have to worry about Australia, but the England v Wales game is going to be some clash.

I think it is the nature of having a group with three decent sides in it. Everyone knows that it is likely that progression from the group will come down to points difference, so being physically able to deal with punishment (or even better deal out said punishment) for a full 80 minutes, and with a short-ish turnaround is going to be vital.

Sin é wrote:So, England and Wales are going down the 'beat everyone up route'. You'd have to worry about Australia, but the England v Wales game is going to be some clash.

Still prefer it to the 'playing golf' route your boys are taking at the moment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/33565695

Poland training has been cancelled. I hope that it is not too late to get the deposit back (or we will have to play a 'friendly' in December to get our money back).

With the refereeing appointments already set, it's easy to look at the fixtures and see a Wales group stage exit after Craig Joubert referees Australia to another win over Wales, and an Ireland semi final with Nigel O'wens getting his boys over the line.

Sad state of affairs. I can't muster any enthusiasm for the world cup at all.

Chunky Norwich wrote:With the refereeing appointments already set, it's easy to look at the fixtures and see a Wales group stage exit after Craig Joubert referees Australia to another win over Wales, and an Ireland semi final with Nigel O'wens getting his boys over the line.

Sad state of affairs. I can't muster any enthusiasm for the world cup at all.

It all went wrong Chunky when Wales didn't make Top 8 and were drawn in the same group as England which ruled you out of getting your pet referee Wayne Barnes.

Still, Roman Poitre is a bit of a Wales fan  Luckily Ireland made the Top 8 (Thanks Deccie) so we ended up in same group as France with no Poitre.

Sin é wrote:

It all went wrong Chunky when Wales didn't make Top 8 and were drawn in the same group as England which ruled you out of getting your pet referee Wayne Barnes.

Still, Roman Poitre is a bit of a Wales fan  Luckily Ireland made the Top 8 (Thanks Deccie) so we ended up in same group as France with no Poitre.

Well yes, Roger Lewis' decision to play extra test matches ruined Wales' chances of getting a more balanced group.

The fact you agree are "favourite" refs for favourite teams, shows how corrupt rugby union is.

Rhodri Jones is out of the squad, pectoral injury

Scott Andrews has been called in. Just seen it on the Blues FB.

Purely as training fodder I guess. Jarvis and Francis are pretty unlikely to lose out to andrews

Loss of Jones is a blow, we are creaking already with JD2 out, LW injured, North one tackle away from another concussion, Lee out, Gethin's calf must be due a wobble.

What is the situation with Lee?

Gutted for rhodri he has had no luck and is a bit of a loss. I still think we can have a good balance of props if the current lot stay fit

i know tommas francis is untested but i have a lot of faith in what i have seen of him. If samson can pull through in 1 or 2 of the warm ups as well. I know its a lot of ifs and buts but im keeping faith

If our prop stocks was:
Gethin jenkins
nicky smith
tommas francis
samson lee
paul james
then i think that we are in safe hands

Jhamer25 wrote:Gutted for rhodri he has had no luck and is a bit of a loss. I still think we can have a good balance of props if the current lot stay fit

i know tommas francis is untested but i have a lot of faith in what i have seen of him. If samson can pull through in 1 or 2 of the warm ups as well. I know its a lot of ifs and buts but im keeping faith  

If our prop stocks was:
Gethin jenkins
nicky smith
tommas francis
samson lee
paul james
then i think that we are in safe hands

Add Rob Evans to that list, bad news for Jones but is Andrews really the next best we have?

I wonder how longer before the Adam Jones is one "I'm sorry" call from a call up story is run by the fail.

Not sure Hair has a way back though does he? Rather public tantrum from a surprising prima donna.

Gwlad,

You said early Lee is out has that been confirmed?

bedfordwelsh wrote:Gwlad,

You said early Lee is out has that been confirmed?

No i asked what the situation was with him; frankly we need him but i don't know what stages rehab is at and i can't see him making it. I would like to see Hair back in on the one hand but too much has been said and i am not sure he offers enough experience or not with the scrum a different contest to when he was the dominant world number 3.

It's Tomas Francis. TOMAS.

Gwlad wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:Gwlad,

You said early Lee is out has that been confirmed?

No i asked what the situation was with him; frankly we need him but i don't know what stages rehab is at and i can't see him making it. I would like to see Hair back in on the one hand but too much has been said and i am not sure he offers enough experience or not with the scrum a different contest to when he was the dominant world number 3.

I don't think A Jones would be the answer now, emergency or not then again if the only option is Andrews who knows. There's not been much news coming out about the injuries to Williams or Lee but agree that if he is ruled out then that's a huge blow for us.

Rhodri Jones looks like he is out of the WC now. I hope Samson Lee gets back to fitness in time.

Rh Jones provided good squad cover and despite being a L/Head Gatland seemed intent on converting him to a tight neither does he seem afraid to call on Andrews whenever needed though I would rather see us use James as emergency cover than Andrews.

I hope Lee gets back to fitness in time and that we also now give Francis a good run in the warm up games.

bedford,

Paul James is a long way from the player he was - only two years ago I wanted him in the Lions touring party. He would be a liability as a LH, so including him in the squad simply because he was able to cover TH once upon a time would be a recipe for disaster.

Mind the French refs have really taken a dislike to him in Bath colours the last two seasons, so perhaps I should as an England fan want him selected.

LondonTiger wrote:bedford,

Paul James is a long way from the player he was - only two years ago I wanted him in the Lions touring party. He would be a liability as a LH, so including him in the squad simply because he was able to cover TH once upon a time would be a recipe for disaster.

Mind the French refs have really taken a dislike to him in Bath colours the last two seasons, so perhaps I should as an England fan want him selected.

LT,

I still rate him very highly as a L/Head so that part doesn't bother me, as for the tight head cover he has to be a better option than Andrews - then again so would my gran.

We just have to pray Gethin and Lee are fit for the big group games. A Gethin, Hibbard Lee front row is what is required v Aus and Eng.

Gwlad wrote:We just have to pray Gethin and Lee are fit for the big group games. A Gethin, Hibbard Lee front row is what is required v Aus and Eng.

I think Baldwin is in pole position at mo thought I think Owens is the best all round option.

Owens is my bench pick and we need Hibbard for his tackling and defensive scrummaging. Harsh on Baldwin but i think Hibbs will get picked assuming he can hit a barn door