Rugby favourites or underdogs: Wales comfortable with either tag, says Thomas

TOULON – Wales, unbeaten in pool play, were hailed by self-proclaimed underdogs Argentina as favourites for their Rugby World Cup quarter-final on Saturday, but assistant coach Jonathan Thomas insisted the Welsh were unbothered by either tag.

Los Pumas, who had lost their opener to England, ensured a last-eight meeting with Wales in Marseille on Saturday after beating Japan 39-27 in their final group game.

“We know we’ll be well and truly underdogs,” Argentina coach Michael Cheika said of the prospect of facing a rejuvenated Wales team.

Breakdown coach Thomas, who won 67 caps and featured at the 2003 and 2007 World Cups as a flanker, said coach Warren Gatland – in his second tenure, having left in 2019 after 12 successful years at the helm – had changed the Welsh mindset when it came to tags.

“When I was a young player with Wales, we always loved that underdog sort of feeling,” he said.

“When ‘Gats’ came in 2008, with the evolution of the team, he changed that mindset, so whether we’re underdogs or favourites, it does not faze us too much; whereas maybe in years gone by, that was the case.”

Thomas added: “We’re comfortable whether we’re favourites or underdogs, it doesn’t bother us.

“The whole thing is a process, we need to stick to what we do well and you’ve got to take the emotion of being favourites or underdogs out of that.

“It’s the same as the scoreboard in the game, you take the emotion out of that, stick to being in the present moment, focusing on what your job is and delivering under pressure.

“You’ve got to be excited about that pressure at this stage of a World Cup.”

Knockout rugby, he said, was “why we’re here, it’s what we’ve been building for, for three to four months. It’s been a long time”.

“The whole point of sport is what’s your why and what’s your goal and, for us as a collective, our goal from day one has been to get to finals rugby, knockout rugby.

“We’ve achieved that but we’re not satisfied with just getting to the quarter-finals, clearly we want to win the game.”

Respect for Argentina would be granted, of course, the former flanker added, warning of the quality of all teams in the last eight.

Wales fly-half Dan Biggar will be fit for Saturday’s tie at Stade de Marseille, with his understudy Gareth Anscombe and experienced fullback Liam Williams also likely to be available after injury scares.

Anscombe suffered a groin injury while kicking in the warmup ahead of Saturday’s 43-19 win over Georgia in Nantes. This elevated Biggar onto the bench, even though he had been left out of the original match-day squad after suffering a pectoral injury when Wales thrashed Australia 40-6 in Lyon a fortnight earlier.

Wales, however, opted not to bring Biggar on as he had only just returned to training, with third-choice fly-half Sam Costelow playing the entire match instead.

Referring to Anscombe and Williams, Thomas said: “At this stage, it’s looking positive... but we’ll see.” REUTERS