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

Gwlad wrote:You have to think then that one of the next 2 warm ups will feature a full strength side, or,  is he going to cosset key players (Webb, Warburton, AWJ, Lydiate, Faletau, Half, Doc, North etc) until RWC itself.

Space between group games becomes key as does the need to beat a strong confident Fiji and to put a cricket score on Uruguay;

20 Sept Uruguay 6 days
26 Sept Eng only 5 days!
1st Oct Fiji 9 days
10th Aus

I imagine a first team of sorts will play v Italy, but he has to preserve his first team from playing v Urguay as we face England a mere 6 days later... so I expect there to be key bench players if required and the youngsters to be given their chance v Uruguay.  A mix and match leaning towards first team v Fiji but again, only a 5 day rest after Eng we need to ensure this isn't the banana skin again. Obviously with a long rest, the best we have left v Aus.

Home advantage will tell in the fiji game and i expect us to win but selection has to be right and i imagine at least part of the training regime being so hard is to acknowledge the turnarounds.

Beginning to think Gatland may do the same thing when we replay Ireland; just play the chaff.

He KNOWS who his first string is already- its been the same for eons…so why risk it in meaningless warm ups?…he was almost evasive about cutting the squad down next week and i think he knows he doesn't want to risk his top team due to our lack of strength in depth.

Uruguay is still a perfect warm up-come points fest; a proper 2nd string with strong bench can exploit them for the much needed PD.

Most likely however that he will try out his ideal side before RWC but i still wouldn't be surprised if he didnt do it until Italy.

We know he is proposing effectively having two teams, one for Fiji and Uruguay and one v Aus/Eng. A set of utility type bench players therefore becomes much more important as they can form the nucleus of the Fiji/Uru team due to the stupidly short gap between games which gives England an unfair advantage.

This '2nd' string will play Fiji no doubt with a core of first team on the bench to shore up only if required…its that Fiji/Uruguay side that is the tricky one. Cant slip up in either contest.

Makes me think we will see the Firsts v Italy but not v Ireland.

It will be the best team available for Fiji, though he might make a token change here and there depending on injury and concussion to North. I can only see him putting in different combo's against Uruguay, the half-backs and centre's for example. It won't be wholesale. We'll probably have our best team for the other two warm-ups, otherwise it would be pointless honouring the fixture. The question is where and when does Francis get his first cap? We can't have Jarvis with Andrews as back-up in the team if we want to win games.

So is this closed now?