We’re just a couple of days away until the start of the 2015 World Cup, and the boys from Cardiff are all set to make a solid run at the William Webb Ellis Cup in the toughest group of the tournament. Before Wales has to worry about powerhouses England and Australia, though, the team has to prevail over Uruguay first.
Can the Welsh start off strong with a win in their opener, or can the South American upstarts pull off a huge upset? Read on as we preview this upcoming hard-hitting match. Afterwards, check out our coverage on the other marquee Pool A matchup between England and Fiji over here.
The luck of the draw for the 2015 Rugby World Cup worked against Wales, having them pitted with juggernauts England and Australia in Pool A of the World Cup. Still, the Welsh have plenty of talent being the fifth-best rugby nation in the world as proven by their third-place finish at the most recent Six Nations tournament just behind Ireland and England.
[sc:Other240banner ]Wales has also been competitive in World Cups, but has yet to reach the final stage of the event. In 2011, the team emerged from its pool as the runner-up to South Africa en route to a stellar victory over Ireland in the quarterfinals before a gut-wrenching 9-8 loss to France in the semis.
This time around, though, head coach Warren Gatland will have to figure out how to overcome a plethora of losses on his squad’s roster to have a chance of staving off elimination from the “Pool of Death”, let alone emerge as the group’s overall winners (Wales is currently priced at +450 to take Pool A).
Center Jonathan Davies (personal reasons), full-back Leigh Halfpenny (knee) and scrum-half Rhys Webb (foot) will not be present for the entire tournament. To make matters worse, winger Eli Walker, who’s dealing with a hamstring injury of his own, was officially released from the squad just this past Monday.
Still, the Welsh are proud to have tested veterans Sam Warburton (55 caps, 20 points) and Mike Phillips (94 caps, 45 points) playing for the national team along with other battle-hardened nationals. Wales’ overall experience will prove to be the x-factor this Sunday against a patch-worked Uruguayan club.
Betting on Uruguay
After missing out on the Rugby World Cup for the past two instances, Uruguay has returned to the fray to try and improve on its previous outings at the tournament. Los Teros qualified for the RWC in 1999 and 2003 but have failed to advance from the pool stage on both of those occasions.
The results from Uruguay’s matches for the past 12 months have been polarizing. The team came out with big wins over the likes of World Cup contender Argentina and feisty Russia, but also had embarrassing defeats to Georgia, Chile and Fiji.
Lock/flanker Rodrigo Capo Ortega’s personal decision to abstain from competition certainly hurts World No. 19 Uruguay’s chances of upsetting the frightening bunch from Pool A. Ortega has 38 caps and 45 points to his credit playing for the national team, but coach Pablo Lemoine would have to get production from other sources instead.
Scrum-half Agustin Ormachea – son of Diego Ormachea, the oldest player to score a try in World Cup history – and fly-half Felipe Berchesi are Uruguay’s two best players simply because they’re the only two true professionals on the team, both members of two different squads in France’s Pro D2 league (only the second-most prestigious league in the country). Ormachea and Berchesi combined for 38 caps and 214 points in their past stints playing for Uruguay’s national team.
The rest of team does not inspire much confidence at all given that most players have regular day jobs back in their motherland. Team captain Santiago Vilaseca is a banker by day, hooker Nicolas Klappenbach is a doctor at heart, and lock/flanker Matias Beer even had to quit his job as an engineer just so he can spend more time to train with the national team.
If there’s one thing going for Los Teros, though, is that Sunday will be their first clash with Wales in the World Cup. The elements of surprise and unpredictability are in their favor, but the lack of overall big-game experience may be too much for the Uruguayans to overcome.
Writer’s Prediction
Wales make quick of Uruguay in blowout fashion.
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