Wales moving in the right direction

Wales 66 Fiji 0:WALES REACHED their nadir under Warren Gatland 10 months ago when they drew with Fiji in Cardiff. He had just been awarded a four-year extension to his contract as national coach, but when he announced immediately after the match that Ryan Jones was being replaced as captain, many asked whether it was the New Zealander who should stand down.

Wales then looked a side lacking direction. Various parts of their game worked, but there was no sense of the collective. Back on his home turf in Hamilton yesterday, Gatland not only saw his charges, just five of whom started the previous encounter with Fiji, qualify for the quarter-finals against the side who knocked them out of the 2007 tournament but do so by mixing style with ruthlessness in another display marking them out as potential finalists.

Such a suggestion at the turn of the year would have attracted derision. When Wales lost at home to England on the opening night of the Six Nations, the question seemed not how far they would go in the World Cup but whether they would be able to get out of a pool that included the holders, South Africa, Samoa and Fiji.

Such has been the transformation in recent months that Wales, far from scraping into the knockout stage, should have won their group after outplaying South Africa. They missed two late kicks that would have won the match, and while they were cursing at the time, the defeat has earned them a quarter-final against Ireland, one of Gatland’s former sides, rather than Australia.

What was most impressive in their nine-try demolition of Fiji was that they did not lose their focus against demoralised opposition who, already out of the knockout reckoning, had any fizz doused by the rain. Wales were 17 points up after 22 minutes, led 31-0 at half-time and did not let up after the break, scoring five more tries and defending their line towards the end, when they were down to 14 men having run out of replacements, as if conceding a try would leave them boarding a plane the following morning.

There is a single-mindedness about Wales, a mental hardness that it took Gatland a long time to inculcate, allied to physical conditioning and an innate rugby talent. When the scrumhalf Mike Phillips said after the match that Wales had an opportunity to go all the way to a final they were good enough to take, it was not mere braggadocio.

From the moment the centre Jamie Roberts broke through feeble tackling after a lineout on six minutes for the first of his two tries, Wales dominated. They were too strong up front for Fiji, controlled the breakdown, until they conceded a swill of penalties there in the second period, and moved the ball with such alacrity and precision that the islanders were confronted with an array of moving objects to line up and hit and invariably made the wrong choice.

No one fancied tackling George North, the 19-year-old wing who has the leg strength of a Polynesian, while the ability of the outhalf Rhys Priestland to get his line going meant there was never any relief for Fiji. The islanders enjoyed a late flurry, but Wales never let up in defence and enjoyed their first clean sheet for more than seven years and only their third since 1974.

WALES: Byrne; Halfpenny, Scott Williams, Roberts, North; Priestland, Phillips; Jenkins, Bennett, A Jones; B Davies, Charteris; R Jones, Warburton (capt), Faletau. Replacements: Burns for Bennett (37 mins), AW Jones for B Davies (half-time), Powell for Faletau, L Williams for Phillips (54 mins), S Jones for Priestland, James for A Jones (both 58 mins), J Davies for Roberts (64 mins).

FIJI: Keresoni; Vulivuli, Fatiaki, Lovobalavu, Tagicakibau; Little, Buatava; Nailago, Koto, Somoca; Nakawara, Lewaravu; Nasiga, Matadigo, Talei (capt). Replacements: Ma’afu for Somoca (51 mins), Bai for Lovobalavu (55 mins), Koto for Veikoso (60 mins), Ravulo for Nasiga, Qera for Matadigo (both 61 mins), Somoca for Nailago (65 mins), Kenatale for Buatava (76 mins).

Referee: W Barnes (England).