Gatland confirms official 33-man Wales Rugby World Cup squad
Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan have been named as co-captain for Wales as Warren Gatland cofirmed Wales Rugby World Cup squad.
The 33-player squad is made up of 19 forwards and 14 backs with an average age of 27 years old. Seventeen players have previous Rugby World Cup experience.
“The toughest part of the job is always selection and this is particularly the case when it comes to picking a Rugby World Cup squad,” said Gatland.
“Over the past three months the whole group of 48 players in the wider training squad has been outstanding in terms of attitude and effort, so having to reduce the squad down to the final 33 has been really hard and there have been some close final decisions in the last 36 hours.
“But we can only take 33 players and those we have selected we think offer a good combination in terms of talent and experience.
“We have a few more training sessions here in Wales before we depart for France on 3 September and we cannot wait to get out there and get started in this tournament. We look forward to what lies ahead for this group.
“This will be a very proud moment for these players, their families and friends and I’d like to congratulate them all on the achievement.”
🏴 Dyma’r 33 chwaraewr fydd yn cynrychioli tair miliwn o bobl Cymru.
🏴 The 33 players ready to represent the 3 million people of Wales#WelshRugby | #ViveLeCymru pic.twitter.com/H3ry1ZLAsZ
— Welsh Rugby Union 🏴 (@WelshRugbyUnion) August 21, 2023
Teddy Williams, Kieran Hardy, Rhys Davies, Max Llewellyn, Kemsley Mathias, Taine Plumtree, Cai Evans, Keiran Williams, Tom Rogers, Sam Parry, Ben Carter and Keiron Assiratti have all failed to make the cut.
Drawn in Pool C, Wales’ Rugby World Cup campaign in France begins against Fiji in Bordeaux (Saturday 10 September, kick off 2000 BST). The squad then travels to Nice to play Portugal (Saturday 16 September, kick off 1645 BST), before facing Australia in Lyon (Sunday 24 September, kick off 2000 BST) and meeting Georgia in Nantes (Saturday 7 October, kick off 1400 BST).
FORWARDS (19)
Taine Basham
Adam Beard
Elliot Dee
Corey Domachowski
Ryan Elias
Taulupe Faletau
Tomas Francis
Dafydd Jenkins
Dewi Lake
Dillon Lewis
Dan Lydiate
Jac Morgan
Tommy Reffell
Will Rowlands
Nicky Smith
Gareth Thomas
Henry Thomas
Christ Tshiunza
Aaron Wainwright
BACKS (14)
Josh Adams
Gareth Anscombe
Dan Biggar
Sam Costelow
Gareth Davies
Rio Dyer
Mason Grady
Leigh Halfpenny
George North
Louis Rees-Zammit
Nick Tompkins
Johnny Williams
Liam Williams
Tomos Williams
Comments on RugbyPass
The level of desperation in this article is just embarrassing.
215 Go to commentsSome silly trolling in the comments.
8 Go to commentsEverywhere you turn some irish journo is advocating Ireland as the greatest, reasoning that the wc is a 4 year cycle event so, they say wc doesn’t matter it’s the rugby in between that should account for the accolade. If there was no wc then some substance could be gained, however in my opinion the moment that defined Ireland’s fate against the abs was 37 phases of repeated head bashing against a brick wall. If a change in strategy or a tinker with the game plan was executed then things could've been vastly different. And to point a finger the let down was in the hands of the number 10.
36 Go to commentsI have heard it asked if RA is essentially one of the part owners and I suppose therefor should be on the other side of these two parties. If they purchased the rebels and guaranteed them, and are responsible enough they incur Rebels penalties, where is this line drawn? Seems rough to have to pay a penalty for something were your involvement sees you on the side of the conned party, the creditors. If the Rebels directors themselves have given the club their money, 6mil worth right, why aren’t they also listed as sitting with RA and the Tax office? And the legal threat was either way, new Rebels or defunct, I can’t see how RA assume the threat was less likely enough to warrant comment about it in this article. Surely RA ignore that and only worry about whether they can defend it or not, which they have reported as being comfortable with. So in effect wouldn’t it be more accurate to say there is no further legal threat (or worry) in denying the deal. Unless the directors have reneged on that. > Returns of a Japanese team or even Argentinean side, the Jaguares, were said to be on the cards, as were the ideas of standing up brand new teams in Hawaii or even Los Angeles – crazy ideas that seemingly forgot the time zone issues often cited as a turn-off for viewers when the competition contained teams from South Africa. Those timezones are great for SR and are what will probably be needed to unlock its future (cant see it remaining without _atleast _help from Aus), day games here are night games on the West Coast of america, were potential viewers triple, win win. With one of the best and easiest ways to unlock that being to play games or a host a team there. Less good the further across Aus you get though. Jaguares wouldn’t be the same Jaguares, but I still would think it’s better having them than keeping the Rebels. The other options aren’t really realistic 25’ options, no. From reading this authors last article I think if the new board can get the investment they seem to be confident in, you keeping them simply for the amount of money they’ll be investing in the game. Then ditch them later if they’re not good enough without such a high budget. Use them to get Jaguares reintergration stronger, with more key players on board, and have success drive success.
11 Go to commentsYeah, and ours is waaay bigger than yours. Just as you's get a semi…oh hold on that never happens
36 Go to commentsLove watching
1 Go to commentsThe Melbourne Rebels lineout is a complete disaster so not surprisingly a kiwi coach of the Wallabies hires the worst lineout coach in the country and a foreigner to boot. No surprises whatsoever here…….
3 Go to commentsThank your for wasting 2 minutes of my life Daniel. There is a useful message in there somewhere but your delivery sucks.
7 Go to commentsBen Smith, you are cry baby
215 Go to commentsSux that homophobia is still a thing though. I wonder how many players who could have become legends never kept playing rugby because they felt unwelcome.
7 Go to commentsCrazy he’s only 28, feel like he’s been around forever - don’t mind the move, safe pair of hands and creates depth in a thin position for ABs. Hopefully aides Kemara’s growth also without thrusting too much responsibility on him
1 Go to commentsMen should show strength and be mean, but they should be able to show emotion to those close yo them in certain times, birth of your child, death of family, proud moment. This article is stupid
7 Go to commentsWhat a weak article…absolute drivel and clickbait, well done. Will stick to rugby365 thanks
7 Go to commentsHonest, discipline, humility… Priceless.
2 Go to commentsSo many excuses. No mention of the SA number 2 being taken out illegally in the 2nd minute. That act of foul play had a massive impact on the SA game. Face it, NZ play pretty dirty very regularly, and it’s only since 2016 they’ve been held to higher officiating standards via stricter officiating and TMO reviews. They deserved to have a man down. Sorry. Fix the yellow and red cards and NZ will win more RWCs. Plus, there WAS a knock on invalidating the one try, so it was NOT a try. Period. Here’s a Kleenex…
215 Go to commentsOverheard conversation between NZ and SA rugby fans everywhere: We’re the greatest! No! we’re the greatest! We’re the greatest! No we’re the greatest! Ireland are arrogant! True but they beat you! We’re the greatest! No! we’re the greatest! Etc. etc, etc.
36 Go to commentsTypical crap Aussie weather
11 Go to comments“If they’d have beaten England, I still feel we would have been talking ‘is this the best team ever,’ ‘is this the best team that’s ever played in the Six Nations'” he said. “I still think they’re not quite that good. I actually don’t think they’re that good.” So Trimble is saying he doesn’t think this is the best 6N team of all time. He is silent on if it is the best Irish team of all time. Can’t disagree with him. Just another misrepresentative clickbait headline from the guys at RP.
36 Go to commentsWow, do we really still have to listen to all the excuses and “unfairness” of it all. Even blaming the bounce of an egg shaped ball for the loss. But the article is about context, so what about the Springboks having to play the other 5 teams in the top 6 and still beating a comparatively rested AB team on a very empty tank.
215 Go to comments“Teams would generally have three coaches below their head honcho; attack coach, defence coach, forwards coach” do they? I’m not sure what the NZ set up is tbh, but the other 4 sides top 5 sides all have very different structures to the one outlined in the article! As well as attack, defence, and forwards coaches, SA, Ireland, and France also have specialist scrum coaches. England have a specialist scrum coach too, but arguably don’t have a forwards coach, with that role taken on by Borthwick. SA also have a backs coach in addition to defence and attack, and Ireland and England have fitness coaches, with England also having two skills coaches.
3 Go to comments