Marylyn Jeans
Fast Facts:
Players: 66,114 RWC Results: Third 1987, Fourth 2011, Quarters 1991, 1995, 2007 IRB World Ranking: Sixth 80.70 Best Result 2014: Vs Scotland 51-3 Coach: Warren Gatland Captain: Sam Warburton
Culture
Rugby spread quickly over the border to Wales and has been a popular part of Welsh culture ever since. The nation now has 66,000 registered players. One of the reasons for rugby's popularity in the small British nation is because of their success at it. Rugby allows a small nation such as Wales to be respected on the international stage their first proof of this being when they became the first team to beat New Zealand back in 1905. Since then Rugby has been popular throughout all the regions of Wales and they enjoy the thrill of getting one over on their larger neighbours and British rivals England
Play Style
Wales have a very interesting style of play that is quite unorthodox for a northern hemisphere team. This is due to their New Zealand coach Warren Gatland. Although Gatland is from New Zealand he's spent enough time working with Welsh rugby that he's become a bit of a local himself, and is very popular in the nation. Gatland imposes a strict fitness regime among the players that involves state of the art equipment to keep the team in great condition. It is fair to say that the Welsh players are some of the fittest in game, and the team fields a squad that boasts many physical units with speed to match. Gatland takes full advantage of this as to deliver what is commonly referred to as "Gatland-Ball". The Welsh squad often uses big second five Jamie Roberts to crash the ball midfield and draw in the defence, creating space for the wingers George North, or Alex Cuthbert who both have pace to burn. In terms of the set piece Wales, have proved capable in the scrum against rival neighbours, not an easy feat considering the quality of some of the English, Irish, and Scottish scrummaging in recent years. One area often targeted is their lineout, which remains to be a little lacking. Locks, Luke Charteris, Ian Evans, and Alun-Wyn Jones are all calibre players, yet Wales remain a little lacking in the jumper position. Moreover Wales are not scared to slow the game down either and often rely on the accuracy of Leigh Halfpenny for the extra 3.
Photo by Jeanfrancois beausejour
George North and Rhys Priestland