Wales will be without their Lions’ full-back Liam Williams for Sunday’s semi-final against South Africa in Yokohama after he suffered an ankle injury in a collision with a team-mate in training this week.
But the blow is softened by the return of the centre Jonathan Davies, the man of the series in the 2017 Lions tour to New Zealand, who missed the quarter-final victory over France with a knee injury, while Williams’s replacement, Leigh Halfpenny, is another Lion and will be winning his 85th cap.
The third change from last weekend sees Ross Moriarty, who scored the winning try against France, start at No 8 instead of Josh Navidi who suffered a tournament-ending hamstring injury on Sunday.
The loss of Williams will give South Africa heart in what they believe will be an aerial battle. Heavy rain here today is expected to give way to cloud over the weekend and neither side looks equipped to take risks.
Wales have the advantage of experience in their back division with the scrum-half Gareth Davies joining Dan Biggar, Davies, George North and Halfpenny in reaching a half-century of caps, but Williams is their most effective counter-attacker.
“Liam is a big loss to our attacking game but Leigh gives us a different element, the best full-back in the world aerially,” said the Wales head coach, Warren Gatland. “We were considering playing Leigh anyway and moving Liam to the wing. We do not think it weakens us.
“Jonathan has come through this week after ruling himself out against France and we are really excited where we are at the moment. It is not going to be the prettiest game in the world and will probably be a kicking-fest. They kicked a lot in the last round against Japan, but this chance does not come around very often and when you want it enough you can make it happen.
“Winning the World Cup is one of the things you have to dream about and I am probably the greatest optimist in terms of believing something is possible and that there is a dream. If you don’t have that attitude and portray it it will not happen. A big part of success is the belief and the desire to do something. That is what we will be building on in the next two days and I want to go back to New Zealand with head held high.”
While Wales admitted they were fortunate to defeat France, with the captain Alun Wyn Jones saying at Friday’s team announcement that they had gone too early in training and that he was expecting a far better performance, it showed the ability they have developed since the last World Cup, when they were beaten in the quarter-final by South Africa in the closing minutes, to see out tight matches.
“It has been a learning process the players have gone through after we lost games in the last few minutes,” said Gatland. “I thought we handled the end against France outstandingly after we had gone in front and you could see in the body language of the France players that they did not expect to beat us. In the past, we might have panicked or got nervous but we were composed. That is something you cannot coach and which players have to learn themselves.”
Gatland said Wales were braced for the physical approach of South Africa who battered Japan into submission to reach the last four. “We have played some big teams in this tournament already,” he said. “This is a World Cup semi-final and we have to bring our own physicality, something that is always important against South Africa who I thought should have had a red card on Sunday. I was very surprised Duane Vermeulen was not cited.
“South Africa have improved under Rassie Erasmus and gone back to their strengths, but I am looking forward to this game more than I was last week and I am more confident. If we could make the final with the playing numbers we have, it would be some achievement.”