In Marseille
No one will argue: the 2023 World Cup quarter-final draw is lopsided. The four favorites – Ireland, New Zealand, France, South Africa – face each other on one side. On the other, Wales faces Argentina (Saturday, 5 p.m.) and England faces Fiji (Sunday, 5 p.m.).
“The other teams just had to do better in the last World Cup (in 2019). The draw was decided there. It’s not our doing,” said Warren Gatland, the Welsh coach, on the sidelines of announcing his team composition on Thursday. It was in fact after the last World Cup that the draw was made.
Also read: Rugby World Cup: why it is urgent to change the format
While awaiting a possible overhaul of the system, Wales intends to make the most of its good fortune. This Friday at a press conference, Welsh fly-half Dan Biggar, with a smile on his face, said he was “very happy to be in this part of the table, for obvious reasons”.
Recovered from a pectoral injury contracted during the match won against Australia, in pools (40-6), the number 10 of RC Toulon starts against Argentina and hopes that his career with the XV of Leek “does not end will not end in a quarter-final. He reassured about his health: “I thought it would be difficult to come back, but it has healed well. It’s a match I didn’t want to miss. I’m lucky and grateful to be sitting here.”
Biggar also made a point of praising the progress of his team, which was in a crisis of results before the start of the competition. “It’s crazy how times change. If we had said, four or five months ago, that we would come out first in our group, we would have been taken for crazy.”
