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Welsh Rugby Union
  • 03/07/2025
Transcript
00:00We obviously had a very good build-up in terms of three weeks before we had to select the team so
00:05teams based on that really we tried to give everyone a fair chance of selection people
00:10have performed over the three weeks obviously trying to get some combination together one of
00:14the key key messages was it's going to be a 23 man job so we've tried to spread the experience out
00:22in terms of getting some experience coming off the off the bench so having the likes of gal thomas
00:27coming off the bench aaron wainwright rod tommy rafael is going to be massively important for us
00:33something we made a big point of in the first team meeting there's a number of players who've
00:38worked their way back into the squad so josh mcleod's an obvious one struggle with some injuries
00:44out of real roller coaster over the last three or four years so him coming back in is is massive and
00:50yeah i think you could tell from the players reaction when liam belcher was selected how much
00:55he deserves it he's he's been in the regional game for 10 years he's changed clubs he's gone back
01:00to university to do electricians degree and then he's managed to work his way into the national squad
01:08so yeah delighted for liam we've had a really good three weeks training physicality and the edge in
01:14training was probably the best i've seen well from six nations and in this camp so i think the challenge
01:19then as always in international rugby is over a short period of time trying to find some cohesion i
01:24think an 80 minute performance and that physical edge and and making sure that uh we transfer training
01:30into the game is going to be the biggest thing for us we've seen that from um just been around kitty
01:35kishu this uh this last couple of weeks is seems to be a real affinity between some of the japanese
01:41um locals and the welsh team hopefully will be fantastic on saturday it's going to be humid it's
01:46going to be hot uh japan traditionally play quite a fast brand of rugby so i think us getting up to
01:52speed with that it's going to be uh going to be key i think coming away from home in a test match
01:57you've got to put up put up with the conditions and we've we've prepared really well hopefully we'll get
02:02good support and get up to speed with the conditions as quickly as possible