Wales full-back Gareth Anscombe said Friday his roller-coaster ride to a World Cup quarter-final against South Africa had been a “dream come true” but added he was not ready for the adventure to end just yet.
New Zealand-born Anscombe, qualified for Wales through his Cardiff-born mother, suffered an ankle injury in pre-tournament training and was left out of coach Warren Gatland’s 31-man squad.
But injuries sustained by Hallam Amos and Scott Williams during Wales’ thrilling 28-25 ‘Pool of Death’ win over England at Twickenham, saw Anscombe summoned to join the squad by fellow New Zealander Gatland, along with James Hook.
“I might have been in Dubai, sitting in a pool relaxing, so it’s certainly been a change in a month’s time,” said Anscombe at Twickenham, where Wales face the Springboks on Friday.
“The injuries we’ve had have given me a chance to start in a quarter-final,” said Anscombe, who won his second cap in last week’s 15-6 Pool A deciding defeat by Australia.
“It’s a dream come true, a special occasion. My family’s going to be here,” he added.
“It has been a funny week,” the 24-year-old said. “A few of us were talking about how privileged we are to be in a quarter-final.
“We were talking this morning about how none of us want to go home yet.”
But first Wales must get past two-time world champions South Africa, a team they’ve beaten just twice in their history, albeit their last meeting saw the Welsh emerge 12-6 winners in Cardiff l1 months ago.
“When you play against South Africa you know about it. They’re very physical,” Anscombe said. “We need to front up and stop their ball-carriers. If we can do that then we’ll win the game.”
Wales lost 16 successive Tests against the Springboks before ending that run in November 2014.
– Fantastic –
Assistant coach Neil Jenkins, a member of the Wales side that beat South Africa 29-19 in the inaugural international at the Millennium Stadium in 1999, said: “We won in November against them, and we should have won in Nelspruit in that second Test last year, but we threw it away after being 30-17 up with eight or nine minutes to go and lost. It was quite hard to take.
“It just shows that when you play against any of the top sides in the world you have got to play for the full 80 minutes. You can’t switch off at any time.
“South Africa are a fantastic rugby side. They have gone through the gears quickly (since suffering a shock 34-32 defeat by Japan in their Pool B opener) and shown what they are all about. They are a world-class side across the board.”
If Wales win through to the last four they could face Anscombe’s native New Zealand, with the defending champions strongly fancied to see off France in Cardiff on Saturday in a repeat of the 2011 final that the All Blacks edged 8-7 at Auckland’s Eden Park.
But France upset the odds to knock the All Blacks out of both the 1999 World Cup and the 2007 edition, when they defeated New Zealand in another last-eight clash at the Millennium Stadium.
“They’ve done it before haven’t they, so judging by some of the news in New Zealand they’re certainly a bit twitchy,” said Anscombe.
“I was at the final when the All Blacks beat them four years ago and they certainly could have won.”
“The way they’ve been playing they are certainly good enough to beat them, particularly if they can stay in the game for long periods and play.”
A report by a journalist not following the French team but written back in Paris had suggested there had been a mutiny among the players against head coach Philippe Saint-Andre — although that was denied in the strongest terms by France skipper Thierry Dusautoir on Friday.
Anscombe said whether true or not the report could serve to fire them up even more.
“Obviously there’s been some articles documenting what’s going on behind the scenes but I think that might galvanise the group,” said Anscombe.