Rugby World Cup: Kicking proves costly for Wales

WALES were left kicking themselves after suffering their third narrow defeat of a World Cup campaign that could easily have seen them contesting tomorrow’s final against New Zealand.

For the second week in succession, Wales’ kickers missed crucial shots at goal. Last Saturday, James Hook, Leigh Halfpenny and Stephen Jones failed with four attempts between them as France scraped a 9-8 semi-final success.

“Probably the person upset is Neil Jenkins [Wales kicking specialist],” Wales coach Warren Gatland said. “At this level, you’ve got to take your opportunities. Unfortunately, on these big occasions, our goalkicking has been down.”

Jones said: “We’ve lost three games so closely. One of the easiest things to look at then is goalkicking. I would be interested to look at our statistics compared to other teams. We thoroughly enjoy working with Neil. He challenges us and he wants us to be the best out there. We set ourselves high standards, and it is frustrating when it doesn’t go our way.”

Wales reserved their least effective display of the competition for last, sorely missing suspended skipper Sam Warburton, plus injured stand-off Rhys Priestland and prop Adam Jones.

“We were not as quite emotionally up for it as we have been for other games, and I think that showed,” Gatland added. “Our performance was probably a little bit down than what we are capable of. But, in saying that, Australia are one of the top sides in the world and they are one of the best defensive teams in the competition.”