Ruddock calls for win over glorious defeat
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Your support makes all the difference.Wales against Romania at a half-full Millennium Stadium tonight is hardly a fixture to get the blood rushing, but a change in Wales's strategy is certainly intriguing.
Gone are the reasons volunteered by Steve Hansen to exonerate his team for some of the worst defeats Welsh rugby has seen. International rugby, Mike Ruddock knows, is all about winning Test matches.
Ask the Welsh players whether they would prefer a dreary 9-6 victory or yet another glorious defeat and they would plump for the scalp they so desperately need every time. But ask the Welsh public and they will demand both - therein lies the conundrum.
"After last week's two-point defeat [38-36] to South Africa I told the players that we could not be upbeat about the game. We cannot be satisfied with coming close, we have to start winning - that's what Test rugby is about," said Ruddock, Hansen's successor as Wales coach. "We want to play entertaining rugby, but results must go with it."
Hansen's reasoning was a product of the situation in which he found himself following the short-sightedness of predecessor Graham Henry, now his boss with the All Blacks. He used last summer's meeting with the eastern Europeans to give 15 second-stringers a token chance at claiming a World Cup berth. Among them, in charge of the team under a one-match loan, was Ruddock.
"It gave me a real insight into the pressures of being Wales coach. Wales had lost 10 on the trot so what should have been a straight-forward victory became a highly-pressurised cup final-type situation. The fact that we performed undoubtedly helped my case when the interview for the Wales job came up." Now, Ruddock has his head firmly on the block.
A few new faces but no new caps, the emphasis is on winning, well ahead of next week's clash with the All Blacks. "I want continuity - we need to build combinations, especially given the New Zealand game approaching, but that comes behind the priority of beating Romania," said Ruddock.
Romania have beaten Wales twice in their seven previous meetings and though they are without key No 8 Ovidiu Tonita, they feature nine French-based players, including the Biarritz prop Petru Balan who scored a try in that meeting last summer.
WALES: G Thomas (Toulouse, capt); R Williams, T Shanklin (Cardiff Blues), G Henson, H Luscombe (Newport Gwent Dragons); Stephen Jones (Clermont-Auvergne), D Peel (Llanelli Scarlets); G Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), M Davies (Neath), A Jones (Neath-Swansea Ospreys), G Llewellyn (Narbonne), L Charteris (Newport Gwent Dragons), Dafydd Jones (Llanelli Scarlets), M Owen (Newport Gwent Dragons), C Charvis (Newcastle). Replacements: Steve Jones (Newport Gwent Dragons), Duncan Jones, J Thomas (Neath-Swansea Ospreys), M Williams (Cardiff Blues), G Cooper, C Sweeney (Newport Gwent Dragons), S Parker (Neath-Swansea Ospreys).
ROMANIA: V Marftei (Aurillac); V Ghioc (Dinamo Bucuresti), R Sauan (Rugby Rovigo), R Gonteineac (Aurillac), I Todorescu (U Cluj); I Tofan, L Sirbu (Metro Racing); P Balan (Biarritz Olimpique), B Zebega (Steaua Bucuresti),
M Socaciu (Rugby Rovigo), F Tatu (Steaua Bucuresti), C Petre (Tarbes), C Mersoiu , A Tudori (Perigueux), A Petrache (Beziers). Replacements: R Mavrodin (Tarbes), B Balan (Bordeaux Begles), V Ursacheo (Contor Zennerarad), G Oprisororo (Perpignan), I Andrei (Steaua Bucharest), F Dobreo (Dinamo Bucharest), I Dimofte (Contor Zennerarad).
REFEREE: Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand).
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