Wales vs South Africa RWC 2015: Jamie Roberts - last time we faced Springboks, five of us needed an ambulance
Wales have employed seven different players at centre in four matches to date
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Your support makes all the difference.Jamie Roberts is no stranger to the afflictions of playing South Africa and knows full well what lies in wait at Twickenham.
Wind the clock back to the second British & Irish Lions Test of the 2009 series and Roberts is crammed in an ambulance with similarly stricken team-mates en route to the nearest hospital to Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
“Adam Jones came off with a shoulder injury which took two or three hours to get back in, Gethin Jenkins smashed his face, Brian O’Driscoll’s head was twice its normal size because he got a clout on it, I injured my wrist and ended up needing an operation on it, and Tommy Bowe hurt his elbow,” he recalled.
“There were five or six of us in an ambulance after that game going to the hospital. That’s what lies in store for us this weekend. It’s pretty gruesome but that’s the nature of the game now. You’ve got to be prepared to put your body on the line and take it to places where you haven’t been before.”
Roberts and the Wales management will be hoping that will not be inside the doors of the nearest hospital, with the country fast running out of back-line players, such is the litany of injuries to have befallen them both before and during the World Cup.
We're ready for complete warfare come the 80 minutes
Wales have employed seven different players at centre in four matches to date, the latest combination pairing Roberts with Tyler Morgan, a partnership that started the game against Fiji.
With a 20-year-old outside him, the onus on Roberts and his vast international experience with Wales and the Lions is arguably greater than ever, in view of the physicality that the Springboks will undoubtedly unleash.
“As one of the senior guys, you have to take more responsibility,” he explained. “It’s challenging but you have to deal with it. There’s no time to moan and groan in World Cups. They move very quickly.”
For Morgan, it is undoubtedly the biggest game of his nascent career on what is only his third appearance in a Wales jersey against, it has to be said, an also inexperienced Boks midfield in 23-year-old Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel, 21.
But Roberts has no doubts about Morgan’s ability, saying: “I think he’s ready for it. He’s mature beyond his years. He’s physical, he’s young, he’s willing to learn, he’s energetic. He’s got all the attributes to help Wales win a World Cup quarter-final.”
Roberts has made no secret that Wales’ World Cup defeat in the semi-finals four years ago was the low point of his career and that, if Wales lose this last-eight encounter, they will again be castigated for their inability to beat southern hemisphere opponents.
But the most recent encounter between the two sides last year ended with Warren Gatland’s side winning 12-6, a mental plus going into a game of this magnitude.
“A lot of times we’ve lost close games to big southern hemisphere sides and you have to go again and you have to grow and earn victory,” Roberts said. “It’s not just going to happen. You have to earn it. It’s going to take the perfect game from us.”
Whether their battered and bruised bodies – Roberts himself has had a heavily strapped left knee in training because of fluid on the joint – are up to it is another matter but Wales’ linchpin, who will start a fresh round of medical studies at Cambridge University after the tournament, is hopeful he can avoid being tortured by another four years of regret.
“It’s a World Cup quarter-final,” he said, “and to play in games of this magnitude is what you dream about. A lot of this squad played in a World Cup semi-final four years ago and, when you do all those hours of training, you dream of playing in these games and seizing the opportunity. This week all the players are relaxed but ready for complete warfare come the 80 minutes.”
This time he hopes it will end in celebration rather than in the back of an ambulance.
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