Warren Gatland has hit back at cri-ticism of his decision to play Leigh Halfpenny on Saturday in the 23-19 victory against Italy at the Millennium Stadium, saying the knee -injury that has ruled the Wales full?back out of the Rugby World Cup was completely unrelated to the strapping Halfpenny wore on the joint during that match.
Gatland described the injuries to Halfpenny and the scrum?half Rhys Webb, who has also been ruled out of the tournament with a knock picked up in the same game, as "devastating". But the head coach said that he had complete confidence in his squad to compensate for their departures, adding that a fit-again Liam Williams offered Wales a "different type of attacking player" at full-back, while scrum?half Gareth Davies could "take the World Cup by storm".
Wales have called the veteran scrum-half Mike Phillips and the Ospreys winger Eli Walker into their squad, with Gatland sug-gesting that both players might get a run-out in their opening group game against Uruguay in Cardiff on Sept 20, albeit from the bench.
"They are coming in behind other players at the moment," Gatland said. "We have that first game against Uruguay, the experience Mike brings from what he has achieved in the past will be pretty invaluable for us. Eli is a pretty exciting player but pretty inexperienced as well. Hopefully those -players might be involved in the first match. Let's wait and see."
The former Wales players Shane Williams and JJ Williams both
questioned the decision to play Half-penny with his knee already strapped but Gatland said that the Toulon star "didn't really need" the strapping and insisted that it had nothing to do with the ligament
injury he sustained.
Gatland, who was speaking at a Welsh Rugby Union press con-ference to announce that the Millen-nium Stadium would be renamed Principality Stadium for 10 years from January, said: "There was more than one player out there with strapping. Half a dozen players or probably more than that get strapped up before every game.
"Leigh had that strapping on before the game in Dublin. It's something he'd had there for the last three weeks and used it when he was kicking. He said he didn't really need the strapping, but because he'd been using it for the last two or three weeks, he put it on. He had just been a little bit tight in the back of his knee about three weeks ago. It was nothing to do with the injury that he picked up on the weekend. And it wasn't heavy strapping, it was very light strapping. I checked that out with the physios.
"I know there has been some criticism about protecting players and you always question yourself about that. It's just trying to get the balance right between players having enough rugby and keeping players fresh. I looked at that before the game in terms of some of those players that had played the week before in Dublin.
"If they weren't involved in the first group game against Uruguay and then played against England, well that's four weeks between the two matches and for some of those players that's a little bit long and they want to play a bit more.
"Look, people are entitled to their opinions and I understand the disappointment of everybody out there saying that certain players should have been protected, but you can't protect everyone and you have a game to go out and win."
Gatland praised his captain, Sam Warburton, for keeping his players focused in the game against Italy, saying it would have been easy for them to lose their heads having seen two of their team-mates -carried from the field on a stretcher. He added that he was confident the squad could cope without Halfpenny and Webb, although he admitted that Liam Williams was still not 100 per cent fit following surgery on his foot in June.
"He has been running with us," Gatland said. "He had a little bit of pain but it is nothing to do with the injury but perhaps a little bit of -referred pain as he has been up and doing more running. We fitness-tested him at the end of last week and his fitness-test results were as good as some of the top players in the squad. He is naturally going to be fit given his body frame. We want him to start against Uruguay because he is going to need some rugby, but hopefully not 80 minutes because we have to think about the game the following week.
"Then there is potentially an opportunity for Gareth Davies, who is in great shape at the moment. He potentially has an opportunity to take this tournament by storm."
Warburton insisted that Wales could still win the World Cup. "As a team it won't affect us," he pro-mised. "If you asked New Zealand in 2011 whether they still had the belief after losing Dan Carter?...?you have to believe."