Wales and their coach John Kear are aiming high to at least reach the quarter-finals of this year’s Rugby League World Cup after a dismal 2013 tournament.
Four years ago as a co-host the Dragons, under Iestyn Harris, lost all three of their games on home soil. It was a poor effort, especially with home advantage, and was Wales’ worst performance in World Cup history.
It marked the end of Harris’ reign and the start of Englishman Kear’s, the former Sheffield, Hull FC, Batley and Wakefield coach.With Kear at the helm Wales won the 2015 European Cup and have qualified for the 2017 World Cup with an impressive winning run. The turnaround has been swift. As a coach Kear has a history doing the impossible, like Sheffield’s Challenge Cup triumph in 1998 and Hull’s Millennium Stadium win in 2005, and he wants more with the men in red.
đ
#RLWC2017 #rugbyleague #WalesRL
Wales has named its 38-man train-squad for the World Cup and Kear has stuck with the squad he has been built over the past few years. While the likes of Scotland and Ireland heavily use heritage players, the Dragons have just three from the NRL in Penrith Panthers centre Caleb Aekins and outside back Daniel Brown, along with Newcastle Knights halfback Josh Ralph. All three qualify through their grandparents.
“There’s a loyalty card that we’ve played as we’ve gone six games unbeaten – winning the European Championship and qualifying for the World Cup,” Kear explains.
“It’s been difficult whittling it down to 38 and it’s going to be really difficult whittling that down to the 24, as it should be. We trawled the NRL as well as all of Super League for players who qualify. But we haven’t gone wholesale overseas as I believe that those who’ve been to Ireland, Italy and have done all the hard yakka to get us qualified for the World Cup deserve that reward.
“When you show that loyalty, honesty and belief to people, they repay you in bucketloads. There were 14 or 15 players who could’ve been called in. I’ve used people like [Newcastle Knights coach] Nathan Brown, who I know very well, to find out if they add something. We’ve been in communication for months and they’ve been welcomed into things like our Whatsapp group.
Article đ
#RLWC2017 #rugbyleague
“They know they may not make the final cut and they’re at ease with that. They’re young players too, so I’m hoping they can develop a feel for this group and make themselves regularly available, rather than just be a World Cup player every four years.”
Wales are in Group C and will face Papua New Guniea in Port Moresby, Fiji in Townsville and Ireland in Perth. It’s a formidable task but if they get through it, there could be the carrot of meeting England in a quarterfinal in Perth.
“That’s the target and we’ve been up for it since 2013,” Kear said.
“When I first took over, a lot of the senior players said to me they were disappointed with their efforts. It was a low and from that we’ve got better each year. The first year was tough as we were down on players, confidence and belief. We just built on that. Now we need to play much better than we did in 2013.
"That’s not come from me, as I wasn’t there in 2013, it’s come from the senior players – they were very disappointed in themselves. They feel they want to rectify that.”
With miracle-worker Kear in the top job, Wales have every job of doing just that.
