Wales World Cup Squad

[Wolford6]

Caleb Aekins (Leigh Centurions), Bailey Antrobus (York City Knights), Gavin Bennion (Rochdale Hornets), Joe Burke (West Wales Raiders), Chester Butler (Bradford Bulls), Mike Butt (Swinton Lions), Connor Davies (Workington Town), Curtis Davies (Whitehaven), Ben Evans (Bradford Bulls), Kyle Evans (Wakefield Trinity), Rhys Evans (Bradford Bulls), Will Evans (Whitehaven), Dan Fleming (Featherstone Rovers), Matty Fozard (Widnes Vikings), Dalton Grant (London Broncos), Tom Hopkins (Barrow Raiders), Elliot Kear (captain – Bradford Bulls), Rhodri Lloyd (Swinton Lions), James Olds (Valley Diehards), Ollie Olds (Valley Diehards), Josh Ralph (Mounties), Luis Roberts (Leigh Centurions), Anthony Walker (Bradford Bulls), Rhys Williams (Salford Red Devils).

 

Household names, obviously. Still, Superleague has always had trouble recognising the pure talent, electrifying handling skills and lightning pace that are a byword for John Kear's playbook.

The Olds brothers have obviously found a home from home at the Valley Diehards. I wasn't aware of Tom Hopkins but, at Barrow, he's sponsored by someone called Titch so he sounds like a good sort. It'll be a tight squeeze in the dressing room for anyone getting changed between Ant Walker and Ben Evans but both have a lot more to offer than mere bulk.

Actually, the boys will be up for this and I don't think we'll do too badly in the Group Stage. Qualifying second would be a major achievement. Fortunately, we play Papua New Guinea after both teams have been bashed by Tonga. Only 5 days between games will probably a crucial factor. Seeing that God is well known to be Welsh, I've asked him for some unseasonable snow and sub-zero temperatures. We play Tonga on a Monday, so hopefully the Tonga team will still be starstruck and not  fully recovered from a weekend sampling the dazzling entertainment capital of Britain (St Helens).

Strangely, we are classed as "Home" at Leigh but "Away" at St Helens and Doncaster. We should be having a Home game in Wales, but that's for a discussion at a different time.

18 October 2022	Tonga	v	Papua New Guinea	St Helens Stadium, St Helens
19 October 2022	Wales	v	Cook Islands	Leigh Sports Village, Leigh
24 October 2022	Tonga	v	Wales	St Helens Stadium, St Helens
25 October 2022	Papua New Guinea	v	Cook Islands	Warrington Stadium, Warrington
30 October 2022	Tonga	v	Cook Islands	Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough
31 October 2022	Papua New Guinea	v	Wales	Doncaster Stadium, Doncaster

Edited October 4, 2022 by Wolford6

[Wellsy4HullFC]

Only 2 current Super League players in that squad. Are Wales that weak these days? Can see it being a very difficult 3 weeks for Wales.

[Jughead]

Three defeats with that squad in that group. 

[DoubleD]

Like lambs to the slaughter 

[marklaspalmas]

Wot no Koppy??

[Eddie]

That team would struggle in the championship. 

[Number 16]

The cupboard is bare!

[Ragingbull]

Minimum of 150 points conceded  across the 3 games id imagine. 

 

[Colin James]

Fair play to them for not just packing the squad with Australians like some others will be.

[DavidM]

It’ll be tough but it’s three great games for them 

[Barley Mow]

23 minutes ago, Colin James said:

Fair play to them for not just packing the squad with Australians like some others will be.

Which Australian based players who qualify are missing except for Tyson Frizell? 

[wiganermike]

Unfortunately the primary conduit for Welsh players into the sport is two League 1 clubs (one of which barely functions) so this standard of squad is about as much as we could expect at the moment. They have been declining for a few years as the players that emerged during (Celtic) Crusaders time in the SL have got older with the system that brought them through gone so no new blood of a similar standard has appeared. The only one of note who appeared in the last few years (Grace) has now been lost to RU.

The Welsh clubs we have will take years to grow sufficiently (if they ever do) to produce sufficient numbers of top level players. Development Officers and a centrally run youth system in Wales to feed into the pro teams at large could be a possible avenue. The problems of how to fund such a scheme and whether it would and could be run competently though would still make the success of such a project doubtful.

Another possibility could be for clubs to be allowed cap dispensation for 2 Welsh players under the age of 21 and for them to be encouraged to scout and bring such players into their youth development systems.

[nadera78]

2 minutes ago, wiganermike said:

Unfortunately the primary conduit for Welsh players into the sport is two League 1 clubs (one of which barely functions) so this standard of squad is about as much as we could expect at the moment. They have been declining for a few years as the players that emerged during (Celtic) Crusaders time in the SL have got older with the system that brought them through gone so no new blood of a similar standard has appeared. The only one of note who appeared in the last few years (Grace) has now been lost to RU.

The Welsh clubs we have will take years to grow sufficiently (if they ever do) to produce sufficient numbers of top level players. Development Officers and a centrally run youth system in Wales to feed into the pro teams at large could be a possible avenue. The problems of how to fund such a scheme and whether it would and could be run competently though would still make the success of such a project doubtful.

Another possibility could be for clubs to be allowed cap dispensation for 2 Welsh players under the age of 21 and for them to be encouraged to scout and bring such players into their youth development systems.

As I posted on another thread, with Celtic Crusaders gone any young players who want a career in RL have to uproot themselves and "go north" as they used to say. Wales still produces good young RL players, and they've have had some good results v England at U16s, but the reality is that very few 16/17 year olds are going to relocate to play in a SL academy. It's a real barrier.

The unfortunate thing is that, as we saw with CC, we could very quickly get a group of players talented enough to have sustainable SL careers and thereby re-build the Welsh team. But we need that conduit. 

[Barley Mow]

8 hours ago, Wolford6 said:

Strangely, we are classed as "Home" at Leigh but "Away" at St Helens and Doncaster. We should be having a Home game in Wales, but that's for a discussion at a different time.

18 October 2022	Tonga	v	Papua New Guinea	St Helens Stadium, St Helens
19 October 2022	Wales	v	Cook Islands	Leigh Sports Village, Leigh
24 October 2022	Tonga	v	Wales	St Helens Stadium, St Helens
25 October 2022	Papua New Guinea	v	Cook Islands	Warrington Stadium, Warrington
30 October 2022	Tonga	v	Cook Islands	Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough
31 October 2022	Papua New Guinea	v	Wales	Doncaster Stadium, Doncaster

The fixtures are all written with the team who were ranked higher in the draw listed first.

I'm not sure if it is intended to be an indication of home/away or not - after all, they are all neutral venues except for the England matches. Is there any advantage to being listed at 'home' in a competition like this? The World Cup organisers will be arranging everything that a home team usually provide won't they?

[gingerjon]

17 minutes ago, Barley Mow said:

The fixtures are all written with the team who were ranked higher in the draw listed first.

I'm not sure if it is intended to be an indication of home/away or not - after all, they are all neutral venues except for the England matches. Is there any advantage to being listed at 'home' in a competition like this? The World Cup organisers will be arranging everything that a home team usually provide won't they?

Not sure about RL, but in soccer, the only real advantage is that you get first dibs on choice of colours.

[Harry Stottle]

8 hours ago, Wolford6 said:

19 October 2022 Wales  v  Cook Islands Leigh Sports Village, Leigh

Looking at both squads I may very well give this one a miss, I have seen to many one sided games at the LSV this season.

[Tommygilf]

Wales were already in a tough group, if they don't lose by 50+ every game that will be an achievement by the looks of things.

[marklaspalmas]

54 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Not sure about RL, but in soccer, the only real advantage is that you get first dibs on choice of colours.

And the changing rooms.....

[gingerjon]

Just now, marklaspalmas said:

And the changing rooms.....

Not sure that that's such an issue at most community/multi-use stadiums that are built with an eye on having tournament matches played there.

But, yes, that too.

[Damien]

To be honest I feel for Wales. They have a number of born and bred Welsh players that have been developed through the Welsh system but just don't have enough players playing at a high level.

[FearNothing]

I did say on the L1  match thread I'm looking forward to the WC but we were going to get tonked good and proper.. and no offence to anyone in the squad, it's just not up to standard to compete. The observations about us shipping 150+ I fear are true

[fighting irish]

Well whatever the outcome, this squad and management team qualified for the tournament.

We have selected the best team available (according to the management) and we are going with that.

The honour belongs to the lads selected and hopefully, a good deal more young men, will look and see the next world cup as an opportunity to take their place amongst the chosen view.

I don't care if the results are lop-sided, I'm chuffed we've got a team in the competition. 

Congratulations to all concerned. 

[FearNothing]

6 minutes ago, fighting irish said:

Well whatever the outcome, this squad and management team qualified for the tournament.

We have selected the best team available (according to the management) and we are going with that.

The honour belongs to the lads selected and hopefully, a good deal more young men, will look and see the next world cup as an opportunity to take their place amongst the chosen view.

I don't care if the results are lop-sided, I'm chuffed we've got a team in the competition. 

Congratulations to all concerned. 

Totally agree, it would have been worse NOT to have got there

[Madrileño]

15 hours ago, Wolford6 said:

 

Strangely, we are classed as "Home" at Leigh but "Away" at St Helens and Doncaster. We should be having a Home game in Wales, but that's for a discussion at a different time.

What's "strange" about it?

1 Home 2 away. Pretty normal for pool games in a tournament I thought?

[yipyee]

17 hours ago, Wolford6 said:

Caleb Aekins (Leigh Centurions), Bailey Antrobus (York City Knights), Gavin Bennion (Rochdale Hornets), Joe Burke (West Wales Raiders), Chester Butler (Bradford Bulls), Mike Butt (Swinton Lions), Connor Davies (Workington Town), Curtis Davies (Whitehaven), Ben Evans (Bradford Bulls), Kyle Evans (Wakefield Trinity), Rhys Evans (Bradford Bulls), Will Evans (Whitehaven), Dan Fleming (Featherstone Rovers), Matty Fozard (Widnes Vikings), Dalton Grant (London Broncos), Tom Hopkins (Barrow Raiders), Elliot Kear (captain – Bradford Bulls), Rhodri Lloyd (Swinton Lions), James Olds (Valley Diehards), Ollie Olds (Valley Diehards), Josh Ralph (Mounties), Luis Roberts (Leigh Centurions), Anthony Walker (Bradford Bulls), Rhys Williams (Salford Red Devils).

 

Household names, obviously. Still, Superleague has always had trouble recognising the pure talent, electrifying handling skills and lightning pace that are a byword for John Kear's playbook.

The Olds brothers have obviously found a home from home at the Valley Diehards. I wasn't aware of Tom Hopkins but, at Barrow, he's sponsored by someone called Titch so he sounds like a good sort. It'll be a tight squeeze in the dressing room for anyone getting changed between Ant Walker and Ben Evans but both have a lot more to offer than mere bulk.

Actually, the boys will be up for this and I don't think we'll do too badly in the Group Stage. Qualifying second would be a major achievement. Fortunately, we play Papua New Guinea after both teams have been bashed by Tonga. Only 5 days between games will probably a crucial factor. Seeing that God is well known to be Welsh, I've asked him for some unseasonable snow and sub-zero temperatures. We play Tonga on a Monday, so hopefully the Tonga team will still be starstruck and not  fully recovered from a weekend sampling the dazzling entertainment capital of Britain (St Helens).

Strangely, we are classed as "Home" at Leigh but "Away" at St Helens and Doncaster. We should be having a Home game in Wales, but that's for a discussion at a different time.

18 October 2022	Tonga	v	Papua New Guinea	St Helens Stadium, St Helens
19 October 2022	Wales	v	Cook Islands	Leigh Sports Village, Leigh
24 October 2022	Tonga	v	Wales	St Helens Stadium, St Helens
25 October 2022	Papua New Guinea	v	Cook Islands	Warrington Stadium, Warrington
30 October 2022	Tonga	v	Cook Islands	Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough
31 October 2022	Papua New Guinea	v	Wales	Doncaster Stadium, Doncaster

How can you have a home game in Wales when England are hosting?!

The home and away will be to use the clubs home changing room which tend to be better.