photo by Ian Lovell

Iestyn Harris is hoping to lead Wales to the Rugby League World Cup Finals this Sunday when the Dragons take on Scotland at their Glasgow Hawks RFC home (kick-off 2pm).

Wales need to win the match, which is being shown live on Sky Sports, by eight points or more in order to qualify for the Australian showpiece following their 21-14 loss to the Scots in Bridgend last year. If they fail to do this then they will have to beat the loser of Friday night’s Lebanon v Ireland match and then USA or Samoa in order to qualify.

Harris is happy to report that he didn’t pick up any knocks during Wales’ 50-10 defeat of Papua New Guinea last Sunday and is fit for the big match.

“I’m completely injury free,” he said. “I struggled at the end of Super League this year but the month’s rest did me good and I hope to still be injury free at the end of the qualifiers.

“Wales means so much to me and they’ve given me so much pleasure during my playing career, and I want to finish up at a World Cup Finals not at the qualifiers. It’s a big game on Sunday.”

Harris said that having their playing shirts presented to them by a Welsh rugby legend will help to inspire the players this weekend.

“Rowland Phillips presented us with our jerseys before the Papua New Guinea game,” Harris added. “He told us that the shirt was steeped in history and there’s a lot of pride in wearing a Welsh shirt, and he’s right and I think that talk helped some of the younger lads that we’ve got in the side this year.

Wales’ warm-up win against the Kumuls was the best possible match they could have had before such a big game but Harris believes the Welsh should be wary of being overconfident this Sunday.

Harris said: “It’s difficult to know what came out of that game because it’s difficult to know how good PNG were. I know they had a good result against Australia but they caved in a little bit in the second half against us and it turned out to be more like a training run for us.

Physically it went well though and I hope the same happens again against Scotland.”

Welsh coach Martin Hall was very pleased at Sunday’s win, and following disappointment for Wales in sports like rugby union, football and cricket this year, he believes that success for the rugby league side will help to lift the nation.

“It will be a great honour to lead Wales into the World Cup Finals in Australia,” he said. “It’ll be good for the boys and hopefully we can put some pride and passion back into the Welsh jersey. We showed that pride and passion on Sunday after beating Papua New Guinea 50-10 and I was pleased with the performance. It was an excellent way to start our ten days together and leads us nicely into the Scotland game.”

Hall says that a few players are undergoing treatment in order to be fit for the big match.

“Mark Lennon, Aaron Summers and Damien Gibson are all undergoing physio and rehab this week to make themselves available for the game on Sunday. We hope they’ll be fit. We’ve also had some good news that Lee Briers’ Warrington team-mate, Andy Bracek, who was injured going into last Sunday’s game, is now fit and will join the squad to be available for the Scotland game.”

Scotland warmed up for the Welsh clash with a heavy 46-16 defeat in France but Hall said that nothing can be read into that result when it comes to taking the field this Sunday.

“We’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves,” he said. “We’ve just got to make sure that our performance is up to scratch and if it is them the scoreline on Sunday will look after itself.”

Wales (from): Anthony Blackwood (Celtic Crusaders), Andy Bracek (Warrington Wolves), Lee Briers (Warrington Wolves), Phil Cushion (Celtic Crusaders), Geraint Davies (Celtic Crusaders), Hywel Davies (Celtic Crusaders), Gareth Dean (Celtic Crusaders), Luke Dyer (Celtic Crusaders), Grant Epton (Celtic Crusaders), Damien Gibson (Halifax), Dave Halley (Bradford Bulls), Iestyn Harris (Bradford Bulls), Adam Hughes (Oldham), Jordan James (Celtic Crusaders), Matt James (Bradford Bulls), Phil Joseph (Halifax), Craig Kopczak (Bradford Bulls), Mark Lennon (Celtic Crusaders), Sean Penkywicz (Halifax), Bryn Powell (Dewsbury Rams), Robert Roberts (Oldham), Byron Smith (Rochdale Hornets), Aaron Summers (Celtic Crusaders), Ian Webster (Celtic Crusaders).

article by Ian Golden
1 November 2007