Gatland jokes about his own fitness after Wales victory

Wales are not training until Wednesday at their Surrey base and Gatland remains confident that they can strike a telling blow in the fierce battle to qualify from a group that also includes Australia and Fiji.

The Wales head coach, Warren Gatland, said that he would consider sending a prop home from the tournament to bring in a fit replacement and ensure he has a full complement at Twickenham.

The centre looked electric in scoring a trio of first half tries, but his World Cup now looks to be over, with Gatland confirming after the match that he will have to call up a replacement.

Wales was just as sloppy in the second half and passed the half-century mark – which was the least to be expected – only in injury time.

Having lost Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb to injuries on the eve of the World Cup, there was more pain for Wales with first-half hat-trick hero Cory Allen nearly certainly ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a “significant” hamstring injury.

“Sometimes you just get a little bit of bad luck”, he said.

“Justin Tipuric had a strong game for us and we had a good impact off the bench”.

Allen has torn his hamstring, props Paul James and Lee suffered calf strains and fullback Liam Williams was also forced off with a knock, leaving Gatland with plenty to ponder and his physios with a busy week ahead.

But full-back Liam Williams’ thigh injury is not thought to be serious.

“We wanted to show what we are made of and how hard we have been working over the last year and four years”, said Uruguay captain Santiago Vilaseca, a bank worker who has forfeited his salary while playing at the World Cup.

Gatland said he was “satisfied” with the win.

“I don’t think the two teams will take too much from looking at the performances and we both know just how important Saturday is”. The outside center gathered a chip from Rhys Priestland to spin out of a tackle over the line, and then was on the shoulder of Scott Williams to collect a pass and glide over after his midfield partner punched a hole.

Priestland again converted, but Uruguay had no intention of staying in touch with the script as Berchesi completed his penalty hat-trick to make it 14-9 early in the second quarter.

One brilliant catch and pass to Hallam Amos, out on the left wing, led to Cory Allen’s third try.

“England have had success there but we’ve had success there and as a coach I’ve had a huge amount of success”. As Warburton said: “Going to Twickenham is probably going to be one of the most, if not the most, high-profile games the boys will play in”. Australia and Wales were beaten semifinalists in 2011, so logic would suggest they would be separated but, when the draw was made in December 2012, Wales had plummeted to nine in the world rankings.

“Our players were in Japan 20 days ago, and we feel that if they can do it (win a match at the RWC) then we can”.