The snapshots are still etched on the mind of Jamie Roberts: Sam Warburton’s red card for a spear tackle, the missed conversion by Stephen Jones, the long-range penalty by Leigh Halfpenny that came up just short and the whistle that finally signalled the painstaking certainty of Wales’ World Cup exit.
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There has been much rugby in Roberts’ tree-trunked legs since then and no shortage of highs, notably two Grand Slam successes, but the events of the last World Cup and Wales’ agonising 9-8 defeat to France remains the key factor for much of what drives the Welsh centre.
“I’m still haunted by the last World Cup,” he says. “I know players are supposed to put these things to bed but, for me, four years on, it still acts an immense motivation having got so close but fallen just short.”
Wales were one of the revelations of 2011 in New Zealand, playing a brand of attacking rugby that meant they became a popular fixture, capped by a quarter-final victory over Ireland, a display which Roberts describes as one of the best he has seen in Wales international colours.
“But to go from that immense high in one week to lose out on a place in the final by a single point was just total heartbreak,” he adds. “It was so difficult to take but that’s sport.”
Four years on, there is a parallel to Wales’ current predicament having lost two of their most potent threats in the past few days in goal kicker Leigh Halfpenny and talismanic scrum-half Rhys Webb, with the side already without Roberts’ usual centre partner Jonathan Davies.
It has provided a back-to-the-walls mentality like that aforementioned World Cup semi-final, which was played by just 14 Welshman for over an hour, under which Roberts is confident he and his countrymen can thrive.
For a sportsman to have had his own share of injury time on the sidelines, he says: “It’s brutal for the boys – really cruel timing – and there’s no doubting we could do with the ability of such world-class players particularly as they were regular starters in the XV.
“But we owe it to the boys to put on a show and we’re motivated by the desire to do them justice. We have a big responsibility.”
The news of the past few days has led to the inevitable Doomsday scenario in Wales to the extent that Wales captain Sam Warburton joked the public were acting as though they were grieving. But the reality is that the curtailing of two key players so close to the tournament start in two weekends time makes their task doubly difficult in the so-called pool of death, which contains hosts England and an Australia side that appear to be peaking at just the right time.
The personnel may have changed in recent days – with Mike Phillips and Eli Walker coming into the squad – but Roberts insists the goal “to win it” has not remotely shifted.
“We know how tough an ask that is particularly in our pool,” he says. “So at this stage it’s hard to look any further than the pool stage. We have the Pacific Nations champions in Fiji, Four Nations champions Australia and England, who are always a formidable threat.
“But we still feel we have an incredible side ourselves and we certainly haven’t remotely discussed the possibility of being knocked out early on. Three sides are going to be disappointed in our pool but we’re not planning to be among those.”
For Roberts, injuries have meant a new partnership in midfield with Scott Williams, which showed signs in the win over Ireland in Dublin of gelling nicely on the eve of the tournament.
And on the back of training camps in the altitude of Switzerland, the heat of Doha and the nationalistic fervour of North Wales, Roberts argues this is the fittest he has ever felt as a player before pointing out that fitness alone won’t win the World Cup or, for that matter, a place in the knock-out stages.
A typical day in training for Roberts has meant a gym session in a hypoxic chamber (emulating altitude) at 7:00 “when it’s hard to even catch your breath” followed by breakfast and a weights session with his fellow backs, lunch, rugby in the afternoon and a second gym session at 20:00.
“I’m not going to start ranting and raving about how hard it’s been but the guys have been pushing themselves to the limit,” he says. “The mindset is that, if we want to win this tournament, we have to do that. We’re not doing anything special, every team is working hard.”
When not training, there have been the occasional forays into Cardiff for Roberts where he has been able to garner the excitement of an expectant public that see the tournament as virtually a home World Cup with pool games at the Millennium Stadium.
In North Wales, Roberts described the arrival for the training camp as a match day: “There were thousands of people greeting us on the road from the train station. It gives you a sense of what it means to the Welsh public.”
Roberts, who has been nursing a minor rib injury in the past days but expects to be fully fit for the opening game against Uruguay a week on Sunday, shares the public expectation following the events of 2011.
“Four years is a long time,” he says. “We definitely feel ready.”
