Wales - Rugby World Cup Team Stats

The best performance from Wales in a world cup was in 1987 when they finished 3rd.

This was the last time they beat a major nation in the competition, with a 22-21 victory against Australia in the play-off match.

They normally start the world cup tournament well and have won 4 of their 5 opening matches.

Wales are the only host nation not to have reached the final the year they held it.

Wales’ record victory in a world cup match is the 64-15 win against Japan in the 1999 competition. Their second highest score was also against Japan when they beat them 57-10 in 1995.

Their heaviest defeat in terms of number of points against was the 53-37 loss to New Zealand in 2003. They did however set a record of their own in this game by recording the highest ever world cup score by a losing side. New Zealand also beat them 49-6 in the 1987 semi-final.

The two occasions Wales and Canada have previously met in the world cup have both resulted in 31 point victories to Wales with the almost identical scorelines of 40-9 and 41-10.

Neil Jenkins has scored the most points for Wales in world cups with 98.

The most points scored for Wales in a world cup match is 22 by Neil Jenkins in 1995.

Jenkins also kicked a Welsh world cup best 8 conversions in the Japan match.

Jonathan Davies is one of only 10 players to have dropped more than one goal in a world cup match when kicking two against Ireland in 1987.

At the last world cup we saw the unusual feat of a forward, Martyn Williams, dropping a goal against Tonga.

Ieuan Evans scored 4 tries for Wales against Sunday’s rivals Canada in 1987. Glen Webbe scored 3 against Tonga in the same tournament and Gareth Thomas also went over 3 times against Japan in 1995.

Ieuan Evans has scored the most tries for Wales in world cups with 7 but Gareth Thomas is only one behind and will be looking to make the record his own during the 2007 campaign.

The first player ever to be sent off in the world cup was Welshman Huw Richards in the 1987 semi-final against New Zealand. No other Welsh player has been sent off but Sonny Parker and Colin Charvis were both shown yellow cards against Sunday’s opposition Canada in 2003.

Gareth Thomas, the 2007 Welsh captain, will be joining the illustrious group of players to play in 4 world cup tournaments.

Brent Cockbain played for Wales in the 2003 world cup and his brother Matt Cockbain played for Australia.