| Venue: Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes Date: Saturday 7 October Kick-off:14:00 BST |
| Coverage: Live BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Sounds, BBC Sport website & app; live text commentary on BBC Sport website & app. |
Nick Tompkins has been one of Wales’ standout players in the World Cup so far, but he says we have not seen the best of him yet.
The Saracens centre, 28, has been resolute in defence and at the heart of attack during Wales’ route to the quarter-finals.
They now need only a point to top the pool against Georgia on Saturday.
“I hope there’s more to come. I just want to keep getting better and better,” said Tompkins.
“There’s a lot of things I need to improve, it’s not one of those where you sit back and say ‘my job is done’.
“Obviously I’m happy with some areas, but there’s some things I really need to push myself on if I want to try and be the best I can be.
“You look at some of the other centres out there and how well they’re doing and you want to emulate that.
“I’m probably not the size of Bundee Aki, but there are other ways you can make yards and do stuff.”
Taking the hit
Tomkins’ ability to carry the ball close to the line and selflessly take the hit has been key for Wales.
He set up midfield partner George North to score in Wales’ win over Fiji, before breaking the line which allowed Jac Morgan to put in a cross field kick for Louis Rees-Zammit to score.
He sat out the win against Portugal, but impressed again against Australia, helping to set up Gareth Davies’ try before latching onto a chip-chase from Gareth Anscombe to cross himself.
Wing Rio Dyer joked earlier this week that Tompkins is always the one to get smashed, but the Saracens player said it was a role he was happy to play.
“I’ve loved it, they love it, I get whacked, but they go through so I’m happy at the end of the day,” Tompkins joked.
“I’ll do anything to contribute to the team.”
As well as being a target man, Tompkins is also renowned in the squad for being feisty and carries the same edge in training as he does on the pitch.
But he says the closeness of the squad after five months together allows for it.
“You can have a laugh about it after, whatever happens you get laughed at afterwards, especially with this group, you get torn to pieces,” Tompkins said.
“It’s been really healthy, it’s been all of us pushing each other and you’re seeing it out there.
“We all like each other, that’s not easy to come by and the atmosphere is pretty fun as well.”
Fighting fit
Tompkins also reflected on his loan spell at Dragons during the 2020-21 season, and admitted his “fitness wasn’t where I wanted it to be”.
“You look at the difference now where we’ve had five months together,” he said.
“I got myself properly fit and took that lifestyle more seriously than I have done and the difference for me is like night and day.”
He is now enjoying his best spell in a Wales shirt and a settled partnership with North.
Looking ahead to the challenge of Georgia in Nantes he said it is important Wales continue their momentum and their confidence in the tournament.
“We want the point obviously, but more importantly I think we want no dip in our performance,” he said.
“We want to get better and we don’t want to take our foot off the pedal.”
Managing workloads
Head coach Warren Gatland has made six changes to the side that beat Australia, with Dewi Lake returning as captain.
Wales have meanwhile played down scrum-half Gareth Davies missing two training session in two days.
He is one of only two scrum-halves in the squad and is set to be on the replacements bench on Saturday with Tomos Williams starting.
Davies has been a revelation in victories over Fiji and Australia, having been out of favour with former Wales coach Wayne Pivac.
He was one of four players not to feature in full training on Tuesday, with Dan Lydiate, Johnny Williams and Corey Domachowski also not taking part in the afternoon session.
They’ve all got little niggles,” said forwards coach Jonathan Humphreys.
“The pitch is a little heavy. We did a double session today so it’s an opportunity to rest some players who have some niggles.
“With Gar, he’s played a lot of rugby. So it’s sometimes about taking an opportunity to freshen people up.”
Fly-half Sam Costelow has been identified as covering at scrum-half and dropped in at nine during training.
“If we needed a back-up, he’s one of the possibilities we could use. It just gives us an opportunity to go through that,” added Humphreys.
