Sam Warburton will lead out injury-battered Wales’ strongest possible team against Fiji on Thursday as they seek to take a huge step towards reaching the World Cup quarter finals.
France bring in Remy Grosso for his first cap as they seek to extend their unbeaten record to three matches against Canada in Pool D.
Wales can do their chances of reaching the quarter-finals a whoe world of good if they win their match at the Millennium Stadium which kicks-off at 1545 GMT.
Afterwards they just have to sit back and watch England take on Australia on Saturday with the English having to win to avoid the ignominy of becoming the first host nation to fail to reach the knockout stages.
Wales lost Leigh Halfpenny, Jonathan Davies and Rhys Webb before the tournament and centres Scott Williams and Cory Allen and wing Hallam Amos since the openign win over Uruguay.
But the heroic 28-25 win over England at Twickenham last Saturday has boosted their confidence.
“It’s incredibly important to get a result on Thursday, and if we do that we’re in the box seat a bit more,” said coach Warren Gatland ahead of the game.
Fiji, who lost their first two games against England and Australia, are without suspended star wing Nemani Nadolo and also have injury problems but coach John McKee says the Pacific islanders can still compete and pull off a similar shock as to that in 2007 when they beat the Welsh to progress to the quarter-finals at their expense.
“Wales can think what they like but maybe there are some players there that they are not so familiar with, so they may not quite know what to expect,” warned McKee.
– 1994 memories –
Canada manager Gareth Rees was in a Canadian team that beat France 18-16 in Ottawa in 1994 when his French counterpart Philippe Saint-Andre was captain of the French team.
Rees is dreaming of a new upset. It would “an incredible success” for the Canadian team, he said on the eve of the latest match against France at StadiumMK in Milton Keynes (1900 GMT).
Canada pushed Italy all the way and just lost 23-18 on Saturday, but Saint-Andre is on a mission to avoid a quarter final against New Zealand which will be the fate of the Pool D runners-up.
He gave his players a rocket at half time against Romania when they led only 17-6 — they went on to win 38-11.
Saint-Andre will try out Castres wing Grosso who was called into the squad to replace the injured Yoann Huget, but otherwise has a strong team with captain Thierry Dusautoir back after being rested against Romania.
France want a confident team in place for their crunch match against Ireland on October 11 which will decide the group winners. Dusautoir said the French must be careful though.
“To say this is a rehearsal for the Ireland game would be a gross mistake. The Canadians really pushed Italy. We have no room for a mistake,” Dusautoir said.
“This will be a match for fighters.”